Clark Art Screens 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City'

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — On Thursday, April 11, the Clark Art Institute kicks off its three-part film series exploring lyrical depictions of cities in films that resonate with the Paper Cities exhibition. 
 
The Clark shows "Berlin: Symphony of a Great City" at 6 pm in its auditorium, located in the Manton Research Center.
 
According to a press release:
 
This emblematic "city symphony" film is structured to follow the life of Berlin and its inhabitants across the course of a single day, from dawn to dusk, to create “a symphonic film with the thousandfold energies that make up the life of a great city,” as described by the director, painter Walter Ruttman. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City still speaks volumes about how German Expressionism crossed into every artistic medium. (Run time: 1:05)
 
On view in the Eugene V. Thaw Gallery for Works on Paper, located in the Manton Research Center, Paper Cities examines representations of cities in works on paper created from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth century. The exhibition asks the following questions: Which cities or sections of cities are these artists presenting? Are they emphasizing specific architectural or social elements, and if so, what motivates these choices? What roles do the cities play in advancing the narratives of the overall artworks?
 
Free. Accessible seats available; for information, call 413 549 0524. 

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Clark Art Exhibit Explores Imperialism, Lost History of South America

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff

A close-up of Kathia St. Hilaire's 'Mamita Yunai,' the aftermath of the massacre of striking United Fruit Co. workers by Colombian soldiers.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute's newest exhibition "Invisible Empires" will run through Sept. 22 in the galleries of the Lunder Center at Stone Hill. 
 
Artist Kathia St. Hilaire uses mixed mediums, including printmaking, painting, collage, and weaving, to explore the lost Haitian history and culture she has heard as tales told by her parents and investigates how imperialism persists today in subtler forms. 
 
In her work, St. Hilaire uses various materials, including "beauty products," such as skin lighteners, industrial metal, fabric, and tires. She brings to life the lost history while drawing inspiration from Haitian vodou flags. 
 
St. Hilaire is informed from her experiences growing up in Caribbean and African American neighborhoods in South Florida and being raised by parents who immigrated to the United States from Haiti. 
 
Her work depicts historical moments, including the Haitian revolution, French colonialism, foreign interventions in the Caribbean, and the banana massacre in , and brings to life forgotten historical figures, including Rosalvo Bobo, Benoît Batraville, and Charlemagne Péralte, and integrates them with legends of Haiti's leaders. 
 
The stories that St. Hilaire tells are personal, "familial about the diasporic communities in which she was raised," and national "about the first free black Republican world, Haiti, and they are international pertaining to the "wider region, the Caribbean, Latin America, areas in which the United States has taken a great interest in, to put it lightly in historical terms," curator Robert Wiesenberger said. 
 
The way she narrates these stories together and depicts the effect they have on the present is an "unbelievable craft," he said. 
 
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