#gerilja

Africa and Photography: Humanizing culture, art and media

InternationalConference, Leuven, Belgium

From the origins of photography on their continent and in the diaspora, Africans have, in one way or another, produced pictures. Until a few years ago, these photographic images and films were not seen in mainstream media and in art. They were barely known outside their communities. The goal of this conference is to bring awareness about the way Africans and Afro-Americans portray themselves through photography and film. We've invited Thomas Allen Harris as our keynote speaker and guest of honor. Raised in the Bronx and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, Thomas Allen Harris is an award-winning filmmaker and cultural warrior, whose documentary films, installations, and experimental videos have been featured in venues across the international landscape on television, at festivals, museums and galleries. The debate is conducted by: Sophie Feyer: South Africa and photography Bjorn Maes (Africalia): Contemporary photography in Africa Bambi Ceuppens: Congolese photographers in the Belgian Congo…unknown images Yaba Badou (Ghana): Photography Africa and sexuality Peroration by Dr. Matthias Degroof

Info: 20 March 14.00 – 17.00 Link: http://afrikafilmfestival.be/#!/nl/festival/african-vision-exchange

 Celebration/Commemoration: “Confrontation face to face”

Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa

You are invited to a Public Conversation between black lesbian activists, Zanele Muholi and Freegender: “what does it mean to look at?” And the Cape Town Book Launch of Faces and Phases (Zanele Muholi with all the participants in the Faces and Phases project)

Info: 24 March at 17.30

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1375286016129444/

Symposium – Dandy Lion: (Re) Articulating Black Masculine Identity

Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, United States

Participants will include Shantrelle P. Lewis, exhibition curator; Monica Miller, scholar and author of "Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity"; Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; author Nichelle Gainer; photographer Arteh Odjidja; art historian Amy Mooney and exhibiting artists.

Info: 10 April 2015 at 14.00 pm.

Link: http://www.mocp.org/events/event?id=421682

 African Art Salon

Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The first African Art Salon is an initiative of Rob Perrée (Africanah.org) and CBK Zuidoost. Talks, discussions and interviews with African artists.

Info: 19 April, 28 June & 27 September

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/799405403462336/

Meet the Artist: Julie Mehretu

Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, United States

Presented in collaboration with the National Museum of African Art, Ethiopian-born American artist Julie Mehretu speaks about her practice as part of the Hirshhorn’s ongoing Meet the Artist series. Exploring time and place, Mehretu layers gestural marks and architectural, geographical, and historical symbols to create large-scale semi-abstract canvases. Her work is included in The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, on view at the National Museum of African Art April 8–August 2, 2015. Guest-curated by Simon Njami, the multimedia exhibition exploring Dante’s fourteenth-century epic includes original commissions and renowned works of art by approximately forty of the most dynamic contemporary artists from nineteen African nations and the diaspora.

Info: 24 April 2015.  Admission is free. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis

Link: http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/programs-calendar/#detail=http%3A//www.hirshhorn.si.edu/bio/mta-julie-mehretu/&collection=programs-calendar&title=Meet+the+Artist%3A+Julie+Mehretu

 Maryam Jafri – The Day After

Bétonsalon, Paris, France

With contributions by Jean Genet, Kapwani Kiwanga, Dominique Malaquais, Saadat Hasan Manto, Erika Nimis, Franck Ogou, Helihanta Rajaonarison, S.N.S. Sastry, Jürg Schneider and Cédric Vincent; as well as by Soufiane Ababri and participants of the Denis Diderot workshop, the students from Master I Journalism, Medias and Scientific Communication with Thierry Lefèbvre and students from Julie Ramage’s writing workshop with UFR LAC at Paris Diderot University.

Curated by: Mélanie Bouteloup and Virginie Bobin

Artistic assistant: Hadrien Gérenton

In the Spring of 2015, Bétonsalon – Centre for Art and Research welcomes artist Maryam Jafri to develop a four months experimental exhibition and public program in Paris. Titled The Day After, it will be the artist’s first project in France and will activate a broad local and international network of collaborators and participants.

The Day After takes root in Maryam Jafri’s ongoing project Independence Day 1934-1975 (2009-present), an installation composed of photographs taken on the first independence day in former European colonies across Asia and Africa, between 1934 and 1975. The photos are sourced from the countries themselves and display striking similarities despite disparate geographical and temporal origins, revealing a political model exported from Europe and in the process of being cloned throughout the world. The installation gathers images sourced from 29 Asian and African archives, juxtaposed according to a specific grid around categories of events. In her arrangement, Jafri emphasizes the generic character of the rituals and ceremonies that took place during that 24 hours twilight period when a territory transforms into a nation-state. The grid, reminiscent of both photo-conceptualism and the storyboard medium, is broken, disturbing the ideological order at play in the images and suggesting non-linear readings.

Info: 18 March – 11 July 2015

Link: http://www.betonsalon.net/spip.php?rubrique15

Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s – 1990s

Black Cultural Archives Brixton and the V&A, London, United Kingdom

Staying Power is an important exhibition featuring photographs, drawn from the V&A’s collection, which begin to document the experiences of Black people in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century. Inspired by Peter Fyrer’s seminal text Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain, this exhibition focuses on a period of time when photography served as an archival tool to capture historical moments.

From documentary to portraiture to staged allegorical photographs, Staying Power documents experiences from post-World War II through to the 1990s, covering topics from mass migration to hip hop fashions of south London.

Info: 15 January until 30 June 2015 @Black Cultural Heritage Centre Brixton, London, United Kingdom. A concurrent Staying Power display will be on show at the V&A, from 16 February – 24 May 2015.

Link: http://bcaheritage.org.uk/staying-power-photographs-of-black-british-experience-1950s-1990s/

 The Jamaica Hidden Histories Project

Gallery @oxo, London, United Kingdom

The Jamaica Hidden Histories project is about all those pages that have been ripped out regarding our cultural heritage. It’s about all the stories that have been told and not always documented, and the documents that have been written and not always read. It is about the many archives, films, photographs and artefacts, relating to us; hidden away in museums, galleries and within our homes. Through this project, they are brought to light for young people and elders from diverse communities to connect with their own heritage. This project will establish a legacy that future generations can explore and expand upon.

Lorna Holder, Managing Director / Curator of the Jamaica Hidden Histories exhibition Info: 6 March - 17 May 2015, 11am-6pm, 7 days a week. gallery@oxo is owned and managed by Coin Street Community Builders

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/576605115772291/

 Architecture of Independence. African Modernism.

Vitra Design Museum Gallery, Wheil am Rhein, Germany

When many countries in Central and Sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence in the 1960s, experimental and futuristic architecture became a principal means by which the young nations expressed their national identities. The exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery is one of the first presentations of this remarkable period of our more recent architectural history. This exhibition was researched and curated by architect and author Manuel Herz, with a substantial contribution by photographer Iwan Baan. The exhibition documents more than 50 buildings in countries such as Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Ghana and Senegal, which mirror the forward-looking spirit that was dominant in these countries at the time.

Info: 20 February until 31 May 2015 @Vitra Museum Gallery, Wheil am Rhein, Germany

Link: http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/preview.html

Nástio Mosquito. Daily Lovemaking

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

This is the first solo exhibition of work by Nástio Mosquito, emerging to be one of the most exciting artists of his generation.

Rooted in the broadcast industry, where Mosquito worked previously as director and cameraman, his artistic practice is extraordinary for its energy, intelligence and wit. It is as funny as it is confrontational, as candid as it is ironic, satirical and cool. It embraces film and music, theatrical performance, video and installation, often requiring the collaboration of others, most notably Spanish artist Vic Pereiró. Frequently appearing in concerts and music festivals, Mosquito has also performed within the context of visual arts programmes and maintains a lively online presence.

Theatrically, Mosquito takes centre stage in his work. He often assumes roles, through mimicry, in order to express ideas occurring to him, not so much as his own cherished beliefs but rather observations on human folly manifested in modern life. The distance between his actual identity and such characterisations enables him to express himself variously as being trangressive, cool, cynical, profane and vulgar. “Nástia”, a know-it-all with a Russian accent – a monster engendered by the Cold War – epitomises this tendency, and often makes an appearance. At the heart of the exhibition is Nástia’s Manifesto (2008), a circular projection suspended just above the floor, based on the keywords “Hypocritical, Ironic and Do Not Give a Fuck”.

Info: 4 February until 19 April 2015

Link: http://ikon-gallery.org/event/8096/

El Anatsui. Selected Works

October Gallery, London, United Kingdom

El Anatsui’s sculptural experiments with media and form have challenged the definition of sculpture itself. In particular, his metal wall-hangings have received international acclaim. Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both an artist and teacher, El Anatsui has addressed a wide range of social, political and historical concerns and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. In 2013, one of his largest metal wall-hangings to utilize his bottle-top technique,TSIATSIA – searching for connection, adorned the façade of Burlington House. Created to coincide with the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2013, this remarkable work won the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award.

The exhibition will focus on a range of intricate metal sculptures.  October Gallery has worked with El Anatsui since 1993, during which time, his work has received worldwide recognition. These magnificent sculptures have been collected by major international museums, including the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, amongst others. Over the last two decades, the works have increased in size, enhancing the external walls of museums and galleries around the world.

Info: 12 February until 28 March 2015 @October Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Staying Power: Photographs of Black British Experience, 1950s – 1990s

Black Cultural Archives Brixton and the V&A, London, United Kingdom

Staying Power is an important exhibition featuring photographs, drawn from the V&A’s collection, which begin to document the experiences of Black people in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century. Inspired by Peter Fyrer’s seminal text Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain, this exhibition focuses on a period of time when photography served as an archival tool to capture historical moments.

From documentary to portraiture to staged allegorical photographs, Staying Power documents experiences from post-World War II through to the 1990s, covering topics from mass migration to hip hop fashions of south London.

Info: 15 January until 30 June 2015 @Black Cultural Heritage Centre Brixton, London, United Kingdom. A concurrent Staying Power display will be on show at the V&A, from 16 February – 24 May 2015.

Link: http://bcaheritage.org.uk/staying-power-photographs-of-black-british-experience-1950s-1990s/

  Every Distance is not too far – Kemang Wa Lehulere

Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

Titled Every distance is not too far, Wa Lehulere’s exhibition is a direct and indirect response to a work by Chieko (Mieko) Shiomi (b 1938), a Japanese artist with links to the Fluxus movement, whose Spatial Poems comprised instructions for small interventions as well as reports on these actions by participants.

Taking his cue from Spatial Poem No 3 (Falling Event), Wa Lehulere suggests forms of falling, both literally and metaphorically, and connects various real events/moments, time and distance  in a non-linear manner. He will utilise sculpture, video and other mediums to excavate pasts, both static and malleable, existent and imaginative, instructive and fantastical in this new body of work.

Info: 22 January until 28 February 2015 @Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa.

Link: http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/walehulere/index2014.html

  Architecture of Independence. African Modernism.

Vitra Design Museum Gallery, Wheil am Rhein, Germany

When many countries in Central and Sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence in the 1960s, experimental and futuristic architecture became a principal means by which the young nations expressed their national identities. The exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum Gallery is one of the first presentations of this remarkable period of our more recent architectural history. This exhibition was researched and curated by architect and author Manuel Herz, with a substantial contribution by photographer Iwan Baan. The exhibition documents more than 50 buildings in countries such as Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Ghana and Senegal, which mirror the forward-looking spirit that was dominant in these countries at the time.

Info: 20 February until 31 May 2015 @Vitra Museum Gallery, Wheil am Rhein, Germany

Link: http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/preview.html

  Nástio Mosquito. Daily Lovemaking

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

This is the first solo exhibition of work by Nástio Mosquito, emerging to be one of the most exciting artists of his generation.

Rooted in the broadcast industry, where Mosquito worked previously as director and cameraman, his artistic practice is extraordinary for its energy, intelligence and wit. It is as funny as it is confrontational, as candid as it is ironic, satirical and cool. It embraces film and music, theatrical performance, video and installation, often requiring the collaboration of others, most notably Spanish artist Vic Pereiró. Frequently appearing in concerts and music festivals, Mosquito has also performed within the context of visual arts programmes and maintains a lively online presence.

Theatrically, Mosquito takes centre stage in his work. He often assumes roles, through mimicry, in order to express ideas occurring to him, not so much as his own cherished beliefs but rather observations on human folly manifested in modern life. The distance between his actual identity and such characterisations enables him to express himself variously as being trangressive, cool, cynical, profane and vulgar. “Nástia”, a know-it-all with a Russian accent – a monster engendered by the Cold War – epitomises this tendency, and often makes an appearance. At the heart of the exhibition is Nástia’s Manifesto (2008), a circular projection suspended just above the floor, based on the keywords “Hypocritical, Ironic and Do Not Give a Fuck”.

Info: 4 February until 19 April 2015

Link: http://ikon-gallery.org/event/8096/

  That Air Fair – Fresh Art From Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

THAT ART FAIR is an inspired, curated and affordable art fair event providing a platform for African artists who work under the radar of the traditional art establishment and who do things a little differently.

As an ARTsouthAFRICA initiative, THAT ART FAIR is committed to transformation in the contemporary African art world – this commitment is shared by art patrons and art world ambassadors who support us and recognize the importance of nurturing and investing in emerging talent.

Info: 27 February until 1 March 2015 @121 Cecil Road, Salt River, Cape Town, South Africa

Link: http://www.thatartfair.com/

Studio Salon. Titus Kaphar and Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammed Discuss The New Jim Crow

Studio Museum Harlem, New York, United States

Studio Salon is the Museum's literary society that invites visitors to participate in an ongoing series of talks, book clubs and writing workshops inspired by our exhibitions and aimed at encouraging self-expression and critical dialogue. This special iteration of Studio Salon is presented in partnership with The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and will be livestreamed to reach a broader audience.

Recreating the intimacy and candid nature of a studio visit, exhibiting artist Titus Kaphar will be joined by Schomburg director Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad in discussing The Jerome Project, an exhibition of small-scale works that directly engage contemporary social issues, particularly the criminal justice system and prison-industrial complex. In this conversation, Kaphar and Muhammad will explore Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness as integral source material that informed the artist's personal research and evolving modes of representation for this very timely and important project.

Info: 8 February 2015 4 - 6 PM. Please RSVP to [email protected] as seating will be limited!

Link: http://www.studiomuseum.org/event-calendar/event/studio-salon-2015-02-08

  El Anatsui. Selected Works

October Gallery, London, United Kingdom

El Anatsui’s sculptural experiments with media and form have challenged the definition of sculpture itself. In particular, his metal wall-hangings have received international acclaim. Throughout a distinguished forty-year career as both an artist and teacher, El Anatsui has addressed a wide range of social, political and historical concerns and embraced an equally diverse range of media and processes. In 2013, one of his largest metal wall-hangings to utilize his bottle-top technique,TSIATSIA – searching for connection, adorned the façade of Burlington House. Created to coincide with the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2013, this remarkable work won the prestigious Charles Wollaston Award.

The exhibition will focus on a range of intricate metal sculptures. October Gallery has worked with El Anatsui since 1993, during which time, his work has received worldwide recognition. These magnificent sculptures have been collected by major international museums, including the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, amongst others. Over the last two decades, the works have increased in size, enhancing the external walls of museums and galleries around the world.

Info: 12 February until 28 March 2015 @October Gallery, London, United Kingdom