SELECTIONS & SELECTORS FILM SERIES LAUNCHES IN DETROIT FEATURING N’KISI CONCORDE DOCUMENTARY
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PLAYGROUND DETROIT is thrilled to host the private screening of the magical documentary film N’kisi Concorde to kick off the beginning of Selections + Selectors film series at The Carr Center! We just got back from our NYC screening of the film at The Wythe Hotel and left a room full of New Yorkers mesmerized. [Check our photo album of the event here.] We are very pleased to be bringing this film series from NYC to share with Detroit. All of the documentaries in the series have a similar themes of urbanism, creativity, art, and counter-culture spirit.
N’kisi Concorde is a documentary feature set in Detroit by Nikki Sass and Brittin Richter that investigates the lives and work of two local ‘outsider artists’ and visual storytellers, Olayami Dabls and Dmytro Szylak, whose extraordinary installations reflect the power of the imagination unbound by artistic conventions or popular tastes. The film was recently featured as a part of the Freep Film Festival and screened at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
PLAYGROUND DETROIT and projekt:nyc in special collaboration with The Art Directors Club (ADC) and Colab Projects present Selections + Selectors, a series of film screenings held monthly at the Wythe Hotel in their private screening room. In NYC, Monthly host J.L. Sirisuk moderates an evening of powerful film content that include screenings followed by conversations with subject matter loosely related to the content of each film.
After the film screening in Detroit, S+S host PLAYGROUND DETROIT will engage a short conversation “Art In the Public Space: What Does It Mean To You?”.
N’kisi Concorde, a documentary feature, investigates the lives and work of two Detroit-area outsider artists and visual storytellers, Olayami Dabls and Dmytro Szylak, whose extraordinary installations reflect the power of the imagination unbound by artistic conventions or popular tastes.
African-American artist Dabls creates large-scale, pointedly narrative works from natural materials, reflecting meaningful elements of African material culture and commenting on the collision between African and European cultures. Ukrainian émigré Szylak’s installation combines hand-carved and assembled mechanical toys, aircraft, and human figures with found objects. The resulting artistic array is at once deeply whimsical and imbued with history and memory, beginning with Szylak’s formative experiences in World War II era, German-occupied Ukraine.
Though unrelated by work or acquaintance, these artists are united by the power of their singular visions to stimulate lively public engagement and to color the cultural landscapes of their communities.
