TIME FRAME_Reflected Africa
At the beginning of 2009 the SMBA team started a research project under the title ‘Africa Reflected’. This project looks closely at representations of Africa within contemporary art production, with the aim of finding alternatives to predominantly stereotypical mass media representations. The research is designed to arrive at a critical discourse: it is after all about how our images of Africa are shaped, and how we seek to nuance this with the support of visual art, and not about ‘development work’ which reinforces the average European citizen’s dominant image of Africa.
Unlike earlier editions, this year’s get-together was accompanied by a public side-program consisting of a seminar, a lecture and a video screening. October 12,14, 2009.
VIEWS ON AFRICA IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
A semi-public seminar with Kobena Mercer
In his introductory lecture Kobena Mercer presented a critical overview of key issues arising in the reception of international exhibitions of African art over the last ten years or so. His talk highlights some of the limitations of existing conceptual frameworks while pointing to opportunities opened up by art-historically grounded conceptions of modernity and globalisation.
After this theoretical part, African curators such as Koyo Kouoh (Senegal), Didier Schaub (Cameroon), Nonto Ntombela Mabongi (South Africa) and Oyinda Fakeye (Nigeria) would present impressions of their work.
AFRICA REFLECTED ON VIDEO at Netherlands Media Art Institute
The programme was comprised of artist’s films and videos which, coming from different points of view, all focus on themes and ideas relating to the continent. Works by Jude Anogwith, Leo Asemota, Theo Eshetu, Salifou Lindou, Vincent Meessen, Marcel Odenbach, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Guy Wouete, Emeka Ogboh and others will be screened. There will also be short presentations by Vincent Meessen and the curators Oyinda Fakeye (CCA, Lagos), Koyo Kouoh (Dakar), Didier Schaub (Doual’art) and others.
TIMES OF CONFUSION
A public lecture by Simon Njami
In this lecture Simon Njami reflected on the idea of the ‘African artist’. According to him, the difference made between African and Africa, between identity and nationality, between expression and politics is in itself political. His argument is based on the conviction that true expression does not exist without political reference. The artists talked about all have one thing in common: Africa. And yet, Njami advocates that the way of being African is individualistic and not self-evidently connected to a collective concept. “We might argue here” he writes in an abstract of his lecture, “that one is not born African – one becomes African”.