Blogger and broadcaster Mikko Kapanen visited the ARS11 exhibit of contemporary African art in Helsinki. These are his impressions written for AIAC:
Shake hands with your ancient self
August 10, 2011 By 3 Comments
What do you do as a South African tourist industry when the promised surge in visitors after the World Cup fails to materialize? You move your aim, target the local ‘upcoming individuals, independent couples and families’, draw up an ‘energetic, vibey and pacey’ campaign, get some of those upcoming individuals on board — and you turn the local into a daft trope.
The BLK JKS, for example, take a left turn where the hitch-hiker’s carton says ‘local’, meeting up with ‘the original men: the San’, shaking hands ‘with their ancient selves’. South Africans are urged to get out of their ‘comfort zone’, ‘get off the map, get out of the suburbs, keep moving’, because ‘sometimes you’ve got to loose your way, to find yourself again’:
(Re)construções
April 4, 2011 By 3 Comments
Lawrence Lemaoana is one of 13 South African artists selected by curator Daniella Géo for the exhibition “Reconstruções: arte contemporânea da África do Sul” [Reconstructions: Contemporary Art from South Africa] running until 15 May at the Brazilian Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (yes, that Oscar Niemeyer building). One day they’ll organize an exhibition on contemporary South African art without the work of Goldblatt, Ballen, Kentridge or Mofokeng. One day.–Tom Devriendt
Mary Sibande
December 17, 2010 By 2 Comments
The Johannesburg-based artist Mary Sibande who creates life-size sculptures of black women in brightly coloured and elaborate Victorian dresses, is one of two African artists (among 30 plus artists worldwide) awarded the Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellowships “… which every year brings several dozen visual artists, musicians, writers, poets and other creative types for six-week-long fellowships in the fifteenth-century Civitella Ranieri castle in Umbria.” The other is photographer Zanele Muholi.
