Lagareh -
The Last Born
Details
Alberta Whittle’s new film Lagareh is co-commissioned and produced by Forma for the Scottish exhibition at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Lagareh – The Last Born continues to tour across festivals, museums and institutions around the world. See the full list of venues below or get in touch with Antonia Shaw (as@forma.org.uk) if you are interested in presenting the work.
Lagareh – The Last Born
Alberta Whittle
Film, 2022
Forma is proud to announce its partnership with Scotland + Venice as co-commissioner and producer of Alberta Whittle's new film Lagareh – The Last Born, which premiered in Venice as part of Scotland’s collateral event at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The new film plays a central role in the artist’s solo exhibition deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory, which also includes a tapestry and sculptural elements.
Lagareh – which translates from the Manding language as ‘The Last Born’ – is the final film in a trilogy of works that Whittle produced between 2020 and 2022. Made during the pandemic and filmed across multiple locations in Scotland, England, Barbados, Italy and Sierra Leone, Lagareh is a poignant reminder of how the traumatic legacy of the slave trade and its racist, imperialist agenda permeates in UK society to this day through a culture of surveillance and incarceration, police brutality and systemic institutional racism.
The film weaves together moments of intimacy, ritual, and acts of rebellion to explore themes of loss, rage and abolition. It foregrounds the experiences, voices and gestures of Black and queer women against the backdrop of sites of grief and mourning. Throughout the film, Alberta underlines the role of family bonds and compassion in resisting racism and anti-Blackness. Lagareh – The Last Born is a call to action – to find new ways of being in the world, inviting us not only to imagine, but to make real a future which places love at its centre.
Alberta Whittle, who works from her Glasgow based studio, said:
“It’s all too easy to become apathetic and numb to all of the parallel histories being re-lived in our world today so I want my work to take that apathy and numbness and provide a space for people to feel. To be able to do that in such a historically rich environment as Venice allows me to explore conversations and historical stories through my commission.”
Forma’s role as co-commissioner and producer of Lagareh includes investing in the production and management of the film budget, supporting Whittle with research and curatorial development, planning film shoots across three continents and coordinating with the artist’s wide range of creative partners. In partnership with LUX Scotland, the film will tour cinemas across Scotland from late 2022. Forma will build further legacy for Lagareh by working closely with Scotland + Venice to tour the film in the UK and internationally. Forma is also proud to support four Scotland-based artists with travel grants to attend the opening of the exhibition and the Jupiter + Forma party which is organised with the partner Jupiter Artland.
Touring Exhibitions
Lagareh – The Last Born continues to tour across festivals, museums and institutions around the world. See the full list of venues below or get in touch with Antonia Shaw (as@forma.org.uk) if you are interested in presenting the work.
— National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK) as part of the solo exhibition create dangerously, 1 April 2023 - 7 Jan 2024
— Holburne Museum (Bath, UK) as part of Dipping below a waxing moon, the dance claims us for release, 27 January – 8 May 2023
— Barbican Centre (London, UK) as part of the Jarman Award ceremony, November 2022
— Scotland Cinema Tour programmed by LUX Scotland with support from Art Fund: Glasgow, Glasgow Film Theatre, Inverness, Eden Court; Lerwick, Mareel; Aberdeen, University of Aberdeen; Skye, Broadford Town Hall; Ayr, Ayr Town Hall.
— Venice Art Biennale 2022 (Venice, Italy) as part of the Scottish contribution deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory, 23 April – 27 November 2022
Touring Images
Installation view at the National Galleries of Scotland as part of the solo exhibition create dangerously (1 April 2023 - 7 Jan 2024). Credit Alberta Whittle. All rights reserved. DACS, London 2023
The Last Born – making room for ancestral transmissions
Edinburgh Art Festival
13 August 2023
This newly-commissioned performance, presented by EAF, National Galleries of Scotland and Forma, takes Alberta Whittle’s most recent moving image work, Lagareh – The Last Born as inspiration. Anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together
through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. In this new performance, at Parliament Hall, the buildings housing the Supreme Courts of Scotland, scenes and moments from Lagareh – The Last Born will be re-enacted and reconfigured, encouraging the audience to continue to think about the poetics of abolition and how love and grief can become healing forms of release. This will coincide with the Scotland + Venice selected artist’s major solo exhibition, create dangerously, at National Galleries of Scotland: National. This performance takes place on 13 August. (Documentation coming soon)
Holbourne Museum
Installation view of Dipping below a waxing moon at the Holbourne Museum, Baths. Photography by Jo Hounsome.
Barbican Centre
Screening at the Film London Jarman Award ceremony at the Barbican Centre.
Alberta Whittle alongside winner Grace Ndiritu and all shortlisted artists Jamie Crewe, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance. Image: Ro Murphy
La Biennale di Venezia
As part of Scottish Contribution
deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory
23 April – 27 November 2022
Installation shot photographer Cristiano Corte, © Alberta Whittle.
Courtesy the artist, Scotland + Venice
Artist Biography
Alberta Whittle has been based in Scotland since moving here to study firstly at Edinburgh College of Art and later on the Master of Fine Arts programme at The Glasgow School of Art. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg.
Whittle was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. She was the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/19. Her work has been acquired by major public collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums Collections and the Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art, as well as by other private collections.
Selected solo exhibitions and presentations include: Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2021), Liverpool Biennale (2021), Art Night London (2021), British Art Show 9 – Aberdeen and Wolverhampton (2021–22), Glasgow International (2021), Glasgow International (2020), Grand Union, Birmingham (2020), Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2019), Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2019), The Tyburn Gallery, London (2019) and FADA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2018).
Details
Alberta Whittle’s new film Lagareh is co-commissioned and produced by Forma for the Scottish exhibition at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Lagareh – The Last Born continues to tour across festivals, museums and institutions around the world. See the full list of venues below or get in touch with Antonia Shaw (as@forma.org.uk) if you are interested in presenting the work.