The Giverny Suite: An Exploration Of Bodily Autonomy, Safety Of Black Women Through Cinema At MoMA

Filmed in Harlem, New York, and in Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France, Ja’Tovia Gary’s THE GIVERNY SUITE is a cinematic poem that advocates for the safety and bodily autonomy of Black women. Employing techniques including hand-painted film animation and montage editing, Gary first developed the work during an artist residency in Giverny, where the gardens offered a space of respite. “Healing is at the root of the work,” Gary explains. “Making art is a transformative process that transmutes pain or trauma into something beautiful, useful, functional, instructive.”

As part of our yearlong series of collection exhibitions, THE GIVERNY SUITE opens tonight during UNIQLO NYC Nights. Make plans to see it first, and explore more from our collection on Magazine, including how Wangechi Mutu’s sculpture MamaRay addresses the African diaspora. And what exactly do the sculptures in our garden do when it rains?

Banner Image: Movie poster. Image Credit – MoMA

Museum of Modern Art