Exhibitions

Disguise: Masks and Global African Art is still on view at Brooklyn Museum in New York, United States until September 18, 2016

Disguise is an exhibition which connects the work of twenty-five contemporary artists with historical African masquerade, using play and provocation to invite viewers to think critically about their world and their place within it. By putting on a mask and becoming someone else, artists reveal hidden realities about society, including those of power, class, and gender, to suggest possibilities for the future. Masks have long been used by African artists to define relationships―between individuals, communities, the environment, or the cosmos―and, sometimes, to challenge the status quo. However, once masks were removed from their original performance context, they were transformed into museum objects, and their larger messages were often lost. The exhibition presents contemporary work in dialogue with historical objects from the collections of the Seattle Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum within an immersive and lively installation of video, digital, sound, and installation art, as well as photography and sculpture.

Making & Unmaking is still open at Camden Arts Centre in London, United Kingdom until September 18, 2016

Making & Unmaking, curated by celebrated fashion designer and curator Duro Olowu, is the latest in a series of artist-selected shows. Bringing together over sixty international artists working in diverse media, this exhibition places antique West African textiles and Bauhaus tapestries amongst contemporary works and new commissions. Individually, the works address themes that include portraiture as well as representations of beauty, gender, sexuality, innocence and the body. Collectively, their coming together reveals a common thread that Olowu describes as a ‘process of personal ritual experienced by artists in creating their work’. This eclectic collage of works, some of which have strong political undercurrents, addresses issues surrounding cultural identity, sexuality and the representation of the body. The exhibition invites a multifaceted journey of encounters with the intuition, skill, and vision of the artists represented within it.

Biennials

Seven Hills is the central theme of the 2nd edition of Kampala Art Biennale that is open at Kampala, Uganda from September 3 to October 2, 2016

Seven Hills refers to Kampala’s historical city when the Kingdom of Buganda was built on 7 hills, in a similar way as other famous cities like Rome, Lisbon and Athens. The holy number 7 represents “the whole” in movement. Seven is universally known as a dynamic totality. Pythagoras called it, the “life vehicle”. Nowadays, Kampala is spread out over 21 hills. One could question which stories, myths and founding legends are still harboured by the Seven Hills of Kampala? What is their current meaning? Are they still symbolic? Which representations are shared today by the inhabitants’ daily lives? Under the artistic direction of Elise Atangana, emerging and international artists will take on the role of investigators by intervening in situ, within the urban fabric of Kampala on the various phenomena of urban mobility observed locally. Seven Hills explores the links between physical and virtual mobilities (movement, representation, practice), and consider their relation with contemporary art practice.

Festivals

Visa pour l’image – International Festival of Photojournalism is still open in Perpignan, France until September 11, 2016

Visa pour l'Image, the largest annual international festival of photojournalism in Perpignan is being held until September 11. It is an amazing event that gathers photography enthusiasts interested in social, political, and environmental subjects, and it attracts thousands of visitors who share the passion of photojournalism. Last year, the festival was very successful, thanks to the great reporters of the world’s realities that are photojournalists, without which it would be impossible to get visual information. This year, the event promises to be astounding and give visitors an eventual hope for the future. The festival is investing in numerous exhibitions throughout the city, including outdoor-evening projections in the cloister of the Campo Santo, symposia, meetings, and the presence of major brands of photographic technologies.

Art Fairs

Berlin Art Week will open at several locations in Berlin, Germany from September 13-18, 2016

The fifth Berlin Art Week will attract collectors, gallerists, museum directors, and all those interested in art and culture to the German capital. Visitors will be directly drawn into Berlin’s art world and can choose from a wide variety of special offerings for this week. Immersing themselves in Berlin’s sites of exhibiting and producing art, they can visit solo exhibitions by Halil Altindere, Anne Imhof, Andreas Greiner, Sven Drühl, Yvonne Roeb or Gordon Parks, or one of the group shows at me Collectors Room or Deutsche Bank KunstHalle or the private collections of Julia Stoschek, Collection Regard, Ivo Wessel or Erika Hoffmann. Everything will revolve around contemporary art and what moves, influences, and motivates artists today: from science and technology, social processes and political developments, to the worlds of advertising surrounding us. Last but not least, the week’s two art fairs offer a good opportunity to see all of this together in one place—and perhaps even to make a purchase.