• Dreaming South
  • Artist Statement
  • THE INBETWEEN SPACES
  • MEDIA ARCHIVE
  • MEMORY MATTER(S)
  • Collaborative Explorations
  • Performance Index
  • Artist Fellowship with the Crossroads Project at Princeton’s Center for Culture, Society, and Religion Portfolio
  • Heritage Settlement Retreat
  • Southern Android Heritage House
  • quantum-ecology
  • Coffee//Koolaid & the tabernacle of rememory
  • Smithsonian Artist research fellowship
  • Dreaming South
  • Artist Statement
  • THE INBETWEEN SPACES
  • MEDIA ARCHIVE
  • MEMORY MATTER(S)
  • Collaborative Explorations
  • Performance Index
  • Artist Fellowship with the Crossroads Project at Princeton’s Center for Culture, Society, and Religion Portfolio
  • Heritage Settlement Retreat
  • Southern Android Heritage House
  • quantum-ecology
  • Coffee//Koolaid & the tabernacle of rememory
  • Smithsonian Artist research fellowship
  My Site

artist Statement  

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   CV and Life experiences 




 
Viktor L. Ewing | Givens
SouthernAndroid.com | www.participatorymusiccoalition.org 
SouthernAndroid00@gmail.com
Curatorial, Research and Public Arts

 
Viktor le. Givens is a found object installation performance artist whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to activate spaces for site specific public rituals. By connecting the material culture of his ancestors with pre and post modern spiritual theologies, le. Givens hopes to extend and reimagine the folk customs of his family . His material archive is comprised of the forgotten and discarded household items found during excavations of East Texas, Louisiana, Havana Cuba and Mexico City. . Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts , le. Givens. seeks to create spaces that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual memory.
 
Education
 
2017     Masters of Fine Arts at Columbia College Chicago
              Interdisciplinary Arts Book and Paper  
2015     Masters of Arts Interdisciplinary Arts , Columbia College Chicago 2010     Fisk University Bachelors of Arts Sociology : Art , Nashville TN   Viktor L. Ewing | Givens
www.SouthernAndroid.com |  participatorymusiccoalition.orgPH: 832‐916‐6304    Email: Southernandroid00@gmail.com 

Exhibition/Curatorial/ Research/Creative Consultancy Opportunities

Viktor le. Givens is a found object installation performance artist whose practice centers around the gathering and arrangement of ancestral objects to activate spaces for site specific public rituals. By connecting the material culture of his ancestors with pre and post modern spiritual theologies, le. Givens hopes to extend and re-imagine the folk customs of his family . His material archive is comprised of the forgotten and discarded household items found during excavations of East Texas, Louisiana, Havana Cuba and Mexico City. Through the accumulation of these rich cultural artifacts , le. Givens. seeks to create spaces that inspire the activation of cultural and spiritual (re) memory. Currently Viktor’s practice is exploring the creative potential in reinterpreting the archive to produce interdisciplinary  new works. 

Education 
Forever      The Multiverse 

2017         Masters of Fine Arts at Columbia College Chicago 
                  Interdisciplinary Arts Book and Paper  
2015         Masters of Arts Interdisciplinary Arts , Columbia College Chicago
2010         Fisk University Bachelors of Arts Sociology : Art , Nashville TN   



Vanderbilt University Institute for International Education Scholar international fellowship Sojourns: 

2011  Edna Manely College of Performance and Visual Arts  Kingston, Jamaica
2009 
Universidade Federal da Bahia Salvador , State of Bahia , Brazil  
2008 University of Ghana Accra Legon  Accra, Ghana  2008  Howard University, Washington DC  
2007  Rust College , The Gambia, West Africa  Introduction to Departure, a cross pollination study 

Installation / Performance Exhibitions 

2020

Freedom Summer Visual Mix Tape: CAHM Lab artist residency Intensive: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston TX 

Mothership 9: Virtual Exodus: The great Cosmic Migration Digital Performance Saloon: Elastic Arts, Chicago IL 

In Search for Lucille: Ancestral Reverence Intensive, Carson House Plantation Marion NC 

Brown Ecologies Residency Retreat: Esperanza Spalding Productions: Tygh Valley Oregon 

Jubilee 11213: Black Spatial Relics MicroGrant for Community Care Performance Research  Digital Saloon Lab NY

Inter//Stellar: Devised Digital Theater: National Black Theater & NYU Tisch School of Drama NY 

Requiem for Jazz: University of Chicago:  Sun Dance film Festival Documentary: Angel Bat Dawid and tha Brotha Hood 

Heritage Settlements Retreat: North Star 'nd Associates: Southern Android Institute Crockett TX 

Beyond Space exhibition : Detroit Carr Center : Curator Carrie Mae Weems / Anita Bateman 


Revival: Detroit Carr Center: Performance Cultural Arts intensive: Southern Android Productions 

Black Artist Retreat: Armory New York City:  : Theaster Gates Curator

REACH Festival Kennedy Center: Washington DC; Carrie Mae Weems curator 


2019 

  The Spirit that Resides: 13th Havana Biennale : Magnan Gallery: Carrie Mae Weems ; Curator 
  Black Spatial Relics Conference
  Beyond Space exhibition & symposium, Detroit Carr Center 
  Le Guess Who? Jazz Festival Utrecht NL
  ReWire International Festival: The Hauge NL
  Hyde Park Jazz Festival: Chicago IL
  Jazz Fest Berlin
  Uber Jazz Festival: We are Starzz: Hamburg Germany
  Beyond Space symposium, Detroit Carr Center
2018 
              Mo’lasses (re)enactment Fisk University Spring Arts Festival Nashville TN 
              Song of Solomon a Opera , Co-prosperity lab , Chicago IL 
              Recollection recall: afrofututrity Google Fiber Nashville TN 
              In search of my familiar Southside Community Arts Center Chicago IL 
2017 
Remnants of a Dream: Gallery 400,  University of Illinois, Chicago,
Recalled Recollections Ancestral Lore: DuSable Museum, Chicago IL 
LIT: Mo’lasses: MFA Thesis Exhibition:  Book and Paper Gallery Columbia College Chicago.
Black Box : An Afrofuturist Opus : LeRoy Nemian Center, School of the Art Institute
Old Black magic, Chicago Art Department ACRE residency Exhibition, Chicago IL
The Revival :Chicago Home Theater Festival,  4H gallery , Chicago IL 

2016
The in-between spaces; Black Matter, Black Magic, Black Manhood: Root Work Gallery, Chicago 
 Before I wake: Elastic Arts Center. ,Chicago IL, Washington Park

Eliza’s Peculiar cabin of Curiosities: ; Lynden
Sculptural Garden Milwaukee WI.
Black Art; Ancestral Legacy; Civic Center of Crockett, Dallas Museum of Art

88th annual Fisk University Spring Arts Festival : Alfred Steglitz Gallery, Nashville 
Ancient Futurity: Afro-futurism Conference , The New School New York
Sugah’ Another kind of sweet: BING arts incubator, University of Chicago
Conjuring tomorrow: an immersive exhibition.  C33 Gallery,Chicago IL 
Aint’ I, She a Woman Ain’t she: Hunter International Gallery

2015 
Engage/ Connect: Anthropological Mixed Tape Performance saloon : HAUS Creative Arts Center, 
Columbia  College  
Black Intersectionality Critique University of Chicago , Arts Incubator ,Chicago IL, 
Ancestors Wake ,College Art Association Video Art Graduate Saloon ,New York    Connect/Engage , Arcade Gallery Department of Exhibition and Performance Spaces Columbia  College  

2014 
In Search of my Familiar, South Side Community Art Center Chicago IL,   Welcome Home: They Seek a City ,The Art Institute Chicago, IL   
Margret Burroughs Collective “ What Shall I call? “ African Festival of the Arts Chicago, IL KUUMBA Ritual theater Anniversary, Southside Community Art Center    Chicago, IL 
 Faheem Majeed RISK: Empathy, Art, and Social Practice Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, IL Faheem Majeed Shacks and Shanties Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab, Chicago , IL   
Fo Wilson : Wading in the water of Sweet Forever , Center for Black Music Research  Chicago , IL  
Memoirs from the Pews  Margaret Burroughs Collective, Fo Wilson Studio 1905, Chicago, IL 

2013 Here Now Where Then  Annual African American Art Exhibition  Actors Theater Louisville, KY 
Hear no Art see no Art  83rd Annual Spring Arts Festival, Fisk University , Nashville, TN Colored Musings National Black Theater Festival, Washington, DC  

2012 82nd  Annual Spring Arts Festival Aaron Douglas Gallery Fisk University , Nashville, 

2011
The Tides that Binds ,Studio 147, Calabash Festival of the Arts, Kingston Jamaica                   Collective Representation Edna Manley College of Performance and Visual Arts, Kingston, Jamaica Jitney August Wilson, American Negro Theater Company, Nashville , TN

Lectures and Special Projects 
B.A,R Black Artist Retreat Theaster Gates  The PArk Avenue Armory NYC 
Freedom Colonies Family Day: Ancestors Wake, Institute of Texan Cultures
Conversations: The politics of Race, Gender & Art Fisk University
Moses Reggie Wilson Shango Baptist Ring Shout IntensiveDance Center Juke Clap Stomp Movement therapy Honey Pot Collective 
Black Arts performance Theater Val Gray Ward Chicago
Fabulating free: Black Spatial Relics Conference: Philadelphia PA 
Texas Historical Commission: East Texas Preservation Project 
African American Automobility: Collaborative design publication: Jonathan Calm
Freedom Colonies Family Day: Ancestors Wake, Institute of Texan Cultures
Conversations: The politics of Race, Gender & Art  Fisk University 
Black portraiture Conference: 
Ancestry Matters , New York University, Florence Italy  
FREE/PHASE Center for Black Music Research Chicago Cultural Center

Alumni in the Arts Series: Fisk University, Nashville, TN
African Spirituality in Black Freedom Struggles: Freedom Square, Chicago IL 

All in : Making Art and community in Chicago ,Columbia College Chicago

River See: Jazz Theater Institute 2013|2014 , Sharon Bridgeforth Links Hall ,Rockefeller Chapel Chicago, IL

HARAMBEE African American Cultural Affairs Publication editor, Columbia College Chicago
 Memoirs from the pews Pan African Literary Forum , Accra Ghana 2008

Curatorial Experience
2019
Vestige: the Spirit that Resides: Magnan Gallery Havana Cuba

2016
Anthropological Mixed Tape Collaborative Saloon Quincy Wong Performance Art Center, Columbia College , Chicago, IL
2014
Sister Spirits Khalil Anthony: The Black space, Chicago, IL,
Participatory Music Coalition: Experiments in Sound , Transitions East Sound Lab, Chicago, IL
2011
Children Shorts International Black Film Festival Nashville, TN
Job Experience:

2016
Columbia College Graduate Assistant for the office of Multicultural Affairs Assistant  2012-2017
Artistic Director for the Margaret Burroughs Collective, 
Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Cultural Enrichment Initiative “ Barbershop” 

Visual \ Performance Arts Coordinator for the Participatory Music Coalition
2014
Academy for Urban School Leadership : Teaching Artist C
2013
Programming manager Healthy Eating Active Living, Artist Intensive Workshop Nashville TN
Tennessee Arts Commission: Metro School District Art Smart Teaching Artist.
Art Smart Aesthetic education training. 

Awards/ Honors
Chicago Parks District: Night out in the Parks Grants recipient 
Follet Fellowship Full Tuition Award Columbia College Chicago 2013
Black Spatial Relics honorable mention awardee: Material Culture and cognition: Can matter change the mind? 
Detroit Carr Center  Independent research scholar: Archives  and the Liminal
Mary Allen Museum of African American Art and History research apprentice: Tulane University: Amistad Research Center: Negro Education in Texas 1900-1960 




Location

I excite when I hear read watch once lived story poems of emancipation's Jubilation--cotton picking plucked in burlap sacs full of weevils wobbling 'bout the treacherous bulb-- drifted on the shores of the Atlantic in the bosom of Osun where cakes were offerings of meal tilled and readied by han-- the stars and mathematics--rituals and villages filled with shoes made for walking the nomadic tribes --the drifters the seeds--  it all reminds me of my reason, gives possibility on as to how life was simplicity tightly wove sewn crocheted into complexity, cause those living then considered what life living would be fore me in the now."

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