KRISTEN MUELLER | DATE 5/30/2019

Trevor Paglen in conversation with Ben Wizner at the MoMA PS1 Book Space

Saturday, June 8 from 3–5 PM, Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore, ARTBOOK | D.A.P. and Primary Information present Trevor Paglen in conversation with Ben Wizner to celebrate the publication of Trevor Paglen: From the Archives of Peter Merlin, Aviation Archaeologist. Pre-order signed copies with free shipping in the US at booksmomaps1@artbook.com. The event, held in the MoMA PS1 Book Space, is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required.

In Trevor Paglen: From the Archives of Peter Merlin, Aviation Archaeologist, multidisciplinary artist Trevor Paglen collaborates with Peter Merlin, a former NASA archivist, on this new artists' book featuring a photographic inventory of objects from the aerospace historian’s archive culled from military bases such as Area 51.

Featuring images of challenge coins, patches and commemorative mugs from within these bases, as well as debris recovered from the surrounding crash sites, the book presents both a social and technological investigation into the US government’s secret aviation history from the atomic age to today's drone wreckage.

The symbols and texts featured on these objects that celebrate covert missions range in character from goofy to sinister, though their actual meaning may never be fully explained to the public. In addition to photographic images, the book includes an essay by Paglen as well as in-depth captions of the archive’s inventory, offering context for this history and addressing the present-day ramifications of these military advancements across the realms of communication, surveillance and warfare.

Trevor Paglen (b. 1974) lives and works in Berlin and New York. His work spans photography, sculpture, investigative journalism, writing and engineering; has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Smithsonian, Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum, Frankfurter Kunstverein, and Vienna Secession; and has been featured in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern. He has launched an artwork into orbit around Earth in collaboration with Creative Time and MIT and contributed research and cinematography to the film Citizenfour. He is the author of five books.

Ben Wizner is the director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. For nearly 15 years, he has worked at the intersection of civil liberties and national security, litigating numerous cases involving airport security policies, government watch lists, surveillance practices, targeted killing and torture. He appears regularly in the global media, has testified before Congress and is an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law. Since July of 2013, he has been the principal legal advisor to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Wizner is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law and was a law clerk to the Hon. Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Book Space
Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore
Saturday, June 8: 3–5 PM
22-25 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
(718) 433-1088