The 1-54 FORUM , the fair’s program for the New-York City edition May 3rd-5th 2019

1-54 FORUM, the fair’s program of talks, screenings, and performances, explores convergences across artistic and cultural production, critical thinking, and ideas.

1-54 FORUM New York 2019 will be curated by Black Chalk and Co., an artist collective and creative agency that brings together writers, artists, designers, academics, and technologists with a mutual interest in publishing, curating conversations and exhibitions, and facilitating teaching residencies. What animates all these activities is the effort to engender a new culture and new forms of publishing and creative production and the agency’s work has led to a run of synchronized events, screenings, and public talks. Founded by Tinashe Mushakavanhu and Nontsikelelo Mutiti in 2015, Black Chalk and Co. operates between Harare, Zimbabwe, and Richmond, Virginia.

Entry to all 1-54 FORUM talks is free with a 1-54 ticket. Due to limited seating, advanced reservation is highly recommended.

Why don’t you carve other animals, custom hand lettering by Kelsey Elder commissioned by Black Chalk & Co.
Why don’t you carve other animals, custom hand lettering by Kelsey Elder commissioned by Black Chalk & Co.

Why don’t you carve other animals

FRIDAY 3 MAY

14:00 – 14:30

The Queen Lozikeyi Lecture

In the late 1990s, Yvonne Vera initiated the Lozikeyi Series, a unique public lecture platform for artists and intellectuals from Zimbabwe and elsewhere to share their views on knowledge production and the creative process. Lozikeyi was a powerful Queen of the Ndebele, and an important advisor to King Lobengula. 1-54 FORUM curators BLACK CHALK & CO. (Nontsikelelo Mutiti, artist and Tinashe Mushakavanhu, writer and scholar) will introduce the 1-54 FORUM programme.

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FRIDAY 3 MAY

15:00 – 16:30

Opening Spaces

“A woman writer must have an imagination that is plain stubborn, that can invent new gods and banish ineffectual ones” wrote Yvonne Vera in her anthology Opening Spacespublished in 1999. Our panelists discuss ways that they have innovated on the notion of spaces for viewing and engaging with art objects and audiences. CATINCA TABACARU (Founder, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery), STEPHANIE BAPTIST (Founder and Director, Medium Tings) and SANDRINE COLARD (Artistic Director, 6th Edition of the Biennale de Lubumbashi) join moderator ADEZE WILFORD (Curatorial Assistant, The Shed)

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FRIDAY 3 MAY

17:00 – 17:30

Screening: KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY

A unique opportunity to watch award-winning film KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY (2005, 30′). Inspired by a Shona folktale and brought to film as a musical, KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY follows the fraught relationship between a mother and father as food becomes scarce in a period of drought. Directed by the renowned Zimbabwean author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga

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A unique opportunity to watch award-winning film KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY (2005, 30′). Inspired by a Shona folktale and brought to film as a musical, KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY follows the fraught relationship between a mother and father as food becomes scarce in a period of drought. Directed by the renowned Zimbabwean author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga
Still from KARE KARE ZVAKO-MOTHER’S DAY, directed by Tsitsi Dangarembga, 2005, 30’. Courtesy Nyerai Films

FRIDAY 3 MAY

18:00 – 19:30

From the Pavement, a Gallery: curator as broker

TANDAZANI DHLAKAMA (Assistant Curator and Education Manager, Zeitz MOCAA) and ASHLEY JAMES (Assistant Curator, Brooklyn Museum) are joined by moderator AMBER ESSEIVA (Assistant Curator, Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University) in a discussion around recent projects that extend the role of the curator into the realm of community builder and collaborator

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SATURDAY 4 MAY

11:00 – 11:20

Screening: Afro Promo #1 King Lady

Nora Chipaumire made her debut as film director in 2016 with Afro Promo #1 King Lady, commissioned by Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University. The award-winning short film is an Afro-feminist manifesto beautifying bodies to claim the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

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Nora Chipaumire made her debut as film director in 2016 with Afro Promo #1 King Lady, commissioned by Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University. The award-winning short film is an Afro-feminist manifesto beautifying bodies to claim the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Still from Afro Promo #1 King Lady, directed and choreographed by Nora Chipaumire, 2016, 11’. Courtesy Nora Chipaumire and Gennadi Novash

SATURDAY 4 MAY

11:30 – 13:00

Without A Name: On Living and Working Between Spaces

What are our notions of studio, home and identity in the global art world today? Artists RICHARD MUDARIKI, MIATTA KAWINZI, and LIZANIA CRUZ, will engage in a conversation drawing on their experiences of working across cultural and geographic boundaries. Panel moderated by SIDDHARTHA MITTER (Writer)

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SATURDAY 4 MAY

13:30 – 14:30

A Treehouse in the City of Lagoons (2019)

A performative presentation by artist WURA-NATASHA OGUNJI. Located in a top flat of a seven-story building in Lagos, Nigeria and founded by artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, The Treehouse is one of the city’s only art spaces dedicated solely to creative experimentation. In this performance presentation Ogunji invokes the artists and atmosphere of this dynamic place. Situated between creek and lagoon, prison and polo fields The Treehouse provides a perfect platform for thinking about how spaces, architecture, and community influence and inform how we move, feel, and imagine the world

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A performative presentation by artist WURA-NATASHA OGUNJI. Located in a top flat of a seven-story building in Lagos, Nigeria and founded by artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, The Treehouse is one of the city’s only art spaces dedicated solely to creative experimentation. In this performance presentation Ogunji invokes the artists and atmosphere of this dynamic place.
Yadichinma (Artist) pictured in The Treehouse, Lagos, 2019. Courtesy Wura-Natasha Ogunji

SATURDAY 4 MAY

15:00 – 16:30

Milk and Moon: Black aesthetics, essentialism and futurisms

A conversation about technology and representation with KANEZA SCHAAL (Theatre Artist); AYODAMOLA OKUNSEINDE (Artist and Interactive Designer) and SALOME ASEGA (Artist and Researcher) moderated by NONTSIKELELO MUTITI (Artist and 1-54 FORUM Programme Curator). Panelists will discuss formal aspects of their work in relationship to cultural heritage, identity formation and presentation beyond the 21st century

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A conversation about technology and representation with KANEZA SCHAAL (Theatre Artist); AYODAMOLA OKUNSEINDE (Artist and Interactive Designer) and SALOME ASEGA (Artist and Researcher) moderated by NONTSIKELELO MUTITI (Artist and 1-54 FORUM Programme Curator).
Kaneza Schaal, Go Forth, 2016. Image by Maria Baranova. Courtesy of the artist

SATURDAY 4 MAY

17:00 – 18:00

To Exhibit Means to Show: the making of an artist’s book

STANLEY WOLUKAU-WANAMBWA (Photographer) and DEREK FORDJOUR (Artist), draw on their publications One Wall a Web and FORDJOUR with GEE WESLEY (Co-founder and Co-director, Ulises). The presentation investigates notions of display and the role of publishing artist books from the perspective of the artist

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Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, Black Bloc, from the series Our Present Invention, 2012-14. Courtesy the artist

SUNDAY 5 MAY

11:00 – 12:30

In the Courtyard: a space for Black art

MARIO GOODEN (Principal, Huff Gooden Architects), MABEL WILSON (Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation) and EMANUEL ADMASSU (Founding Partner, AD-WO architectural practice) explore the specificity of architecture as a framing device, a marker of time and a space to hold cultural heritage, past, present and future

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13:00 – 14:30

Butterfly Burning: Performativity and Aesthetics

PALOMA MCGREGOR (Artist and Founding Director of Angela’s Pulse) and MK ABADOO (Choreographer and Assistant Professor, Department of Dance and Choreography, Virginia Commonwealth University) speak to RASHIDA BUMBRAY (Curator and Choreographer) on their movement practices and research

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15:00 – 16:00

The Zulus of New York

ZAKES MDA (Writer, Poet and Painter) reads from his new novel The Zulus of New York(2019) with TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU (Writer-Scholar and 1-54 FORUM Programme Curator) as respondent. The novel, based on historical events in the 1880s, follows Mpiyezintombi, a Zulu, as he is taken to England and later America as a performer

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ZAKES MDA (Writer, Poet and Painter) reads from his new novel The Zulus of New York (2019) with TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU (Writer-Scholar and 1-54 FORUM Programme Curator) as respondent. The novel, based on historical events in the 1880s, follows Mpiyezintombi, a Zulu, as he is taken to England and later America as a performer
Zakes Mda, The Zulus of New York, 2019

16:30 – 17:00

Screening: nora

Through performance and dance, award-winning film nora (2008, 35′) follows the life of Zimbabwean dancer and choreographer Nora Chipaumire. Directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton

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17:15 – 18:00

Some Writers Can Give You Two Heartbeats

NONTSIKELELO MUTITI and TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU (Founding Partners, Black Chalk & Co. and 1-54 FORUM Programme Curators) discuss their recently released publication, Some Writers Can Give You Two Heartbeats (2019). This experimental publication is a thoroughly useful guide to the critical and historical texts on the literary culture of Zimbabwe. It has the advantage of being well focused on the topic and thus serves as an essential point of departure to celebrate notions of beauty as they relate to the literary and the visual, a product of Black Chalk & Co.’s preoccupation with the archive

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1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the international art fair dedicated to promoting contemporary art from a diverse set of African perspectives, which will take place May 3-5, 2019 at Industria in the West Village, with a press and VIP Preview on May 2. This year marks the fair’s fifth anniversary in New York, and celebrates the fair’s move to a new Manhattan venue.

With editions in London, New York and Marrakech, 1-54 is an international art fair, initiated by Touria El Glaoui in 2013 is dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Drawing reference to the 54 countries that constitute the African continent, 1-54 is a sustainable and dynamic platform that is engaged in contemporary dialogue and exchange. The 2019 New York edition of 1-54 will welcome 24 galleries from Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Kenya, Martinique, Morocco, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, collectively exhibiting the work of more than 65 artists. Each year, 1-54 aims to welcome a diverse and global mix of galleries that are dedicated to supporting and promoting African art and artists from across the world.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Industria, 775 Washington St, New York, NY 10014, USA
May 3rd -5th 2019
http://1-54.com/

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