Image in Flyer: Jason File, Persistent Illusions (detail), 2024
Video still
Please join us for an artist talk & closing reception with Jason File in conversation with Eriola Pira Isak Berbic on June 18, at 6pm in the NARS Project Space.
Jason File will discuss his exhibition Persistent Illusions in conversation with Eriola Pira and Isak Berbic.
Persistent Illusions examines the conditions giving rise to mass atrocities through the lens of a Hague war crimes trial and the moving image evidence used as proof in court. Juxtaposing real trial footage of the artist cross-examining a politician with the VHS tapes played in court, this two-channel video installation invites the audience to sit as a jury—perhaps to determine what we can know from video as a medium itself.
Jason File (1976, USA) is an artist, practicing lawyer and former United Nations war crimes prosecutor whose art practice uses legal materials and contexts to explore the poetics of systems of justice, property and power. His work has been shown at institutions including the Whitechapel Gallery (London); Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam); the Historical Museum of Bosnia & Herzegovina (Sarajevo); and Stroom (The Hague). A graduate of the Chelsea College of Art and Design (London), the Royal Academy of Art (Netherlands), and Yale Law School, Jason is a studio member at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York.
Eriola Pira is a researcher and curator. She is the Curator and Director of Programs at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, where she organizes and co-curates across the Center’s programs and initiatives. In this capacity, she works closely with artists to explore, commission, and present new ideas and work on art and its politics, including exhibitions, performances, and publications. She’s conceived and organized residency and fellowship programs, conferences, publications, and solo and group exhibitions at Art in General, NARS Foundation, and The Foundation for Culture and Society, where she held previous positions. She’s contributed to and collaborated with institutions worldwide on exhibitions, publications, symposia, commissions, and special projects. Her work has been published and featured in catalogs and publications such as The New York Times, Hyperallergic, BOMB Magazine, and Artforum. She has served as an editor at Guernica and guest editor for Kosovo 2.0 magazines. A native of Albania, Pira has an MA in Visual Culture Theory from New York University.
Isak Berbic is an artist and Associate Professor of Art at Stony Brook University, and NARS alumni.