An exhibition addressing the question of artistic activism

“Global(e) Resistance” poses theoretical questions, ranging from the articulation of aesthetics and politics to the very relationship between the museum and politics within the art world. Resistance through a practice that is both artistic and political, or even activist, has often been the prerogative of artists living in situations of oppression or inequality. The end of colonization has raised many voices to start new paths of resistance, whether on a purely political level or to question the stories and memories that are too tenacious or threatened with disintegration. Resistance was also organized through art itself, in a poetic or discursive way.

The project deals with current re-readings of history through excavation and memory. It takes as its starting point two founding works from the 1990s from the Centre Pompidou collection: the film The couple in the cage (1993), in which Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peña question the contemporary persistence of colonial reflexes, and the video Partially Buried (1996), in which Renée Green brings to light the role of subjective memory in the writing of history. In a time of turmoil and urgency, the aim is to explore how these contestations participate in the transformation of systems of thought and change the way we look at the world.

Visitors are welcomed into the forum by Barthélémy Toguo’s sculpture Redemption, revealed for the first time since its acquisition within the walls of the Centre Pompidou. The work evokes the North-South encounter, pan-Africanism and the question of the redemption and salvation of peoples. The project then unfolds on the fourth floor of the permanent collections (museum gallery, graphic art gallery, gallery 0) over nearly 1500m2. The tour is punctuated by slogans printed on the walls, made from works by Barthélémy Toguo. Manifest works open the exhibition: Guy Ben Ner and Khalil Rabah evoke the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Teresa Margolles the Mexican border, Yin Xiuzhen the armed conflicts and Nadia Kaabi-Linke the wandering of migrants and the homeless.

Inspired by Robert Smithson, Renée Green’s work initially structures a strategy of polysemic resistance thought on the scale of the landscape as well as the territory, but also linked to an intimate memory. The complex imaginary of certain cities such as Braddock (LaToya Ruby Frazier), Johannesburg (Subotzsky and Waterhouse), Dakar (Cheikh Ndiaye), marked by economic decline, socio-political contestation or urban recomposition, haunt several works.

At the same time, the artists accompany the fervour and anxieties arising from decolonization (Kiluanji Kia Henda, Abdoulaye Konaté) and especially in South Africa, where apartheid persisted until 1991 (Penny Siopis, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Sue Williamson). The questioning of the communist hypothesis, addressed by The Propeller Group, and the progression of an authoritarian world, reflected in the installation of Pratchaya Phintong, are the starting point for committed works that attempt to reconcile individual narratives and collective trauma. The works of Chim↑Pom and Yin Xiuzhen denounce the ecological threat. In a more contemplative section, literature and philosophy serve as receptacles for a more subterranean resistance, as in the work of Mohssin Harraki or M’barek Bouhchichi or in Song Dong’s emblematic work Facing the Wall, which mixes Zen and spiritual warfare.

In a second phase, in the lineage of the Amerindian masquerade of Fusco and Gómez-Peña, certain residues of the colonial world, awaiting a multicultural recomposition, are brought to light: the ethnographic “circus” of the “good negro” in Brazil (Jonathas de Andrade) is put into negotiation in a world that bends under the weight of scars (Otobong Nkanga). Further on, the question of mobility at the heart of the contemporary capitalist system is considered: migrations (Younès Rahmoun, Halil Altindere), the body as a tool of resistance (Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Ming Wong) feed into a series of works conceived as crossings. Feminist struggles are finally activated in the work of Susan Hefuna and Marcia Kure, as well as new questions on gender issues.

An exhibition presenting several artists from the continent

Global(e) Résistance presents a large panel of artists from the continent and/or the African diasporas. We can find the artists Billie Zangewa born in 1973 in Blantyre, Cheikh Ndiaye born in 1970 in Dakar, Omar Ba (born in 1977 in Loul Sessene) or Georges Adéagbo born in 1942 in Cotonou.

“GLOBAL(E) RESISTANCE”

Centre Pompidou

July 29, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021

Place Georges-Pompidou

75004 Paris

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A tribute to the gatekeepers of tradition

This richly detailed textile work made up of striking strips of burgundy, coral, crimson and indigo fabric, soaring 4 stories high, will adorn the museum’s interior wall in the Zeitz MOCAA BMW Atrium. The work honours two thinkers distinguished for their contribution to culture and history: Malian historian and ethnologist Youssouf Tata Cissé (1935-2013), who specialised in canonising oral history from various parts of West Africa, and Germaine Dieterlen (1903- 1999), a French anthropologist who pioneered research on Dogon astronomy and the Bamana cultures of Mali. With this artwork, Konaté references ancient writing and knowledge systems, transposing it into the present. Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA, states: “It is an honour to have one of our continent’s foremost artists represented in our museum and to introduce our audiences to the vitality of practices which are now part of global art history.

An artist addressing several socio-political issues

The myriad of individually hemmed appliqued fabric fragments in Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logos (Hommage à Youssouf Tata Cissé et Germaine Dieterlen), not only add rich colour and texture to Zeitz MOCAA’s concrete walls, but also contribute to an important dialogue around materiality in contemporary art from Africa.”

Konaté grapples with the way in which societies and individuals, both in Mali and beyond, have been affected by factors such as war, power struggles, religion, from global epidemics such as HIV/AIDS to freedom of expression, globalisation, ecological shifts and the AIDS epidemic. Employing material from Mali, namely woven and dyed cloths, the artist creates largescale abstract and figurative compositions. The installation at Zeitz MOCAA has been unveiled on 12 February 2020 and will be on view for one year. This commission was made possible with the support of Blain|Southern, London.

Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logo

Zeitz MOCAA

From February 12, 2020 to February 12, 2021

V&A Waterfront Silo District, S Arm Rd, Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001

South Africa

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Organized by the Foundation for the Development of Contemporary African Culture (FDCCA) and curated by Yacouba Konaté and Brahim Alaoui, the exhibition “Prête-moi Ton Rêve” brings together some fifty works by 28 renowned African artists including Jane Alexander, Soly Cissé, Abdoulaye Konaté, Jems Koko Bi, William Kentridge, Chéri Samba, Barthélémy Toguo, Nnenna Okoré, Ouattara Watts.

This collective and continental exhibition, placed under the sign of South-South collaboration, was inaugurated in Casablanca on 18 June 2019 and will travel to a total of 6 African countries.

For its Abidjan stopover, “Prête-moi ton Rêve” is a partner of the 11th edition of MASA, Abidjan Performing Arts Market (7 to 14 March 2020), a major Ivorian cultural event that aims to support African artistic creation.

In parallel to the main exhibition, the Abidjan Contemporary Arts Rotunda will host a tribute exhibition curated by Henri Nkoumo. The carte blanche exhibition will be entrusted to the Ivorian art critic and curator Mimi Errol at the Houkami Guyzagn gallery.

The exhibition “Prête-moi ton rêve” will be open to the public from 12 March and will run until 19 April 2020 before starting its next stopovers across the African continent.

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The leading figure of the contemporary art scene in Mali and Africa, Abdoulaye Konaté had the great privilege of having a ceremony dedicated entirely to him in Cuba to receive the prestigious distinction. The ceremony, part of the official programme of the XIII Biennale of Havana, was presided by Kenelma Carvajal Pérez, Deputy Minister of Culture and Alexis Seijo García, Rector of the Institution. The special event was held in the Aula Magna of the centre, in the presence of the highest members of the Malian diplomatic corps accredited to Cuba. Important leaders, professors, curators, artists, critics and journalists who make up the Cuban institutional art system were also invited to attend.

With this high distinction awarded to Abdoulaye Konaté, the University of Arts of Cuba wanted to highlight the entire career, but also the commitment of the visual artist to the development of the arts on the African continent. A personal engagement that is illustrated in particular by his status as founder of the Balla Fasséké Kouyaté Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Crafts in Mali. The Cuban University was also able to celebrate through this honorary title the very friendly relationship that has been maintained with the artist for many years.

After his degree in visual arts at the National Institute of Arts of his native country, Abdoulaye Konaté studied from the late 1970s to the early 1980s his specialization in visual arts in the classes of the renowned Superior Institute of Plastic Arts in Havana (former National School of Arts founded by Fidel Castro, now University of the Arts).

For this reason, after receiving his honorary doctorate, Abdoulaye Konaté thanked the university for providing him with the intellectual and material resources he needed to train. The artist then called Cuban artists Antonio Vidal, Nelson Domínguez, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, as well as the exhibition curator José (Pepe) Fernández, as witnesses to this sharing of knowledge and experience.

For Abdoulaye Konaté, it was essential to listen the teachings of the famous Cuban painter Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), who was able to teach him everything he needed to develop his art in Africa. A continent that continues to feed the narratives and reflections of its works, and whose issues are the subject of its major concerns (AIDS, war, human rights, globalization, ecological damage,…).

In Cuba, where he studied, he also acknowledges having learned the best use of silence and deep regard in front of a artwork, as well as the need to give more value to moral integrity, tolerance and respect for the other. In his speech of thanks, he expressed his awareness that culture is the DNA of peoples and that abandoning it would imply putting oneself at the service of others. He therefore called for constant government support for cultural development, thanking Cuba once again for the training of so many African intellectuals and for having contributed to the final liberation of several African peoples, before concluding: “Africa can and must help Cuba”.

Abdoulaye Konaté received with his honorary doctorate a work by the eminent Cuban painter Santiago Rodríguez Olazabal. Many praises for his work and person were also addressed to the respected professor of the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Havana, Dr Lázara Menéndez.

Finally, to close the solemn act, the Dutch artist Torvvard Jorgensen, invited to the creative exercises of the Indagar lo propio educational programme (currently organised as part of the XIII Biennale of Havana by the University of Arts) performed one of his brilliant sound performances with his theremin, an instrument that uses the electromagnetism of the human body to transmit music.

Institut Superior of Plastic Arts in Havana (ISA)

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PARIS – Artcurial organized on December 30, 2018 its third edition of the sale Paris#Marrakech, in duplex with Marrakech. Composed of about a hundred lots, the session of three sessions of orientalist art and contemporary African art, directed by François Tajan, totals €1,890,040 / $2,154,645. 

An exceptional private Italian orientalist collection, entitled From Constantinople to Tangier, a collection by an Italian amateur, opened this edition by offering bidders a real trip around the Mediterranean. It sets 3 world records at auction, notably for Théodore Frère, whose Grande caravane de la Mecque (lot 3) is sold for €195 000 / $222 300  including taxes, or Jean-Paul Sinibaldi whose Salammbô (lot 21) changes hands for €182 000/ $207 480.

It was a French orientalist painter, Eugène Girardet, who won the highest price of the session with the oil on canvas La gazelle apprivoisée (lot 16), one of the most important works by this renowned artist, awarded €300 400 / $342 456 including taxes.

The second orientalist component, Majorelle et ses contemporains, rewards the artist Chaïbia with the oil on canvas Spectators of Tennis created in 1987 (lot 68) which reaches €78 000 / $88 920 including taxes.

The last chapter, African Spirit, dedicated to contemporary African art, includes 6 new world records at auction. Chéri Samba‘s acrylic and glitter on canvas, J’aime la couleur (lot 91) is flying at €91,000 / $103,740, well beyond its estimate (‘70,000 – €100,000), and artist Bodys Isek Kingelez exceeds the record set the previous year by Artcurial with his work Pacific Art (lot 86) awarded €71,500 / $81,510.

The work of the artist Abdoulaye Konate Tafo ou la force du verbe, 1995 reached a world record and was auctioned at €54,600 / $62,244, while Billie Zangewa‘s Exquisite Fantasy, 2014, flew off for €42,900 / $48,906, also a world record for the artist’s work sold at auction.

“For this third edition Paris#Marrakech, which has set 10 new records, including 6 for contemporary African art, Artcurial is demonstrating its leadership in Marrakech and its ability to develop this market. The launch of Marrakech Art Week was a success and will be back next year in an enhanced format. This new cultural event created by Artcurial will develop” says Olivier Berman, Associate Director Orientalism and Contemporary African Art at Artcurial.

Finally, let us mention the success of the first edition of Marrakech Art Week, organized at the initiative of Artcurial and Olivier Berman. Twelve actors from the red city (Yves Saint Laurent Museum, Galerie 127, Dar El Bacha, among others) came together for a week with a special programme. New participants have already expressed themselves for the 2019 edition. 

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About ArtCurial 

Founded in 2002, Artcurial, a multidisciplinary auction house based in Paris, will consolidate its leading position in the international art market in 2018. With 3 sales locations in Paris, Monte-Carlo, the company totalled 195.3 million euros in sales volume in 2018.

It covers the entire field of major specialities: from Fine Arts to Decorative Arts, Collectible Cars, Jewellery, Collectible Watches, Fine Wines and Spirits…Resolutely focused on international markets, Artcurial has established its network abroad with representative offices in Brussels, Milan, Monte-Carlo, Munich and Vienna as well as a presence in Beijing and Tel Aviv, and biannual exhibitions in New York. In October 2015, Artcurial organised its first sale in Hong Kong and Morocco.

ArtCurial
7 Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées
75008 Paris

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© Bloomberg TV’s Brilliant Ideas

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After the great success of its inaugural exhibitions Africa Is No Island and Second Life (27 February – 29 July 2018), the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, announced recently the opening of its new exhibition, Esoteric Writings.

The exhibition Esoteric Writings is an invitation to a personal interpretation of singular artworks from all quarters of the African continent. These artists – whether self-taught or formally trained – endeavour to reclaim some heritage threatened by oblivion or other animist aesthetic through the exploration of properties of wood (Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Ali Maimoun, El Anatsui, Ahmed Chiha, Abderrahim Trifis), or the mythologisation of textile (Abdoulaye Konaté, Joël Andrianomearisoa). Each of the artists in the exhibition proposes his or her own visual language. If an exact decryption of the graphic (Abdelmalek Berhiss, Najia Mehadji), numerary (Marcel Gotène, Houssein Miloudi), or literary (Frédéric Bruly Bouabré) codes might escape the casual viewer, one needs no cultural or religious references to appreciate the narrative force and formal power behind these works.

Esoteric Writings thus brings together nearly thirty artists with as many visual and sound expressions that derive their essence from mythology, cosmology, or mysticism, each inspired by the culture of origin of its creator.

The exhibition also represents an opportunity to pay homage to Boujemâa Lakhdar, renowned ethnologist from the Essaouira (Morocco) region and the only artist to have represented the Maghreb in the groundbreaking exhibition Magiciens de la Terre (Centre Georges-Pompidou, 1989). Through his interest into the bonds between the region’s inhabitants as well as spiritual and esoteric aspects of Jewish-Arab and Amazigh culture, Lakhdar funnels his attraction to magic and the supernatural into a formidable and multidimensional body of work (Astrolabe musical, 1985, Le Totem de la Pensée, 1987, Table-Aigle, 1983).

So, from the souiri painters of Essaouira (Mohammed Tabal, Ali Maimoun, Regragui Bouslaï) to the Oshogbo school – at the centre of Yoruba civilisation – as represented by Prince Twins Seven-Seven, not to mention the Poto-Poto school from which Marcel Gotène (Congo) emerged as a major figure, Esoteric Writings reconfigures the fantastic, symbolic, and spiritual universe as if to reconstruct a secular past through powerful visual allegories.

Esoteric Writings presents a group of creators from multiple backgrounds, working in diverse mediums yet born of the same land, and in so doing proposes to reveal the hidden underpinnings of their common history. 

Participating Artists:

• El Anatsui (Ghana)
• Joël Andrianomearisoa (Madagascar)
• Farid Belkahia (Morocco)
• Abdelmalek Berkhiss (Morocco)
• Regragui Bouslai (Morocco)
• Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Ivory Coast)
• Ahmed Chiha (Morocco)
• Emo de Medeiros (France – Benin)
• Abdellah El Atrach (Morocco)
• Mohamed El baz (Morocco)
• John Goba (Sierra Leone)
• Marcel Gotène (Congo)
• Hassan Hajjaj (Morocco)
• Aissa Ikken (Morocco)
• Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali)
• Boujemâa Lakhdar (Morocco)
• Ahmed Louardiri (Morocco)
• Ali Maimoun (Morocco)
• Najia Mehadji (Morocco)
• Houssein Miloudi (Morocco)
• Zina Saro-Wiwa (Nigeria)
• Mohamed Tabal (Morocco)
• Prince Twins Seven Seven (Nigeria)
• Dominique Zinkpè (Benin)

Esoteric Writings

27 September 2018 – 6 January 2019

Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Madeen

Al Maaden, Sidi Youssef Ben Ali, 40000 Marrakech

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