In addition to the 45 international galleries exhibiting at the upcoming seventh edition, 1-54 will feature an expanded selection of Special Projects.

Mary Sibande : I came apart at the seams in partnership with Somerset House

After successful solo exhibitions of Malick Sidibé, Hassan Hajajj and Athi-Patra Ruga, 1-54 once again partnered with Somerset House to present I Came Apart at the Seams, an exhibition of new and celebrated works from one of South Africa’s most prominent contemporary artists Mary Sibande. In her first solo UK exhibition, Sibande presents photographic and sculptural works which explore the power of the imagination and righteous anger in shaping post-colonial identity in South Africa. Following the journey of Sibande’s alter-ego, Sophie, as she transitions through time, colour and form, the artist looks at the body, and particularly the way in which it is clothed, exploring it as a site where history and its legacies can be contested and redressed. The exhibition will open concurrently to the fair and running through 5 January 2020.

Nando’s in partnership with Spier Arts Trust

Nando’s, 1-54 Silver Sponsor, will present work for sale by four Southern African artists in partnership with Spier Arts Trust: Nelsa Guambe, Sepideh Mehraban, Qaqambile Bead Studio and Mxolisi Dolla Sapeta. It is with great pleasure that the fair partners with Nando’s, whose patronage of contemporary Southern African art, both enables career development opportunities for artists and the curation of Nando’s body of work. By allowing artists to focus full-time on their artistic careers with the potential to earn a regular income, Nando’s is making a difference in people’s lives while growing their body of high quality Southern African contemporary art.

1-54 Lounge by Distill2710

Again this year, the fair’s lounge will become an immersive experience inspired by the unique concepts in Yoruba heritage and African art, presented by Distill2710, the design studio and consultancy by Tola Ojuolape. Blue Cloth will look at Nigerian textiles and the craftsmanship they entail as a background and source of inspiration, influenced by the works of Nigerian pioneering artist, Chief Nike Okundaye. Distill2710 will create a communal space for gathering in the heart of the fair, exploring the art of textiles by showcasing and displaying traditional Nigerian Adire Batiq & Indigo dyes, the West African tradition thought to be at least a thousand years old.

Aïda Muluneh : Water Life by Wateraid in partnership with Somerset House

Engaging in issues of water scarcity and ecological emergency, photographer Aïda Muluneh presents a new series of work commissioned by WaterAid and supported by H&M Foundation. The Afrofuturist tableaux of images were shot against the extreme backdrop of one of the driest places on earth, Dallol, in the Afar District of Ethiopia. Reflecting on her travels across the country, Muluneh looks at the number of women who travel on foot carrying heavy containers of water. Each image in this body of work responds to the challenge of water access, exploring it as a social issue directly impacting rural regions and the development of whole communities.

Studio Kameni

Studio Kameni aims to explore, discover and give new life to the photographic archives of Michel “Papami” Kameni, who documented the rapid evolution of postcolonial Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, from 1963 onwards. The images will be shown publicly for the first time, showcasing Michel “Papami” Kameni’s intimate study of the relationship between the photographer and his subjects, hailing from all social circles and varied cultured backgrounds. Through these images transpire the dreams and aspirations of a nation in transition, new musical influences, a westernised fashion and an evolving fusion of tradition and modernity.

Atelier le Grand Village : Bambo Sibiya, Mongezi Ncaphayi & Diane Victor

Atelier le Grand Village, a residency space located in the South of France, dedicated to the artistical revival of stone lithography will showcase work by three major artists who feature in public and private collections in South Africa and abroad. Bambo Sibiya’s multiples, rich in stylistic detail and texture, will be shown alongside abstract prints by Mongezi Ncaphayi and Diane Victor’s manière noire, ash and smoke artworks which deal with the taboos of South African society, and social and political life tainted with violence, corruption and social disparities.

C& Artist’s editions: Kapwani Kiwanga

As part of its C& Artist’s Editions project of specially-commissioned works by collaborating artists, C& will present a series of small sculptures by Kapwani Kiwanga, which reference the French colonial urbanist Hubert Lyautey’s proposition that a measurement of 500ft should be placed between native and European areas. He did so during the International Congress of Urbanism in the colonies which was held in Paris, France in 1931 in conjunction with the Colonial Exhibition taking place in the city. Published notes from the Congress included the recommendation by Lyautey, who was particularly influential on the urbanisation of Morocco. His proposition came to be known as the Lyautey doctrine.

Thread: Silva Rosi & Anne-Marie Akussah

1-54 will also welcome a Special Project by Thread, a cultural centre and artist residency programme in Sinthian, a remote village in eastern Senegal. Thread will showcase Presenting cultural connections which highlights the work of two young London-based artists; photographer Silvia Rosi and painter Anne-Marie Akussah who, during their residency at Thread, have explored ideas around identity and migration, and whose subjects are linked to their own West African heritage.

Versant Sud: Leikun Nahusenay

VERSANT SUD will present a solo exhibition of works by Ethiopian artist Leikun Nahusenay, created during his two-month residency in Marseille. Nahusenay will also create an in-situ artwork, live during the fair. VERSANT SUD offers a programme of residencies and artistic exchanges in two geographical areas, the southern region of France and African capital cities. The residency program helps to reveal talents, allows for the professionalization of artists, connects artists with collectors and plays a key role in enabling mobility. VERSANT SUD was launched in 2018, with its first program dedicated to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.fefeef

Artskop3437 is media sponsor of the London 2019 edition of 1-54

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair 3-6 October 2019, Somerset House, London Somerset HouseStrand, London WC2R 1LA

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Artskop3437: Diane, thank you for receiving me in this beautiful Atelier le Grand Village. Would you say you’re a happy person?

Diane Victor : Thank you first of all for coming. I really do see myself as a very positive person. I do… I think it is a privilege to be an artist, which is almost impossible not to be, and I certainly am a happy person. Perhaps, I make work that is quite serious and I look at serious issues, but it is very necessary, for me to make these images. I cannot solve the world but I can make images that expose issues and perhaps raise awareness to situations. This is important to me. But it doesn’t make me an unhappy person.

To be here at Le Grand Village, is wonderful. As you say it is a break from Joburg, and the hectic rush, the teaching, my studio, stuff, and the traffic. And it is always really good to come and work here.

Artskop3437: So you say it’s your fourth time here?

DV: Yes. Four times.

Artskop3437: What makes you want to come back?

DV: I enjoy working here very much. I like working with Francis and the printers that he brings over and the chance that you can focus. I think you’d know that it is a lot more difficult to focus in the city where you live… because there are always people saying: Oh would you do this for me? Or there is a student who says “Oh you must come and look at my work”; this is good, but to focus on your own, … a new body of work, it’s necessary to get some distance; and it’s so beautiful here.

Artskop3437: Yes it is. Especially in summer. When the nature is gorgeous.

DV : It’s so green, we never have this green, it’s Europe green, not South African green. It’s … every time you look up it’s like whaouah it’s like you’re fade with your eyes with the richness of the landscape. It’s really good. So yes, it’s a great place to work.

At the Atelier le Grand Village, Côme Touvey, a textile designer, and Diane Victor made a woven picture. Touvay created a large woven textile, 100% linen, based on Diane Victor’s smoke drawing. The textile is entirely woven thanks in particular to the manipulation of 70 shades of grey. It is this technique which made it possible to weave Diane Victor’s drawing. It is woven, it is not a tapestry and this make this piece very special. This kind of collaboration, with diverse techniques from various artistic practices is what Victor really appreciates and one of the main reasons she keeps coming back to Atelier le Grand Village. She learns from other artists in the atelier. “There is always an exchange”, says Victor.

Francis van der Riet, the founder of the Atelier le Grand Village, told me that the idea of the woven picture came to him during a discussion with textile designer Touvay. This was obvious, because Touvay’s weavings are works of art in themselves. Done by hand, thread after thread, it takes hours and hours of work. One might think that Diane Victor’s drawing was printed, but it is a woven picture, 320 by 300 cm woven yarn by yarn with its multitude of shades of grey.

Artskop3437: Your work is indeed very serious. It speaks about different issues in society(ies) such as women’s marginalization, civil war, animals, human condition and behaviors…

D.V : Very much social conditions, human conditions, yes.

Artskop3437: They are very strong issues indeed. And when we look at your art, it’s really black and white, monochrome…

D.V: It’s graphic. It’s about strong issues and I try to make strong images. Yes. One lives in a country that has a lot of problems, and certainly they are improving and things get better but many issues do not have as much exposure as I think they should have. So, if I deal with violence against women, where there is horrendous case of violence very often within relationships, partners killing their wives or their girlfriends. These things make me very angry. When I’m angry, my way of solving my anger or trying to deal with it is to make an image. It’s almost like a child almost. You draw what you cannot…not what you cannot understand…, but by drawing something, you think about the process. The process of drawing allows me to think through the issues and to produce something that perhaps raises awareness in the public that not everybody knows or wants to acknowledge it. For me this is the worst.

Artskop3437: Indifference …

D.V: Yes, indifference. For me this is the worst.

Artskop3437 : One of the thing you hate the most…

D.V: Indifference makes me so angry. The thing I hate the most. I would rather make a work that make someone else angry. At least they react and that makes them think. If they come and they say “Oh that’s nice”…then I know I’ve done the wrong thing. So, I try to import this thinking to the people that I teach as well. “To be responsible for the images you produce”. Because you leave something that somebody else will look at.

Artskop3437: Should Art tell something in our world?

D.V: For me it’s important. Not for everyone.

Artskop3437: You’re not systematically into the research of the aesthetic vision of a work ?

D.V: An aesthetic component is important. Because you wish to tell something, but the best way is to produce an image that people are attracted to. If it’s a post, they’ll think “Oh, I’ve heard this before”. If it’s too violent, or too aggressive, many people’s defence system comes in and they’ll react “No”. So, I am tying work with an aesthetic that gives pleasure in the image. When you look as a viewer, you’re engaging, looking, observing and asking questions. You see something and ask, “Oh what is this? “.

Perhaps if they are interested enough, then they will read more or they’ll will find something else and go deeper… so it’s a more subtle way of raising an issue. Without not being like a photograph in the newspaper or on the TV. People often think “Oh no I don’t want to know this, it makes me depressed”. It’s good to think about these things. So I try to raise awareness combining aesthetic elements as well. And I take pleasure in the work I make. I cannot lie. I enjoy drawing. I take great pleasure. So, it’s a way to try to deal with things that makes me angry. It makes me feel positive too to do that.

Artskop3437: I heard you said once that when you are not angry you feel like you are a useless artist

D.V: haha… I am a useless artist when I am not angry. If I am happy, there is no energy. It is strange to explain it. But with anger there is focus. When I am happy, really I rather go to party, or I want go and walk outside. But if there is something that I cannot sleep because it makes me angry or bites me, that is when I am going to draw.

Artskop3437: And you need to do something with this anger

D.V: Yeah. And I have to say that sometimes, I am sitting in traffic in the car, and you hear something on the radio, and you think “Oh, really that’s crazy”. Then I make a drawing in the car while I am sitting in the traffic so that I remember the intensity of that energy.

Artskop3437: There are also a lot of wild animals in you work most of the time. Crocodile, and most recently a gorilla. Actually there is a gorilla you made here at the Atelier le Grand Village in a smoke drawing

D.V: Yes. It is a smoke drawing.

Artskop3437: Can you tell me more about the work ?

D.V: I am interested in the animal qualities in humans. Because we are all animals to an extent…. It is often a way of representing how people think or how they relates to animals. The violence against the animals as well. Gorillas are amazing. They are incredibly intelligent. I’ve been doing recently a lot of reading about the history and prehistory, and the evolution, and they are really just cousins. They are part of the family of man.

Artskop3437 : You’re talking about Darwin’s theory of evolution ?

D.V : Yeah. Very much this. They are part of the family of man. They are brothers. We are so responsible for the destruction of the natural areas, many in central Africa. Where chimpanzee and gorillas come from. It is really bad.  It’s also reflects the violence that is in our societies. I try to use images of animals as a way of mediating that and saying that animals are part of our nature. They are part of our human nature. How we react to them, and how we become sometimes the bad part of an animal when we are angry or when too much violence is happening.

Also, because I grew up with animals. I was very fortunate to grow up on a small little farm, a little space with cats, dogs, horses…and …they are important to me but it’s also a metaphor for what society does.

Artskop3437:  Is that a particular reason why you choose to draw the gorilla with the technique of smoke drawings ?

D.V: Because they are vulnerable. They are …Perhaps if there is not enough done to protect that species. Smoke… you cannot fix it. It is permanent because it is soot. But if you touch it, it’s gone. That for me, makes the medium very much the part of what I am saying. They are like ghosts…

If you do not actually make an effort, to do something they’re lost. But the medium also is for me really great to work with. As you cannot control it so well, so you sort of follow the smoke. It’s like tracking. You have not that much control. I like to work with mediums where, the medium also expects from you. I also do etchings and with etching you put a mark and then the mark is there. But not with smoke or ash, I do ash as well, you must be more flexible. It teaches me to be more fluid and adaptive.

Artskop3437: So in a way, it is also a life metaphor, cause in life one needs to adapt and to go with the flow. ..

D.V:  Exactly. And I love the fact that the medium speaks, tells me what it wants. It is a dialogue between your hand and the material.

Artskop3437: When did you start drawing with the smoke?

D.V: 2001, nearly twenty years.

Artskop3437: is that a technique you developed?

D.V: Other people works with smoke but not with free hands. They make smoke flat for example. I use my technique of upside drawing. I was working in the university in the Eastern Cape, and I was asked to make work for an exhibition looking into issues around HIV. I was thinking what can I bring that is new?  I was at one of my teaching courses, working on alternatives methods of drawing and a student had a candle, and she was saying “Oh I cannot use this” then I said “Look, you can draw”. .. and the student didn’t, saying, “it was too difficult, it doesn’t work for me”.

D.V: So, I produced this body of work in the Eastern Cape. It is a very poor area, there is a lot of poverty and there was a very high rate of HIV transmission. My proposal was to do 40 portraits of people who agreed to allow me to do their portraits with smoke. Because their lives are so fragile and vulnerable, smoke was an appropriate medium. Because the soot is very sticky, and you can’t touch it, I stored them in pizza boxes. I remember I looked like a pizza delivery person. Different candles give different smoke. The cheaper and the more paraffin they have, the better.

In the car while Victor and I were on the way to her demonstration of smoke drawing at the exhibition in Nontron, of which she is part,  she told me that she used to run. This was before her kidney transplant. Now she walks a lot. She misses her runs but the doctor still does not recommend that she starts again. I was also intrigued on how she got involved into her art and her art career, whether she was predestined to this. She confesses that her father, a very strict man, wanted her to study dentistry. At this time, at university, art and specially drawing, was for her an option class. Her father passed away from polycystic kidney disease. This in a way allowed her to follow the art route. Otherwise she would probably have become a dentist.

Diane victor will stay in the Atelier le Grand Village  for about a month to finish a series of works started during her last visit, and start a new body of work.

Atelier le Grand Village
7 le Grand Village
16310, Massignac
www.legrandvillage.net
Instagram @atelierlegrandvillage

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In the middle of the Charente Limousine countryside, two passionate artists have set up their workshops. The exhibition offers a dialogue between the lithographic works created by Francis van der Riet and international artists at Atelier le Grand Village and the textile designs of Côme Touvay.

Francis van der Riet, a master printer, founded Atelier le Grand Village which gradually became an ideal workshop, combining presses and state-of-the-art tools. He invites artists in residence to the studio to produce lithographic prints. The exhibition presents an overview of the lithographic works created at Atelier le Grand Village over the past ten years by international artists such as :

Diane Victor (South Africa)

Diane Victor lives in Gouteng, South Africa. In 1988, she was awarded the prestigious “ABSA Atelier” prize and became one of South Africa’s most respected artists. His work is in numerous private and public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. Her contribution to the art of stampmaking in South Africa is immense and she teaches it in several fine arts schools.

NINA Kovacheva (Bulgaria)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, NINA lives and works in Paris. She is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with Valentin Stefanoff). She exhibits her works in France, the United States, China, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the Esterhazy Collection, the European Bank, the National Women’s Museum in Washington, the National Library of France, the National Art Gallery in Sofia… NINA Kovacheva is a versatile artist. She draws on the resources of video, photography and drawing, among others. NINA shows a constant interest in the body as an evasive object and its conflicting aspects: men and women, nature and culture, life and death.

Valentin Stefanoff (Bulgaria)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Valentin lives and works in Paris. He is the winner of several international prizes, including the 2002 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (with NINA Kovacheva). Valentin exhibits his works in France, the United States, China, Austria and Bulgaria. His works are present in several important collections: the European Bank, the MoCA in Taipei, the Horsecross Collection in the United Kingdom, the Museum for the “New Arts” in Detroit, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Galerie d’Art Nationale in Sofia.

Michael Barnes (United-States)

Michael Barnes, American artist, lives in Illinois where he studied at the Beaux-Arts. Professor at the University of Illinois, he has been teaching Printmaking since 1998. He participates in the juries of international print competitions. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Belgium, Finland and Estonia. His art is conceived as a social and political critique, associating objects that surround him with imaginary characters. In the lithographs made at the Atelier le Grand Village, we find objects found in the garden and the workshop of the place called “le Grand Village”.

Aaron Coleman (United-States)

American artist, Aaron Coleman lives in Arizona. He studied at the Fine Arts School in Illinois. Professor at the University of Arizona, he teaches Printmaking. His artistic work uses stampmaking in all its forms and deals with socio-political themes. He combines comic book images and stained glass windows with hip-hop influences to challenge our beliefs and moral values. His works are part of several important collections in the United States, France, Russia and Japan.

Bambo Sibiya (South Africa)

Bambo is a South African artist from Kwa Thema, Springs near Johannesburg. He studied art at Benoni Technical College. He then trained in the art of stamp-making at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize, he received a residency at the Cité des Arts in Paris. He then met Francis van der Riet and began to study lithography. The origin of the “Swenkas” dates back to the apartheid era: workers who were looking for work in big cities wanted to impress their families and neighbours by dressing in beautiful costumes and behaving with good manners when they returned home. They met to organize style contests. Swenkas follow rules such as cleanliness, sobriety and above all self-respect.

Mongezi Ncaphayi (South Africa)

Mongezi is a South African artist from Benoni, near Johannesburg. He studied art at Ekurhuleni East College. He learned the art of printmaking at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg and then at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA. Winner of the Gerard Sekoto Prize in 2013, he is going to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. In 2019, he won the “Africa First Art prize”. It is on this occasion that the Atelier le Grand Village published and printed a series of lithographs.

Pauline Gutter (South Africa)

Born in South Africa, Pauline studied at the Bloemfontein School of Fine Arts in the Free State. Winner of the ABSA l’Atelier prize, she went to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for a residency. She then worked with the Atelier le Grand Village, which published a series of lithographs on the theme of “Post Colonialism”, a theme she also addressed in painting and video.

Celia Eid (France, Brazil)

Born in Brazil, Celia is now living in Paris. Her pictorial, graphic and videographic work is imbued with a very strong musical sensitivity. Her videos have been shown in several festivals in France and around the world. Her Internet animation, “Se tais, si ça vous chante”, won the prize for best interactive film at the Flux 2005 festival.

Côme Touvay

Côme Touvay, textile designer, specialized in both artisanal and industrial weaving, presents personal creations and research: DIAMONES an installation of 15 three-dimensional mini-textiles, “the curtain of the night” created for CODE DE NUIT, SAMA a project based on a reflection on the graphic sign, language and otherness. A collection that seeks to show the variety of forms and expressions that can be found in weaving in the broadest sense.

Touvay is a winner of the Grand prix de la création de la ville de Paris in 2006, he is also co-author of the collection Nuée for which he receives the Van de Velde prize in Belgium. He works for Hermès, Cartier, Rochas, Renault design. Professor at the ENSCI and then at the ENSAD, he now devotes himself to the creation of unique pieces on the border between design and art. His creations are the result of a work combining a wide range of materials from the simplest to the most sophisticated: straw, paper, hemp, linen, silk, metal, plastic, cotton, acrylic, ramie…

To complete this dialogue, an exceptional piece woven in partnership with the Belgian manufacturer VERILIN will be shown to the public. It is a skilful work of textile structures allowing a restitution in 70 shades of grey to reveal all the subtleties of a Diane Victor’s work. Finally, the audience will be immersed in the atmosphere of the workshops, in the presence of a lithographic press, called a horned beast, and a loom.

Exhibition “GRAND VILLAGE – Lithographies et Tissages” – lithographs and weavings –
From March 30 to June 10
Opening Friday, March 29 at 6pm
Château, av. du Général Leclerc 24300 NONTRON – France

Opening hours and days
Monday to Saturday – 10am-1pm and 2pm-6pm
Free and free admission.

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