Radical Space: Isaiah Lopaz
Isaiah Lopaz is a transdisciplinary artist from Tongvaland whose work revolves around collage, photography, text, and performance. In 2024, Lopaz started Black Visual Grammar, a mobile archive that highlights Black perspectives across various themes and topics. The performance Giovanni's Room is preceded by an introduction from Lopaz, which will focus on Baldwin's themes. Lopaz connects these themes to his archive.
Location The Bookshop
Run time 40 minutes
Genre Perspective
Language English
Free admission
Isaiah Lopaz
Leading up to the performance Giovanni’s Room by the ITA Ensemble, we delve into the legacy of James Baldwin and the ways in which his work continues to inspire and resonate today. As a Black, queer American in Europe, Baldwin wove his experiences into incisive essays, novels, and interviews, exposing issues of identity, exclusion, and desire. But what does it mean to present his work now, within the walls of a theater? Which nuances in his writing demand a careful approach, and how does his vision resonate with today’s socio-political reality? And what does it do to our expectations now that his quotes and video clips have taken on a life of their own on social media?
Visual artist and researcher Isaiah Lopaz leads a participatory introduction in which we explore these questions surrounding Baldwin’s position and political orientation. Like Baldwin, Lopaz chose to live in Europe, and his artistic practice reflects on the experiences of the African diaspora. Where Baldwin reflected through language, Lopaz does so through Black Visual Grammar. This mobile archive allows Lopaz to interrogate and reconfigure representations of the Black experience through collage and visual research.
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Lopaz’s work reveals how history, memory, and identity intertwine in visual language, and how that language is shaped and distorted by political and cultural power structures. By mirroring Baldwin’s themes within this archive, a new way of thinking about his impact and how his ideas continue to evolve in different art forms emerges.
This edition of Radical Space focuses not only on Baldwin, but also on the broader question: who is allowed to feel at home within cultural institutions? The fact that the ITA Ensemble is presenting Giovanni’s Room invites reflection on the institutional responsibility to present this work with depth, care, and nuance. How do the themes of desire, alienation, and identity from Baldwin’s work echo within the structures of the theater itself? And what does it mean to make space for these stories; not only on stage but also in the audience and throughout our city of Amsterdam?
Radical Space in The Bookshop
With the arrival of The Bookshop, ITA introduces Radical Space: an initiative that reclaims theatre as a place for solidarity, empathy and artistic innovation. In this space on Leidseplein, we will give a stage to diverse voices and perspectives, exploring the complex legacy of (our) theatre and its social impact.
Following successful programmes such as Keti Koti 2024, Radical Space focuses on pressing social issues such as colonialism, class inequality, sexism and transphobia. Here, together with artists, makers and thinkers, we develop interdisciplinary projects that provide space for critical artistic commentary.
The Bookshop
The Bookshop is ITA's new cultural living room on Leidseplein. This compact stage offers a space for innovation, reflection and new perspectives. Here, makers, performers and visitors meet for special programmes, from experiments to intimate performances. The Bookshop is a place for everyone, with a focus on accessibility and openness. It is a gift to the city, made possible by the support of more than 500 donors and various funds and partners.
