The Zeitz MOCAA Collection houses a unique and extensive body of works by some of the continent and its diaspora’s most exciting established and emerging artists. The exhibition, which includes a selection of these works, will open on 7 November 2019, taking up all gallery spaces on Level 4. This forms part of a recent reimagining of the museum’s galleries and spatial organisation, with exhibitions in this space changing annually.

Titled Two Together, the show is built around major themes explored by artists from Africa and its diaspora represented in the collection, and each gallery contains a pair: either two objects, or multiple works by two artists, or two major themes – either in dialogue, as counterpoints or in complementary ways. As couples do, in comedic duos or in romance, the exhibition embrace a rigorous engagement between objects and ideas.

“We wanted to explore what happens when two things come together,” explained Senior Curator, Storm Janse van Rensburg. “Two photographers can subvert a gaze, whileprobing issues around representation, presence, omission, authorship and voyeurism. Speaking from contrasting geopolitical vantage points, two can highlight the perpetual and impeding undertone of violence still manifesting in present-day psyche. The numerous lines between collective memory, imagination and folklore are blurred when two artists use material to make visible intangible heritage.”

“This exhibition presents works from the Zeitz MOCAA Collection in a new way. Whilst some works will be familiar to regular visitors to the museum, the curation of the exhibition allows them all to be experienced anew.” 

Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA.

The exhibition includes a diptych by Isaac Julien, as well as pairings of and conversations between works by Zanele Muholi and Mouna Karray; Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Joël Andrianomearisoa; Nicholas Hlobo and Taiye Idahor; Sethembile Msezane and Glenn Ligon; Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou and Athi-Patra Ruga, as well as Mishack Masamvu and Lungiswa Gqunta.

“It feels like a fresh and exciting way to relook at our permanent collection. The goal of the museum has always been to build a cohesive collection that is as representative as possible of Africa and the diaspora, with strong political, social, environmental and personal messaging. This is demonstrated in this exhibition,” says Koyo Kouoh.

Two Together

7 November 2019 – 25 October 2020

Curators : Storm Janse Van Resnburg, Tandazani Dhlakama, Sakhi Gcina, Tammy Langtry, Precious Mhone

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA)

Level 4, Collections Galleries

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A historic participation

This unprecedented participation of Madagascar in the Venice Biennale shows to the eyes of the world the artistic potential overflowing in the country and spotlights the resurgence of Madagascan art. It is also a milestone for the Venice Biennale, which for the first time welcomes the participation of Madagascar, thus recognizing Madagascar’s artistic maturity finding its place in the world’s art scene.

Madagascar thus reinforces Africa’s presence at the Venice Biennale, revealing the effervescence and creative strength of the continent, far from the clichés that are still too-often attributed to it. The Filatex Group, with this significant support of this exemplary event, contributes to this revelation. A decisive step for the group that precedes several equally decisive actions that will be upheld by the Managing Director, Hasnaine Yavarhoussen, and implemented by the Executive Director of the Arts & Culture Fund, Romy Andrianarisoa Voos, and all the dedicated teams. The Filatex Group with its new Arts & Culture Fund intends to promote and feature Malagasy art in Madagascar and in the eyes of the world; convinced that art and culture are the essential pillars for the development and establishment of sustainable and inclusive growth, a growth in which the Filatex Group actively participates. A commitment to its resurgence of cultural pride, driven by its singular identity that the Filatex Group wants to transmit to the new generations, thus contributing to building the future.

An access to a globalized market

“Increasing growth, a lifestyle that is swinging into modernity, a geographical location favorable to trade: Madagascar offers undeniable advantages. The goal of the Filatex Group is to arouse this potential”— Hasnaine Yavarhoussen Managing Director 

 The Filatex Group has been supporting the development of Madagascar for 40 years. A designer of innovative real estate projects, the leading private energy producer on the big island and a progressive player in the hotel, restaurant and wellness sectors, the Filatex Group is contributing to Madagascar’s access to a globalized market. Responsible and pragmatic, the Filatex Group relies on trustworthy performance in developing its strategies. These actions stem from a desire to always give a positive impetus to the country. Throughout its history, the Filatex Group has demonstrated its support through its many development works: roads, highways, lighting … Public actions to boost the Malagasy territory and promote job creation. Ensuring the proper functioning of its expertise, while respecting people and the environment, allows the Group to foster multiple fields of activity: real estate, infrastructure, free-trade zones, energy and services.

Renewal, revitalization and modernization are the Group’s values in the emergence of new neighborhoods. Today, all decision-making is bearing fruit, allowing us to go even further in the design of innovative projects. A responsible commitment, which the Group wishes to pass on to the next generations through public actions that facilitate access to education along with a significant support in Art to promote the singularity of Malagasy creativity and innovation.

 

The 58th Venice Biennale will take place from 11 May to 24 November 2019.

www.labiennale.org

 

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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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