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Africa and contemporary art
November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I am no contemporary art expert. Sometimes one has to start with a disclaimer. The term and whatever definition whoever gives to it have been on that awkward zone where I have felt that I should be equipped with more specific knowledge to say even something quite generic about it. Also, my intuitive and somewhat outdated direct connection between the idea of contemporary and fine art has always had this self-manufactured inner conflict with my identity relating to counter culture. Even if the conflict wouldn’t really exist, I have imagined it. I think I have been quite elitist in avoiding certain kinds of art, so I found myself rethinking a few things as I was going to see ARS 11 exhibition in the Kiasma museum of contemporary art in Helsinki, Finland. This year the tag line promised that the exhibition “changes your perception of Africa and contemporary art”.
‘See me on television’ (in Lesotho)
November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
From Maputsoe, Lesotho comes a new video for Kommanda Obbs’s ‘Hona Joale’, recorded in the city of Maseru and on the Thaba Bosiu sandstone plateau (where the previous–under the rule of King Moshoeshoe in the nineteenth century–capital used to be). The chorus goes something like this: “I have been broke for a long time, standing on the corner, shooting dice. Right now I’m on form, I’m everywhere. See me on television…”
H/T (and translation): Ts’eliso
Egypt Elections
November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Egypt’s parliamentary elections are underway despite the intense violence that has rocked the nation over the past few weeks. While we all watch and wait (and vote!), a friend reminded me of this song (originally by the legendary political musician Sheikh Imam) sung by Eskenderella, a popular Egyptian band. A rough translation of the lyrics (from a friend of a friend) is below the jump.
Music Break. Kouyaté-Neerman
November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments
We read that the balafon is being considered for inclusion on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Lansiné Kouyaté knows how to play it.
Congo Votes
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Over the past week, it was hard to find an article published in a major international press outlet not looking at the build-up to today’s presidential elections through the lens of fear and/of violence. With the exception of a few, most foreign journalists didn’t make it outside of Kinshasa (citing logistical problems). People did get killed in the Congolese capital on Saturday, and in Lubumbashi today, but the way this violence creeped into the international headlines clouds the calm and smoothness of the election process in other parts of the countries, as reported by Congolese citizen journalists on their blogs, in their local papers, or on their facebook pages. Congo is more than two cities. Other journalists tackled it from afar: The Financial Times, for example, is reporting the #DRC elections from Nairobi? That’s 2 days driving to Kinshasa.
The afterlife of African studio photography
November 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
Is African studio photography, Cape Town art writer Sean O’Toole asks in frieze magazine, dying out? The answer, non-subscribers, is maybe. Everywhere in the modern world the business of professional photography is in decline. O’Tool argues that studio photography has suffered the economies of the ‘digital revolution’ and the rise of the mobile phone camera. According to him the easy publishing of social networking sites has dealt a death blow to the popular African institution.
Studio photography has been the medium of many of Africa’s most internationally renowned artists. Malick Sidibé’s (b. 1935) joyful shots of independent Mali, are celebrated in this year’s Paris Photo and the ninth biennale in his native Bamako. Similarly, the virtuosic monochrome portraits of Seydou Keïta (1921-2001) have gathered acclaim since his first exhibition in Paris in 1994. The two Malian photographers are often coupled together in indexes of African photography, but there is an critical distinction between their practices. Sidibé went onto the streets of Bamako, and used his talents for reportage. In 1962, two years after Independence, Keïta was nominated official photographer of the single-party socialist state. In a 2008 interview with lensculture, Sidibé spoke about Keïta: [Read more...]
The Belfast Connection
November 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
I recently interviewed the Northern Irish filmmaker Phil Harrison (credit: “Even Gods“), who is crowd-funding his first feature, “The Good Man,” set in Ireland and South Africa. The film tells the stories “of a young banker in Belfast and a teenager living in a Cape Town township. When their lives unexpectedly collide, their impact on one another is far greater, and more surprising, than either could have imagined.” Phil, writes: “In terms of the stage we are at we have almost reached our corwdsourcing target–there’s less than 50 shares left of the 400 total.” If you want to support the film, by becoming a shareholder, click here. Some production notes: The actor Aiden Gillen (credits: The Wire–he played Baltimore’s Mayor Carcetti– and Game of Thrones) has signed on to play the lead. Here’s our email interview:
Paris is a Continent, N°4
November 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s the return of one of the best R&B artists in French. K-Reen is back with a new track called “Like Before” featuring rapper Youssoupha. Her album of should be out in March 2012. And here’s a link to a clip of an acoustic version of the song:
I remember Black Pete*
November 25, 2011 By 1 Comment
As a child, I never believed in Santa Claus.
I believed in Saint Nicholas and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). I remember waking up as a child on December 6, 1983, three hours before daybreak. I also remember waking up early on December 6 for years afterwards. Always early, always too excited to go back to sleep the night Saint Nicholas came by our house. Over the years, I got to share this rush of euphoric anxiety with my two younger brothers. We would be jumping on our beds, calling our parents, yelling out to ask whether it was time yet. They were never amused. My brothers and I knew there was no way we could pussyfoot downstairs into the living room to see which presents He had left us. Because each year, Saint Nicholas’s black servants, those sneaky Black Petes (‘Zwarte Pieten’) would have locked the room’s door on their way out. My parents held its only key.
You know Black Pete?
