AGNES Program: Open Secret features artists Parastoo Anoushahpour (19 + 20 January), Kriss Li (9 + 10 February), Sharlene Bamboat (9 + 10 March) and Sofía Gallisá Muriente (6 + 7 April). The series of screenings and workshops take its departure from Fred Moten’s words that “poetry investigates new ways for people to get together and do stuff in the open, in secret,” and evokes cinema’s capacity to condition spaces for gathering. The double maneuver of opacity and transparency inherent in cinema’s making sets the precedent for this sort of investigation embedded in collaboration. 

Kriss Li is a multimedia artist who creates films, installations, and conceptual projects that explore structures of power. These works investigate the foundational divisions and hierarchies that maintain our social order—the ways these systems condition us in spite of our intentions, and the hidden sites of possibility that we can exploit towards greater collective capacities. Kriss’s artistic practice is informed by extensive engagement with community organizing, especially at Prisoner Correspondence Project, a volunteer-run solidarity initiative for LGBTQ prisoners. Their work has been shown globally, including screenings at DOC NYC (USA), International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany), Vancouver International Film Festival (Canada), and Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (Germany).

This program features an artist talk and screenings of select short films by Li.