We tracked down Abdellah Karroum in Paris, and asked him some questions about the Biennale Regard Benin 2012, of which he is the artistic director (more on that in yesterday’s post). Born in 1970 in Morocco, he is artistic director of L’appartement 22, an experimental space for exhibitions and residencies in Rabat, which he founded in […]
As the Beninese proverb rings out, ‘an old story does not open the ear as a new one does’. No illusions exist in here. If dolls never die, neither does their past. Much like the synthesised histories present in Gérard Quenum’s new sculptural works at the October Gallery, they will now, not die. Yet the […]
Not sure what it says about France that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (he is portrayed as a victim of a conspiracy) and David Beckham (a 36-year-old player is entrusted with bringing back gloss to French football) dominate the headlines there this week. Meanwhile, a mix of French hip hop and smooth R&B continue to dominate my instalments of music from […]
There’s been a resurgence interest in the inscrutable African mask in several museums lately, including this horrible one at the Barbie Museum. Its as if the more evidence there is that the African of the European imagination does not exist in static primitivity, the stronger the attempt to put it back into that caged zoo. Thankfully, […]
