Bang Bang Club

The Bang Bang Club was the name of a group of four young photojournalists working for the South African newspaper The Star, and responsible of reporting the horrors of civil war during the transition from the apartheid to democracy. Founded in 1990, the collective covered the wave of violence in the townships, especially the fights and murders between supporters of ANC and IFP, as well as misdeeds of the apartheid regime until the 1994 elections. Initially named the Bang Bang Paparazzi, the members changed Paparazzi to Club because they felt that the former misrepresented their work, and they chose Bang Bang in reference to the violence occurring within the townships. United by their ideals, the four photographers – Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and Joao Silva shared a mutual understanding of the importance to document the events unfolding before them as apartheid was fading away. In 1991, Marinovich won the Pulitzer for Spot News Photography. Three years later, Carter won the Pulitzer for Featured Photography and committed suicide afterward. In 2000, Marinovich and Silva published The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, a book documenting their experiences that would be adapted as a movie ten years later.

PACA

The Pan-African Circle of Artists (PACA) was founded at the University of Nigeria by a group of art students in 1991. One of their objectives was to promote and propagate cultural integration among African artists. The group’s main activities included exhibitions, art workshops, study tours, conferences, and guest lectures as part of its effort at redefining arts in Africa. Over the years, PACA initiated two major projects to share its pan-African vision and expand its network: the Afrika Heritage biennial and Overcoming Maps study tour. Launched in 1995, the early iterations of Afrika Heritage essentially featured Nigerian artists, but the following editions were organized around social themes and opened to a wider audience. In 2001, PACA initiated the Overcoming Maps study tour with the objective of integrating the African art scene through continental cultural exchange and networking among artists and art professionals. In so doing, the group tried to demonstrate to African artists that they could claim a share in the international art market, through more responsive networking and professionalized activities inside Africa instead of besieging Western art centers.

Prim’Art

Prim’Art was a group of young Cameroonian art students – Goddy Leye, Louis Epée, Emile Youmbi, and Idrissou Njoya enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts from the University of Yaoundé. Founded in 1993, the group was created to represent primitive arts in a different way than Western anthropologists and collectors. On one hand, the members were influenced by the Négritude philosophy, using some African symbols or cultural themes in their work. On the other hand, the members wanted to use a minimum of materials found in the nature to work like the primitives. This was also driven by the trouble to find money to buy the painting, brushes, and even quality fabrics. Under the direction of Pascal Kenfack, a researcher in Art History and professor at the University of Yaoundé, they created their own materials combined with a technique based on the composition of the paint and a proper use of binder and pigment. Prim’Art based the majority of their work on the notion of memory. For the collective, that notion was essential to help the actual and future generations to better understand and learn more about the history of their country as well as Africa.

Dimension Group

Founded in 1994, the Dimension Group was an eclectic group of nine Ethiopian artists who graduated in majority from the Fine Art School of Addis Ababa. The group was formed to overcome the influence of religious imagery, decorative motifs, and designs in modern art. The group was also meant to raise the level of expertise in the practices of its members, including the ability to produce successful art exhibitions. Their production was rich in that there was a variety in form and concept in what they do. There is harmony in their group and a difference in their unity that makes the core of their strength and that brings about a dynamic creativity. In 1996, the Dimension Group organized an exhibition about the work of Gebre Kristos Desta, an Ethiopian modern artist often criticized for including Western techniques in his artwork, instead of using traditional local methods. That exhibition was a turning point in the group’s positioning against anti-Ethiopianism and his reclamation of the artist’s creative autonomy. This apparent alignment with Desta’s legacy allowed the group to go beyond the social realism that was the only aesthetic resort against Ethiopianism.