Woensdag 02 April 2014
Look at you. How do we look at the African continent, and how do they look at us?
Duo exhibition. Frouwkje Smit has been collecting images and text about the African continent from the media since 2008. Smit finds that the way the continent is portrayed is subject to many biased ideas and clichés, and her expanding archive reflects this. In Lagos (Nigeria), photographer Karine Versluis met a number of young women who had come from eastern Nigeria to Lagos to start a new life for themselves. Some of them dreamed of going further, to Europe, because they had heard great stories about it. Versluis photographed the posters that hung above their beds, with images of a perfect and romantic Western world.
Ana Ana - Photo Exhibition by Wafaa Samir
Wafaa Samir is a fine art photographer based in Cairo. She’s a graduate from the faculty of fine arts. She didn't study photography but with the help of internet and books she taught herself everything. She now works as a freelance photographer and a photo retoucher. She dedicates her spare time to create personal art projects. Wafaa is also a filmmaker (for the first time in Ana Ana) and a very personal artist. Photography is the way Wafaa has chosen to express herself. As she says in Ana Ana: she likes being behind her camera, where she can see everyone, but no one sees her. She says her camera is like her best friend.
Apartheid and After - 13 Zuid-Afrikaanse fotografen
Laten zien hoezeer het recente verleden de waarneming van nu kleurt. Dat lijkt de rode draad te zijn die het werk van de dertien deelnemende fotografen na 1990 verbindt. Hoe spectaculair de verschillende selecties ook zijn, het is fotografie met een dubbele agenda - maar dan wel een in de positieve zin van het woord. Hier wordt vanuit de kennis van toen nauwkeurig scherp gesteld op het heden - en andersom. Paul Alberts, Hugh Exton, David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo, Santu Mofokeng, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zanele Muholi, Daniel Naudé, Jo Ractliffe, Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillim, Paul Weinberg, Graeme Williams en de Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg.
Multi-media installation: Richard Mosse - The Enclave
Foam presents The Enclave by Richard Mosse, a major multi-media installation which represented Ireland at the 55th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. The installation, consisting of six large screens, represents the conflict situation in Congo and was shot with infrared film that was designed for camouflage detection resulting in vibrant, psychedelic magenta coloured sites of the jungle war zone. Besides the film installation, related photo works are shown.
Osaretin Ighile - sculpture
Osaretin Ighile’s (Nigeria 1965) work is informed by a sophisticated discourse on traditional philosophical concepts, a deep understanding of the aesthetic and cultural character of the African continent as well as an invigorating inclination and facility with various materials and methods. By inventively handling his material within a formalist sculptural framework combined with a highly developed experimental approach to making art, he creates work that is unorthodox, persistently innovative and encourages us to probe into common elements of the human experience.
Du Bois in our time - exhibition
Final presentations of works by Ghanaian and UK artists, Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Adwoa Amoah, Ato Annan, Yaganoma Baatuolkuu, Serge Clottey, Kelvin Haizel, Kwesi Ohene-Ayeh , Mawuli Toffah, and Mary Evans. Mullti-media and site specific works will be presented in the Du Bois Museum and Mausoleum after several months of reflecting on the legacy of civil rights leader and Pan-Africanist, W.E.B. Du Bois, in our present era. Opening events will include a discussion, talk with artists and scholars, poetry and workshops over the 2 days. The entire programme of ‘Du Bois in our time’ Accra was sponsored by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.
Of Love & Loss - Zanele Muholi
Solo exhibition by visual activist and photographer Zanele Muholi. South Africa distinguishes itself with a Constitution that recognises same-sex marriages; yet the black LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community is plagued by hate crimes. In 2013 Muholi has been documenting weddings and funerals in the black LGBTI community in South Africa, joyful and painful events that often seem to go hand in hand. The show features photographs, video works and an installation highlighting how manifestations of sorrow and celebration bear similarities and are occasions to underline the need for a safe space to express individual identities.
Linear Perspectives - Wim Botha
Three installations, each occupying an entire room. The show is characterised by the complex interplay of traditional materials, such as marble, bronze, wood and oil paint, and ephemeral materials such as cardboard and polystyrene which allow Botha to continue a recent turn in his work towards spontaneity, improvisation and coincidence. The three galleries are linked by a single black wooden line suggesting the outline of walls and doors and conveying the construct of space. Epic in scale and composition, Botha's environments owe their powerful presence to a tension between the lightness of his sculptural forms and the weight of art history.
Traces of Ecstasy - Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989)
A provocative, multilayered photographic retrospective. This profoundly personal and political exploration of complex notions of desire, diaspora, and spirituality, imaginatively interprets the boundaries between spiritual and erotic fantasy, cultural and sexual difference. A seminal figure in 1980s black British and African contemporary art, Fani-Kayode’s timeless photographic tableaux make the black male body the focal point of enquiry. Ancestral rituals and a provocative, multi-layered symbolism fuse with archetypal motifs from European and African cultures and subcultures - inspired by what Yoruba priests call ‘the technique of ecstasy’.
A Nomad’s Harvest - a retrospective of photographs by George Hallett
Aspects of a career spanning more than half a century. The works on show are from the collection of George Hallett and augmented by a comprehensive display of biographical information, as well as, book and record covers designed by Hallett. Included on this exhibition, amongst others, are recognisable images of Hout Bay, District Six, the Bo-Kaap, as well as immigrants and gypsies in London. His series of portraits of exiled South African writers, artists and musicians in London and France are of special interest.
Paperwork - Contemporary South African works on paper
Taking a thematic cue from materiality, PAPERWORK brings together more than 50 works by South African artists utilising paper in different ways across a range of various disciplines and techniques, from literal works such as drawing, printmaking and painting to collage, weaving, folding and digitization. The exhibition includes historical works from the mid-1970’s up until newly produced works from 2014, showing the diverse range of possibilities and influences of paper on art-making and how artists have found unique approaches to engaging with the material.
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory revisited by Contemporary African Artists
On three floors, one each devoted to heaven, hell and purgatory, works of over 50 artists from all over Africa in a variety of media are presented: paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, installations and performances. Against the background of the many Africa-related exhibitions of the past years, the MMK perceives the need to investigate the significance of African art not only in the post-colonial context but also with regard to aesthetics. The exhibition concept transports the universal issues of the Divine Comedy, an incunable of European literature, into the present and places them in a transnational contemporary context.
