mercoledì 30 aprile 2008

The Harare International Festival of the Arts


The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) has grown into one of the most substantial and diverse international arts events in Africa. The dates of this year’s Festival are 29th April to 4th May and HIFA 2008 promises to be the most prestigious since the Festival’s inauguration in 1999. HIFA is flourishing; HifAmigo subscriptions have increased from 467 in 2006 to 1 104 for HIFA 2008. The HIFA website receives thousands of hits on a daily basis and there were at least 600 separate articles covering HIFA 2007 posted on various international websites, in numerous languages. Box office figures grew from 39 750 tickets issued for HIFA 2006 to 56 000 at HIFA 2007 and the Main Stage shows were streamed on YouTube. This year, Harare Gardens in the center of Harare and surrounding venues will be transformed into a cultural carnival featuring a huge programme of music of all types, theatre, dance and visual arts.

martedì 29 aprile 2008

SEGUN OLA L'erede di FELA - AFRO BEAT NIGERIANO A COTONOU




« Dompter le feu, jouer de la magie ou de la comédie, danser ou balancer un toast ragga d’une voix profonde, chanter sur une rythmique afrobeat ou bluesy, et même slammer…Segun Ola peut tout faire.

© par Elodie Maillot

Il a le sens de la phrase et de la phase : « Le slam c’est l’art, c’est le temps de vivre, la passé, le présent et le futur. C’est comme la couleur de la vie, comme les teintes d’une boite de nuit qui changent en permanence. » A cheval entre les couleurs et les sons, les frontières et les rythmes, Segun Ola est un immigré. Il a quitté son Nigéria natal pour le Bénin voisin. Quelques dizaines de kilomètres parcourus pour l’amour de la langue française, découverte dans un « film de requins », tout en restant infiniment lié à Lagos. « Déjà, mon nom yoruba dit tout : Segun, c’est comme le célèbre film, un guerrier qui se bat, et Olabissi, mon vrai nom, veut dire gagner la richesse. Donc, ma vie se résume à lutter pour des projets et des richesses, pas nécessairement matérielles. »

Avant de s’installer à Cotonou en 1997, à la mort de Fela, Segun a grandi dans l’ombre de son héraut, (MORE.....)


domenica 27 aprile 2008

DAK'ART 2008 la BIENNALE DE DAKAR


8th Dak'Art
9 May - 9 June 2008
Dakar, Senegal

-Exposition internationale
-Programme 2008.pdf
-Dak'Art OFF

Main events of the 8th edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art:
International Exhibition of Contemporary African Art
 
Individual exhibitions of African artists and Diaspora Artists
African Design Salon

Tribute to an African artist
 
Meetings and Exchanges / Films Projections on contemporary art
 
Digital Arts Space

lunedì 21 aprile 2008

Musée du Quai Branly - Paris


Ivoires d’Afrique
19 février / 11 mai 2008
Dès le XVIe siècle, un certain nombre de pièces en ivoire sculptées par les artistes africains, provenant de zones qui correspondent à l’embouchure du Congo, à la Sierra Leone et au Nigeria actuels, sont entrées dans des collections aristocratiques, moins comme des objets de curiosités que comme des œuvres exotiques et luxueuses. Cette exposition réunit une vingtaine des plus anciens objets africains collectés par les Européens et conservés aujourd’hui dans les collections françaises, accompagnés de documents mettant en valeur la profondeur historique du continent africain et de ses productions ainsi que la question de la circulation des motifs iconographiques entre Europe et Afrique. Ivoires d’Afrique présente au grand public un aspect peu connu de l’histoire du goût et de l’histoire de l’art. 

Catalogue Ivoires d’Afrique dans les anciennes collections françaises • sous la direction de Ezio Bassani • 112 p. • coédition musée du quai Branly.


domenica 20 aprile 2008

MUSEUM RIETBERG - Kamerun - Kunst der Könige



Kamerun - Kunst der Könige dal 3 febbraio al 25 maggio 2008

Museum Rietberg 


L’incantevole Rieterpark e le sue ville storiche rappresentano lo sfondo ideale per l’arte proveniente dall’Asia, dall’Africa, dall’America e dall’Oceania. Il Rietberg è un museo chiaramente configurato, che espone opere artistiche di altissima qualità. Le sculture di fama mondiale che Eduard Baron von der Heydt ha donato alla città di Zurigo nel 1952 costituiscono il nucleo delle collezioni permanenti nella villa Wesendonck. Nella villa Rieter, il museo presenta capolavori scelti della pittura indiana, cinese e giapponese dalla collezione propria. L’Haus zum Kiel accoglie esposizioni speciali minori di arte extraeuropea.

Césaire, Aimé Fernand (1913-2008) Nous avons perdu un ami



The most influential Francophone Caribbean writer of his generation, Aimé Césaire was one of the founding fathers of Negritude, the black consciousness movement that sought to assert pride in African cultural values to counterbalance the inferior status accorded to them in European colonial thinking.

He was born into a peasant family at Basse-Pointe in the northern part of Martinique in 1913, close to the site of the town of St Pierre, the former capital of Martinique, which had been completely destroyed by a volcanic eruption seven years before his birth. He grew up in a poverty-stricken environment in the wake of this disaster and volcanic imagery pervades his poetry. (more...)

Poetry Foundation



sabato 19 aprile 2008

Augusto Panini - PERLE DI VETRO MEDIORIENTALI E VENEZIANE


Augusto Panini, nel corso di una trentennale carriera nell'ambito dell'industria tessile, ha avuto varie occasioni di soggiornare, tra il 1980 e il 1992, anche per lunghi periodi, in diversi paesi dell'Africa Occidentale, soprattutto compiendo viaggi di ricerca e di approfondimento in diverse regioni del Mali.
Ne è nato un profondo interesse per lo studio e la ricerca delle perle vitree che da secoli compongono le collane delle varie etnie della regione sub-sahariana.
La lettura di questo volume ci permette di condividere anni di ricerche appassionate e fruttuose, che hanno portato l'autore a selezionare un insieme di perle di vetro mediorientali e veneziane rinvenute in Africa Occidentale.
Sono testimonianze incorrotte e perfettamente conservate di scambi commerciali e contatti culturali che sin da epoche antiche quella regione intrattenne con tutto il mondo allora conosciuto.


venerdì 18 aprile 2008

"Le passage du milieu" un projet de William Adjété Wilson


Ecco un bel esempio di collaborazione con artisti del Benin.
Insieme a Yves Appolinaire Pédé , William Wilson ha realizzato una serie di "appliqués" a partire da alcuni suoi disegni originali.



sabato 12 aprile 2008

DOMINIQUE ZINKPE AT CANAL+ HORIZONS


Afrik'Art

Mardi 15 avril 2008 à 21H55 sur CANAL+ HORIZONS




A NE PAS MANQUER ! - DO NOT MISS !!
Dominique Zinkpé Plasticien (Rép. du Bénin)

mercoledì 9 aprile 2008

JOBURG ART FAIR


The First Joburg Art Fair takes place in the heart of the Sandton Central. 22 Major galleries are selling work in a traditional art fair set up covering 5000 square meters of the Sandton Convention Center. Special Projects for 2008: FUNDA Community College, Tonic design and artist Robin Rhode. Extending the representation of African contemporary artists at the art fair is As You Lit It, a curated show by Simon Njami. A talks program will focus on collecting African contemporary art and the place of the art fair in the city. The Art Fair and the Talks form part of Artlogic's Joburg Art Week.
My friend Artist Dominique ZINKPE, will be also represented as special guest.

2008 WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY


NERART in collaborazione con il NATURAL WORLD MUSEUM di San Francisco presenta due opere di Cyprien Tokoudagba alla seguente esposizione:



Moving Towards a Balanced Earth: 
Kick the (Carbon) Habit

World Environment Day 2008


For the 2008 World Environment Day, UNEP continues to explore and address the theme of climate change, with an emphasis on moving toward a low carbon economy. Background: The Earth maintains a natural carbon balance. Under normal conditions, the system gradually corrects imbalances and returns to a balanced state. However the rate at which humans are now burning fossil fuels, introducing excesses of carbon into the atmosphere, has surpassed Earth’s ability to maintain balance. As a result, the Earth’s climate has begun to experience massive change. 

Nature strives for balance. Carbon balance is one part of nature’s process to maintain stases. Humans, collectively and individually, also strive for balance. 



What does it mean to be in balance as individuals and communities? What is the connection between the Earth’s imbalance and our imbalance as a species? Can nature serve as a model and mentor for discovering a way of living in balance, for coming into a state of equilibrium? The excess of atmospheric carbon is just one symptom of our environmental problems; water and air pollution, toxic waste—all of these are also symptoms of imbalance. The symptoms are expressed on both planetary and personal levels. Other species may adapt or become extinct. How will humans adapt? 



Participating Artists:

AES & F Group – Russia, Ken Aptekar – USA, Lise Bjorne – Norway, Lien Botha – South Africa, Antonio Briceno – Venezuela, Enrique Martinez Celaya – Cuba, Alison Clouston – New Zealand, Shane Cotton – New Zealand, Bill Culbert and Ralph Hotere – New Zealand, Geoff Dixon – New Zealand, Chris Drury – UK, Mounir Fatmi – Morocco, Peter Fend – USA, Isa Genzken – Germany, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov – Russia, Walangari Karntawarra – Australia, Ik-Joong Kang – Korea, Gabriela Morawetz – Poland, Susan Norrie – Australia, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba – Vietnam, Susan Plum – Mexico, Ken Rinaldo & Amy Youngs – USA, Alexis Rockman – USA, Harriet Russell – UK, Soledad Salame – Chile, Lars Siltberg – Sweden, Superflex – Denmark, Cyprien Tokoudagba – Benin, Bill Viola – USA