Exhibitions

Lungiswa Gqunta: Poolside Conversations is still on view at Kelder Projects in London, United Kingdom until December 17, 2017

Lungiswa Gqunta creates installations, sculptures and audio-visual work revealing the hidden structures that perpetuate the legacy of colonialism in South Africa as presented to us in the quotidian form of the suburban garden and the leisure activities that takes place there. Poolside Conversations, the first solo presentation of Gqunta’s work in London, will be hosted by Kelder this autumn together with a programme of talks and events that further explore notions of decolonisation, landscape and protest. In Poolside Conversations Gqunta invites us to reconsider the suburban garden as a space reserved for leisure activities as experienced by the privileged – a private space reserved for the landowner. Through her practice, she seeks to disturb these spaces of privilege and highlight the structures of colonialism that are still in place today.

Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane is still on view at Somerset House in London, United Kingdom until January 7, 2018

Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane is a homecoming exhibition of the British-Moroccan artist, highlighting his vibrant fusion of contemporary cultures through new and celebrated works. The exhibition will be the first UK solo show of his work in seven years, celebrating his multi-layered works, which fuse traditional and contemporary North African culture with familiar Western imagery and iconography. Born and raised in Larache, Morocco, Hajjaj moved to London aged twelve and his artistic practice sees him spend much of his life travelling between these two countries and cultures. His artworks reflect his neo-nomadic lifestyle and the relationships he has formed with a variety of characters along the way, from musicians to artists and athletes to street performers. These individuals inspire Hajjaj’s diverse artworks from photographic portraits to video installations, sculptures, music, design and handcrafted objects.

Biennials

SUD2017 – Salon Urbain De Douala will take place at several locations in Douala, Cameroon from December 5-10, 2017

SUD2017 is the 4th edition of the international triennial of public art organized by doual'art. Since its inception, the triennial has focused on fundamental human rights, but this year is dedicated to young people with the theme of The Human Dimension. The aim is to raise awareness, particularly in the young residents, of the declaration of Human rights inherent in the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon. This relates to the space that humans set aside for themselves, with regard to a general global context, and to Cameroon in particular. SUD will facilitate access to knowledge of recent history and put in perspective residents’ capacity to invest more fully in the present and to visualise themselves in the future and as part of the world. Finally, SUD aims to generate freedom from the fear of speaking out in public and opens a platform for dialogue in a calm and aware atmosphere.

Festivals

LagosPhoto Festival 2017 is still opened at various locations throughout Lagos, Nigeria until December 15, 2017

LagosPhoto is the first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. The festival presents photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the promotion of social programmes, and the reclamation and engagement of public spaces in showcasing contemporary photography. This year’s theme, Regimes of Truth, examines the search for and the presentation of truth in contemporary society by drawing on inspiration from the works of nineteenth and twentieth century thinkers, writers and philosophers who offered insights into our contemporary society’s information overload and truth quagmire. Intellectuals and writers such as Flaubert, Foucault, Orwell, Huxley and Achebe prophetically offered poignant insights into our current socio-political and cultural conundrum where access to information and substantive facts are in conflict.

2nd Addis Video Art Festival will open at various places throughout Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from December 24, 2017 to January 3, 2018

The international festival intends to provide a platform for innovative video art in Ethiopia and by sharing video art in both conventional and non-conventional settings. The festival will reach both the artist community and the everyday passerby. In the selection of works chosen for the second edition of the festival, the theme of love triangle appears in many manifestations from the intimately personal to the socio-political-environmental to the cosmic. The videos portray a sense of time that is liquid in its survey of the present moment, but in the end, moves steadfastly forward. The migrations amongst various geographies portrayed in the works correlate to various timelines as well. This is very fitting to the location of the festival in Ethiopia as it follows the Julian calendar, which is 8 years behind the Gregorian calendar, creating a new terrain of time altogether.