Exhibitions

Nolan Oswald Dennis: No Conciliation is Possible (working diagram) is still on view at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Berlin, Germany until December 14, 2022

In Nolan Oswald Dennis’s No Conciliation is Possible (working diagram), a diagram traces the non-linear account of the terrible historical negotiation between antagonistic readings of the meaning and significance of colonial compensation. Readings that oscillate between notions of repair and punishment, healing and trauma, payment and silence, memorialization and forgetting, forgiveness and guilt. These ideas are parsed through a network of complementary systems, such as dreams; dignity; memory; ecology; embodied trauma; representation and the metaphysics of healing. The diagram is shown as a mind map wallpaper in the tradition of the map room, where the wall map functions as a critical backdrop for a certain kind of world-thinking.

António Ole: e… o lixo vai?! is still on view at .insofar gallery in Lisboa, Portugal until December 17, 2022

In a brief contextualisation of the landscape in which António Ole’s work takes place, it is worth recalling some social, cultural and political moments that started in the twentieth century and had significant repercussions in Africa. The first movement for the valorization of Black Culture appeared in the USA with the Harlem Renaissance (1918), which had close involvement in organizations related to Civil Rights and Reform. It was followed by other movements such as Pan-Africanism, Pan-Arabism, the Black Arts Movement, the Black Panther Party, Black Feminism, and even the controversial Afro French-Caribbean Negritude movement, all of which contributed towards notions of representation and definition of Black identity; an epoch of effervescent change.

Kehinde Wiley is still on view at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France until January 8, 2023

As an extension of the Kehinde Wiley exhibition, organized at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini during the 59th Venice Biennale, the Musée d’Orsay is displaying three monumental works by the artist within its walls. In the nave of the museum is Kehinde Wiley’s magnificent monumental bronze sculpture of a young man collapsed across the saddle of a galloping horse. Another sculpture portrays a resting male figure with ivy meandering over his body. The pose is duplicated in a richly detailed painting of a figure clad in a Louis Vuitton top, jeans, and white Nike sneakers, lying upon a rock in a landscape. Through revisiting stereotypes of Western art, Wiley majestically re-contextualizes classic pictorial forms while dwelling on violence, suffering and peacefulness.

Grada Kilomba: A World of Illusions is still on view at the Norval Foundation Gallery 1 in Cape Town, South Africa until January 9, 2023

Using performance, music and dynamic scenography, Grada Kilomba creates extraordinary poetic images to explore questions of race, gender and identity. This will be the first time the trilogy A World of Illusions (2017-2019) is shown in Africa, following earlier installations at various international events. With her trilogy, Kilomba radically reinterprets ancient Greek myths that are usually presented to us as being universal, and delivers new, subversive narratives. She stages the characters of Narcissus and Echo, Oedipus and Antigone, combining performance, theatre, choreography and music, giving body, voice and form to her own critical writing. Drawing inspiration from oral African traditions, the artist takes on the role of a contemporary Griot, a storyteller who lets the classic tales speak directly to the current political issues.

Biennials

5th Casablanca Biennale is still open at various locations in Casablanca, Morocco until December 17, 2022

After an interruption caused by the global pandemic, the International Biennale of Casablanca announce the gradual resumption of its curatorial programme. Entitled The Words Create Images, the fifth edition remains under the artistic direction of Christine Eyene, assisted by Selma Naguib (Morocco), Patrick Nzazi Kiama (Democratic Republic of Congo/France) and Juste Constant Onana Amougui (Cameroon). Also joining the organising team is Jacques-Antoine Gannat (Morocco) who will develop the biennale’s new international partnerships. The biennale’s activities resumed end of March with a research trip by Austrian artist Oliver Ressler who is creating a new film commissioned in collaboration with Phileas – A Fund for Contemporary Art. Current preparations for the new incubation programme starting in July include a participatory research workshop as part of Berlin-based artist Ali El Darsa’s new commission, an art community meeting in Casablanca, and residencies at IFITRY in the Essaouira region.