Salon designed by Hassan Hajjaj ash entrance including his photographic work.

Labyrinth by Youssef Limoud, and the upside hanging house by Pascale Marthine Tayou

Photographic installation Ouakam Fractals by Simon Baloji

Safaa Mazirh, Sans titre, Maroc

Safaa Mazirh

,

Joel Andrianomearisoa,

Mimi Cherono Ng’ok

William Kentridge, a wonderful installation/film.

Outside in the park some of the photographs were displayed for all to see.

Aida Mulaneh,

Mario Macilau.

Breaking new ground: Contemporary Design from Africa.

Life has changed a bit recently and I am reconnecting with my French past. I now spend some time during the summer months in a cute little bergerie nestled on a hill at the foot of the Luberon mountains. Surrounded by olive trees growing on terraces and with breathtaking views of the ruins of a medieval village perched on a hill adjacent to the dramatic gorge of the Petit Luberon I forget art for a moment and embrace nature’s wildness.

From there I drove to Basel for the art fair and had the unexpected pleasure to learn that there was an exhibition of African design at the Vitra Design Museum right over the border in Germany. The exhibition was curated internally with the help of guest curator Okwi Enwesor, also curator of the Venice Biennale. It challenges traditional expectations of African design that usually focuses on craft and artisanal objects.

In the words of Koyo Kouoh, founding director of Raw Material Company the exhibition studies “ the interrelated relationship between fashion, film, art, performance, music, industrial and product design, with internet and new media being the key reason for the seismic shift in the cultural landscape of Africa. “ There is a strong sense that design must contribute to the life of a place and the focus of design has shifted to become socially oriented.

In the richly informative catalogue of the exhibition Okwui Enwezor encourages the viewers to look at Africa through different lenses.

“The exhibition does not strive to present a complete picture of design in Africa. What the exhibition offers instead is a new story, one perhaps not known. It is one possibility among many for looking at Africa and an invitation in this regard to consider a wholly new perspective.”

While some veteran artists are included the focus is on the young generation (Africa has a huge youth population), its energy, entrepreneurial spirit, its concern with the contemporary and  the potential of urban spaces, and shared virtual/digital spaces. There is an atmosphere of awakening among artists in cities like Nairobi, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Dakar, etc. Intent on correcting the idea favored by the Global North that Africa is a place of despair, the curators highlighted the burst of creativity that is happening as a result of the advent of the digital boom. I remembered a time six years ago when it was thought that places like Kenya had little to show for itself in terms of creativity. Sixteen creative ventures coming out of Kenya are represented in the exhibition! Things have come a long way!

Conveying that bustling field was not an easy matter as a lot of it is virtual  such as apps, blogs, and websites. The curatorial team created an aesthetically pleasing and highly informative exhibition tightly weaving technology with more object based works such as models, photographs, maps, sculptures, and clothes.

Divided into four parts (Prologue, I and We, Space & Object and Origin & Future) Making Africa challenges the idea of a one Africa with a new local perspective, new shared virtual spaces, an approach to urban life and architecture truly its own, and embrace of tradition while looking to the future in object based work.

The exhibition opened with the work of Kenyan artist, Cyrus Kabiru’s C- Stunners that illustrate vividly this idea of shift of perspective. We need to change our way of seeing the continent, its people and lives and learn to listen: in the background I hear the voices of acclaimed thinkers speaking of Africa. Kabiru creates these extraordinary “eyeglasses” out of found objects and photographs himself wearing them.

People’s perceptions of “Africanness”s is further challenged in the work of Kudzanai Chiurai Popular Mechanics whose portraits parody the traditional genre of heroic images and exposes the corruptive aspect of power

Justin Dingwall’s photographic diptych Albus of a black albino model that question the idea of black and whiteness.

The second section was like a huge database of personal blogs, computer games, Youtube videos of a partying youth culture, apps, crowd sourcing digital maps and wonderful photographs and prints.

I would recommend checking out the following sites, which provide a very useful database of African artists.

Internet portals such as Africa Digital Arts, Afrikadaa, Art Base Africa.

Browse the following apps and blogs:

Oju Emoticon App

Anakle (Bride Price App)

Izihothane

Photographer Jody Brand’s blog: Chomma provides a window on a youth culture concerned with the here and now.

Men’s Fashion has its place with the fondness of the famous Sapeurs de Brazzaville for colorful, and dandy like outfits. Hector Mediavilla (Allurex and his socks, 20003)

Chris Saunders from The Smarteez series. Saunders follows the creative process of four designers from Soweto (Kebi, Sibu, Floyd, and Thabo).

Daniele Tamagni from Botswana Afrometals photographic series (2012) shows a youth culture that has merged tradition and the international metal scene.

Hassan Hajjaj photographic series L.V.Posses of young Moroccan women in headscarves on motorbikes also fuses traditional Islam with western luxury (Louis Vuitton logo).

MISWude Waxology is the product of the cooperation between jewelry and fashion brand MISWude and photographer Fabrice Monteiro.

I loved Leanie van der Vyver video Scary beautiful where a young woman wearing absurd shoes struggles to walk in an awkward performance.

The next section (Space and Object) focuses on living spaces. It is about architecture, urban life and includes virtual spaces such as maps and apps that have been created to contend with a lack of infrastructure and that have profoundly changed the life of people.

The inclusion of the M-Pesa (Safaricom), a mobile money transfer that has revolutionized the way people pay for things in Kenya and now the world is a good indication of how forward looking this exhibition is. Creative thinking is increasingly finding its outlet in the creation of these new ways of living and working. It leads me to confirm this idea that I have recently discussed with an art dealer friend that the new avant-garde contemporary art will not be object oriented but increasingly virtual.

Map Kibera, a digital map is based on this idea of shared economies that are changing social spaces. This digital map of the largest slum in Nairobi includes information on security, water, sanitation, health, education, citizen journalism, and advocacy through blogs.

The photographic work of Michael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse Ponte City captures the lives of the residents of the Ponte City skyscraper that was once a luxury building. Now in total disrepair communities of poor black people inhabit it. For over two years they took photos of every window, apartment door and TV set in building and created a mosaic-like snapshot.

Justin Plunkett’s Con/Struct is a great shot! A vertical slum, a metaphor for a “piled-up dream” withstands gravity.

James Muriuki“s Undefined Constructions:SeriesI

Fabrice Monteiro’s photographic series The Prophet is as beautiful as much as they are disturbing. In transforming the ugly into the beautiful these surrealist images call attention to the dangers of environmental pollution.

I was happy to see the work of Tahir Carl Karmali Jua Kali included. In homage to Jua kali craftsmen who make things out of recycled material Karmali took pictures of garbage pieces to create these collages and combined them with photos of the craftsmen.

Tahir Carl Karmali, Dennis Muraguri, Tonney Mugo’s Jua Kali City. A collective project, and made from found objects these wheels are metaphors for the formal and informal economies.

I liked the table made out of glass, steel and ceramics Docks table by Imiso Ceramics reflecting the checkered urban space that is Woodstock, Cape Town.

Porky Hefer’s Humanest reminded me of weaver nests that I see each time I walk the Kenyan bush.

Dominique Petot’s armchair Meridienne was elegant and dramatic though maybe not totally comfortable.

Alassane Drabo Gourde Protectrice: a useful tool and a tribute to a ubiquitous object in rural West Africa. Maybe the first time the pot has been used as a lampshade!

Amadou Fatoumata Ba Pouf Tresse made out of rubber tyres.

The last section -Origin and Future – acknowledges Africa’s past, its traditions and roots, and looks to the future.

Omar Victor Diop Project Diaspora (Mame)

Ikire Jones The Evan suit . From the collection The Untold Renaissance .

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou (Musclemen): At once a tribute to the tradition of African photographic portraiture and a critique.

Oumou Sy: Inspired by Senghor ‘s concept of metissage ( hybridization) traditional patterns and geometric shapes fuse into a contemporary vision.

The exhibition ends with Goncalo Mabunda’s eloquent throne www. Crise.com made out of recycled weapons from the Mozambican Civil War. It is a critique of African military regimes yet also a reminder of the transformative power of art and the resistance and creativity of African civil societies.

I have just mentioned just a small sampling of the many artists included in the exhibition.

If you can’t see the exhibition I would highly recommend buying on Amazon the catalogue, which provides even more information than the exhibition. It is an invaluable database.

This October was the second year that African art was making a showing in London during Frieze week and it was doubling in size! Named 1:54; 1 for one continent, 54 for 54 countries, the title was a reminder that Africa is not one country but a multitude of countries with distinct traditions, styles, and histories. Founded by Touria El Glaoui  the fair was also the impetus for a critical dialogue organized around a series of lectures and panels curated by artistic director Koyo Kouoh.

While I had been in London just a couple of weeks before I could not miss the event. I made a quick jump to London leaving late Tuesday night after attending suitcase and all a fundraising for a cause dear to a friend of mine. I caught miraculously a few hours of sleep on the flight over and after dropping off my bags at a friend’s house rushed first to the Frieze art fair to see the work of Serge Alain Nitegeka, a Burundi artist at Stevenson Gallery. I had put one of his recent panels on hold – I don’t buy from an image on the Internet – and needed to make a decision. An established South African gallery, Stevenson shows its artists at global contemporary art fairs eschewing the African tag.

The booth looked fabulous with Barthelemy Toguo’s large paintings hanging on the walls and works on paper displayed on easels.

I found Serge Nitegeka’s two recent panels in the back room, out of sight. I was immediately struck by their powerful visual impact. Serge paints on large wooden boxes. Abstract geometry here is imbued with potent psychological power.

In one of the panels Serge has chosen to eliminate any illusion of space: heavy black bands delineate a square slightly off center pressed up against the picture plane. There is nothing serene about this square: shards break up its interior periphery; I even have a visceral reaction and experience a sense of oppression and aggression.

In total contrast, the black lines on the other panel open up to a fictive space allowing for a sense of relief and perhaps hope. The contrast between the two pieces is striking and highlights Serge’s increasing ability to manipulate competently geometry for his own psychological and pictorial purposes.

Despite the fact that I loved the piece I couldn’t figure out where I would put in my apartment so I decided to be reasonable, urged along by my boyfriend who keeps on trying to curtail my art buying. So I very reluctantly let it go, not sure that I was making the right decision. In fact I later chided myself for not following my inclination. Indeed Serge is a very promising artist and he is having a show at Marianne Boesky in New York opening mid-November.

After a quick walk through Frieze I headed off to the Somerset House where 1:54 was housed. Somerset House is a U shaped neoclassical structure built around a courtyard and since the fair has grown from the previous year it now occupies two wings of the building. I confess it took me two visits to realize that half of the galleries were located in another wing! The lack of information given at the front desk was in part the culprit, but my fried brain resulting from the frantic pace of my short visit to London did not help!

I liked ambling on my own through the galleries, taking time to discover, explore, and understand new and different perspectives. There was a healthy mix of art coming from West Africa, North and Sub-Sahara Africa; a diversity of style; plenty of painting, photography, and sculpture. Some rooms were better curated than others, and overall there was enough good work to feel satisfied with the visit.

I was quite pleased to see Abdoulaye Konaté’s wall hangings in the foyer of the fair and later on during my visit at the booth of Primo Marella Gallery of Milan.

Konaté, an artist from Mali started as a painter and later turned to using textiles native to Mali to create large wall hanging where he developed a unique aesthetic combining a local sensibility for symbolism and color and craft with a global political message. I had visited his studio a couple of years back and felt his work had a striking grandeur.

Sammy Baloji’s photograph from his series “Mémoire”was particularly appealing. I was familiar with Baloji’s work and this image was one of his best ones. Born in Lubumbashi, in the DRC he has created photomontages where past and present collide. Here colonial figures, both indigenous and European, are layered over the contemporary architecture of a local mining town in the Kantanga province. Past and present coalesce to expose the underlying economic alliances that benefited colonial masters and a small minority of privileged indigenous people. The juxtaposition here was particularly successful which I don’t think is always the case in his work.

I stopped to ask questions about Nicene Kossentin’s photographic work (Boujmai Fatouma) at the Selma Feriani Gallery. Kossentin has set ghost-like portraits of her late mother and grandmothers against the backdrop of a dried salt lake found in her native city of Sfax, Tunisia. A line of calligraphy delineates the horizon. Because the wordage has no beginning and end it points to her historical cultural lineage. Kossentin’s work is about memory, about remembering, and mostly about the fear of not remembering. She points to the role of women in her culture as “passeuses de mémoire”- a beautiful phrase – or couriers of memory. Long a tradition in her culture it is also the role of women in many other cultures in the rest of Africa where grandmothers are the storytellers and keepers of the oral history of their community. The images were particularly haunting and poignant.

From there I wandered towards the Galerie Mikael Andersen where I had the opportunity to see the lovely drawings of the late Ernest Mancoba, who while perhaps considered the most important modern artist from South Africa is barely known internationally and deserves a new critical look. His drawings – often stylized figures – done during the 60’s and 70’s and inspired by African ritual woodcuts oscillate between abstraction and figuration and convey a unique energy. Having emigrated to Europe at the time of WWII Mancoba was part of the CoBrA movement in Europe before he returned to South Africa. Always present in his mind was his wish to bring his deep understanding of African culture to European art.

I was seduced by the work of Armand Boua at Jack Bell gallery. Using tar and acrylic on found cardboard boxes Boua captures the street kids from his hometown Abidjan.In the process of layering paint and removing it he creates scenes imbued with light and poetry despite the pathos of the subject. I absolutely loved the work though I was not sure the price was justified. Fortunately by then I had reached a state of  temporary wisdom and this time knew to walk away…no matter how much I was tempted.

Across the corridor The October Gallery had an eclectic selection that needed time to take in. I was struck by Homeless Hungry Homo, a sculpture lying on a low stand in the middle of the gallery by the Nigerian artist Adejoke Tugbiyele.

I found myself aware of some of my inner prejudices, which were fortunately being challenged. I was at once intrigued and slightly puzzled and even a bit put off at first. The supine figure disturbed me. It felt unapologetically African and so a part of me – the part shaped by my Western training – hesitated to give it its due. Yet it was so bold and provocative: strangely human despite it being a thing made out of yarn, palm stems, metal, African mask, and dollar bills. Would this appeal to a Western audience? I don’t know but I liked the boldness and the artist commitment to her particular aesthetic.

I hope you notice the variety of styles and aesthetics exemplified by all these artists, which makes it all very fascinating.

I moved on then to the ArtLabAfrica Gallery and soon found myself engaged in a long conversation with James Muriuki and Miriam Syowia Kyambi about their recent seven months residency in Kilifi, Kenya at a science research center as part of the Art in Global Health Residency.

I loved looking at the photographic work coming out of this residency, many of the photographs capturing the local architecture of Kenyan small towns. As you know I have a fondness for Kenya so I was just thrilled.

Great was my surprise when I saw hanging on the wall the work of Kenyan artist Peterson Kamwathi. A couple of years ago I had tracked him down on the outskirts of Nairobi. After he had very kindly offered and then made me tea we had spend two magical hours looking and talking about his work. I was so happy to hear that he was experiencing good success and had just had been commissioned to do a public project in Nairobi.

In the center of the booth were two sculptures by conceptual artist Gor Soudan. Using protest wire – a tangled black mass of wire he salvages from car tires burnt during civil unrests in Nairobi – he reworks them into beautiful, wispy, poetic sculptures, which look like drawings in space.

Photography was well represented with works by Francois-Xavier Gbre, Leonce R.Agbodjelou, Edson Chagas and Frank Marshall. I noticed an interesting trend: two photographers that were getting a lot of attention had originally trained and worked as fashion photographers. Lakin Ogunbanwo and Omar Victor Diop both work with a keen interest in form, color, lighting and design and turn to the inclusion of the self as a mean to address their personal and artistic concerns.

An erotic and subversive undertone can be felt in Lakin Ogunbanwo’s beautiful compositions (shown at Whatiftheworld) where he eludes the gaze of the viewer while highlighting the centrality of his presence in a serial layering of his figure.

Omar Victor Diop at Magnin-A in his project Diaspora is the main protagonist as he adopts the dress and pose of African historical figures having lived in Europe, which he combines with more contemporary props pointing to contemporary life.

Another photographer who has a fashion background is Hassan Hajjaj. His work was unfortunately squeezed between two booths but his take on the “Odalisque”, a video piece, was just wonderful: full of wit and incisive criticism. See upcoming post on his work.

Athi-Patra Ruga’s camp tapestry peppered with eclectic multicultural references was an explosive reminder of the hybrid construct of cultural identity. I was mesmerized by his unabashed combination of gaudy motifs, traditional stitching, and profusion of fake flowers that made the tapestry a textural and colorful delight. He was just included in the Phaidon book “Younger Than Jesus” directory of the 500 of the world’s best artists under the age of 33. It was a fitting and uplifting end to my perusing through the fairs.

I enjoyed the more low key tempo of 1:54, the absence of jaded dealers and collectors, and the opportunity to see more work from North Africa. The big fairs are already so big and to my view a bit of a chore, therefore I like the smaller venue.

I got to see some African galleries that I would not normally see mixed with Western galleries which made for a good mix.  For instance Anne de Villepoix, a mid –size gallery in Paris who has a few African artists in her roster liked the low-key atmosphere which reminds her of how fairs where years back.

Is it ideal to set African art apart? Perhaps not as it risks reenforcing the colonial idea of the African being seen as the other. However, one thing I have learned from all my times going to various African countries,  there are no simple solutions. This one seems the right one for now. It is an unique opportunity for many of these artists to be seen by a greater audience. More importantly it gives them a platform where they can explore keeping an authentic voice while contending with a global art world which demands them to fine tune their  skills, incorporate contemporary strategies, and hone their message to make it more effectively convincing .

PS: No one was walking around talking about being afraid of catching Ebola at the fair. That was a different reaction from the hysteria that I was about to witness at the airport when I landed at JFK! All customs officers were wearing masks and plastic gloves. Go figure….