THE AFRICAN ART IN VENICE FORUM
The African Art in Venice Forum is a two days event which will take place on the 9th and 10th of May 2017, during the opening week of the 57th Venice Biennale in the Piano Nobile of Palazzo Dandolo, Hotel Monaco. (Google Maps)
The African Art in Venice Forum was born from the necessity to compensate for the lack of representation of many African countries at the Venice Biennale. Only 7 out of 54 African countries are represented in national pavilions in the 57th Biennale Dell'Arte di Venezia.
MAIN FEATURES
The Forum is held in two auditoriums, operating at the same time for two days. It will feature almost twenty talks with the participation of 60/70 international speakers, illustrating and discussing new experimental models of museums, art spaces, foundations, residencies, as well as the multiplicity of new narratives generated across the continent by established and young creatives. All talks will be broadcasted online thanks to the support of the Streaming Museum and will be stored and publicly available on the Forum's website for research purpose. We will start a "Survey Program" which will feature our partners and speakers and follow their projects and developments to promote and connect them to potential sponsors and patrons.
PROGRAMME
9th -10th May 2017
Hotel Monaco, Piazza San Marco 1332, 30124 Venezia
Entrance from Calle del Ridotto
Sections:
“Outlook” How contemporary African art relates to the global art scene.
“Within & Without” The diversity of art eco-systems within the African continent.
“.org” Digital platforms, not for profit organizations, art education and social development for the promotion of the arts in Africa.
Tuesday 9th May
11:00 am - Institutional Auditorium
“Within & Without” “First do no harm: accidental intentions in contemporary African
photography”
Curated by Lagos Photo Festival
With: Azu Nwagbogu, founder, Lagos Photo Festival and African Artists Foundation; Maria
Pia Bernardoni, Curator International Projects, Lagos Photo Festival and African Artists
Foundation.
12:00 pm - The Artists Auditorium
“Within & Without” “Young Voices in Africa's Creative Community: the Intersection of
Art and Activism”
Moderated by Tessa Jackson, Indipendent Curator, UK
With: Longinos Nagila, artist, Kenya; Beathur Mgoza Baker, Curator, Writer, Film Maker
and Creative Consultant, South Africa.
Location: The Artists Auditorium
12:00 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“Outlook” IRRESISTABLE TIES: CURATORIAL TURN
Curated by: Cape Town Art Fair
Moderated by: Tumelo Mosaka, curator at Cape Town Art Fair
With: Raphael Chikukwa, curator Zimbabwe Pavilion; Lucy MacGarry, curator South
African Pavilion; Adenrele Sonariwo, curator Nigerian Pavilion; Gabriele Salmi, Founder
Member of the Lubumbashi Biennale
1:00 pm - The Artists Auditorium
“Within & Without” “Artists projects beyond their practice
Moderated by The African Art in Venice Team
With: Emmanuel Iduma, writer and co-curator Nigerian Pavillion; Victor Ehikhamenor, artist, Nigeria.
1:30 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“Within & Without” “The International Conference of African Cultures”
With Raphael Chikukwa, Director at National Gallery of Zimbabwe and founder of International Conference of African Cultures.
2:00 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“Outlook” "Rebranding African Art in Western Museums"
Moderated by Mark Rappolt, Editor Art Review
With: Karen Milbourne, curator, National Museum of African Art Smithsonian Institution,
Washington DC; Silvia Forni, curator, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, and
president of ACASA Triennial in Accra, Ghana; Reem Fadda, curator of Marrakech Biennale
2016, Zoe Whitley, curator for International Art at Tate Modern, London, UK;
Alicia Knock, curator for African Art, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France.
2:00 pm - The Artists Auditorium
“Within & Without” "Public art on Prejudice: Any Given Sunday"
A series of anonymous and random public artistic interventions intended to reflect on Cape
Town’s social, economic and political tensions in the city’s racially segregated spaces, all
centered, in various ways, on questions of prejudice, from structural, institutional
or personal points of view. (Buhlebezwe Siwani, Zanele Muholi, Gabrielle Goliath, Gerald Machona,
Sethembile Msezane, Burning Museum, Hasan and Husain Essop, poet Koleka
Putuma and veteran musician Madosini)
With: Riason Naidoo, curator, Any Given Sunday, Cape Town; Renaud Proch, Executive
Director, Independent Curators International (ICI), New York.
3:00 pm - The Artists Auditorium
“Within & Without” “21st Century feminism and the arts”
Moderated by Molly Taylor, Author, Communication Manager, Elephant Magazine
With: Peju Alatise, artist, Lagos; RITA GT, artist, Lisboa, Portugal; Tony Gum, artist, Cape Town.
3:30 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“.org” “Innovative models for the promotion of the arts in the African Continent” New
models for the promotion of the arts which have risen in African countries, and have
successfully impacted new public and social strata, creating momentum in the local art scene.
Moderated by Osei Bonsu, curatorial advisor for African Art in Venice Forum.
With: Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town; Sindika Dokolo, founder, Fundação Sindika Dokolo, Luanda, Angola.
4:00 pm – The Artists Auditorium
“Within & Without” “Artists projects beyond their practice”
With: Riccarda Mandrini, artmarket journalist, founder and editor of
www.artmarket-magazine.com; Abdoulaye Konaté, artist, Mali.
5:00 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“.org” “Creativity as a solution”
The impact of charities art related projects in supporting the development of the
infrastructure for the promotion of the arts in African countries.
Moderated by The African Art in Venice Team.
With: Terry Torok, LALELA; Lungi Morrison, Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment
Consortium; Hakeem KaeKazim, Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium;
Adama Sanneh, Program Director Fondazione Lettera27; AMREF.
6:30 pm - Institutional Auditorium
“Outlook” “Below the Line: Africa's Engagement with the Southern Hemisphere”
Curated by Another Antipode, promoter of the first major exhibition of African
contemporary art in Australia.
With: Valerie Kabov, curator; Neelika Jayawardane, co-founder of Africa is a Country,
Duncan Wylie, artist, Zimbabwe.
Wednesday 10th May
11:00 am - Institutional Auditorium
“.org” “Web-Africanism, digital platforms, cross border narratives and the promotion
of the art in Africa”
Moderated by Claude Grunitzky Chairman and Editor-in-chief at True Africa
Biannually, Venice becomes the world capital of contemporary art. Art enthusiasts, curators, artists, and journalists attend and discuss important social topics regarding the Biennale’s participants. Comparatively by geography, population, and the creative capability of the African continent, very little has been exhibited and discussed about many African countries until now. The lack of content becomes a lack of debate and research.
How unrepresented countries can develop and improve their infrastructure for the promotion of the arts? Which are the factors preventing their community of creatives from thriving both on a national and a global level?
By adding a new platform open to speakers from all countries of the African continent, and many other from international organizations, to present and discuss salient global and diaspora-specific topics, we believe we can trigger the process that will take to the participation of more African national pavilions at the Venice Biennale.
We are committed to keep the Forum as an inclusive platform for networking to proactively facilitate the creation of new collaborations and opportunities, thus adopting a synergistic approach rather than a competitive one.
The project’s partners embrace its synergistic approach, knowing that collaborating and creating new opportunities can add value to the art scene in Africa. They believe that by supporting creatives and intellectuals, mainly through connecting them from across the continent in a global event can help them in researching, developing, and sharing contemporary African narratives. This effort can also encourage the social and economic discourse being explored in current African art practices.
NETWORKING GALA & PARADISE PLAYGROUND PARTY
In the evening of the 9th of May we will hold a Networking Gala to help our speakers and guests to connect and create new opportunities. The Paradise Playground Party, which will follow the dinner, will celebrate the first edition of the African Art in Venice Forum.
