Exhibitions

David Adjaye: Urban Africa is still on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, United States until April 2, 2017

Over the course of 10 years, internationally acclaimed architect David Adjaye, conducted a photographic survey of buildings in 53 cities across Africa. Concerned that so little is known of African architecture and eager to start a dialogue about it, he produced African Metropolitan Architecture 2000-2011, a five-volume publication featuring photographs, maps, research, and essays. Adjaye embarked on this African journey without guides, simply arriving in each city and asking a taxi driver to show him around. In connection with David Adjaye’s exhibition we are screening “This Building Will Sing for All of Us” and “Collaborations” by Oliver Hardt in MoAD’s Toni Rembe theatre.

Sammy Baloji & Filip De Boeck: Urban Now, City Life in Congo is still on view at the Open Society Foundation in New York, United States until July 14, 2017

This exhibition by photographer Sammy Baloji and anthropologist Filip De Boeck offers an exploration of different urban sites in Congo, through the media of photography and video. Focusing on the “urban now”, a moment suspended between the broken dreams of a colonial past and the promises of neoliberal futures, the exhibition offers an artistic and ethnographic investigation of what living – and living together – might mean in Congo’s urban worlds. This exhibition marks the start of an expanded exhibition program by the Open Society Documentary Photography Project that now includes both its longstanding Moving Walls series, as well as shows co-organized with partner institutions. It also marks the start of a yearlong look at the topic of urbanization through the Documentary Photography Project’s exhibition program.

Biennials

Shanghai Biennale 11 is still open at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China until March 12, 2017

The 11th edition of the Shanghai event emphasizes the possibilities of South-South dialogue within the current scenario of a highly interconnected world. In doing so, it seeks to present artistic and discursive visions that go beyond and challenge the conventional division of the world between East and West. Raqs Media Collective, who straddle diverse roles in creative and curatorial work and research processes, envisage the biennale to be a destination for many different kinds of exploration and investigation as well as a launching pad for new visions and ideas. Taking its starting point as the question “Why not ask again?”, the biennial explores how questions ‘happen’ in our world and posits that art-works carry within them possible futures in as much as they are always drafts for the, as yet, untold future in the present.

Sharjah Biennial 13 will take place on several locations in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates from March 10 to June 12, 2017

Entitled Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13 (SB13) unfolds in five parts over a period of one year started in October 2016. Featuring over fifty international artists, this edition encompasses exhibitions and a public programme in two acts in Sharjah and Beirut, a year-long education programme in Sharjah, and art projects in Dakar, Ramallah, Istanbul, and Beirut. By stimulating collaborations, infrastructures, and strategies within those localities, SB13 poses questions around, and proposes answers to the conditions for the possibility of an art world. In a region currently being invested with larger institutions and lesser infrastructures, SB13 will cross from the ideal to the material. Vital interventions will stretch the idea of the biennial in order to traverse rooted contexts, harnessing the agility and fragility of present informal networks.

Art Fairs

The 19th edition of Art Paris Art Fair will open at the Grand Palais in Paris, France from March 30 to April 2, 2017

This edition will host over 130 modern and contemporary art galleries at the Grand Palais. Open to all forms of artistic expression including design, Art Paris Art Fair provides an overview of art from the post-war years to the current day with a theme-based approach that emphasises discovery. This edition puts African art under the spotlight and features monographic exhibitions in the Solo Show section and up-and-coming artists in the Promises section. The invitation of Africa as guest of honour highlights a previously-unseen perspective of contemporary African artistic horizons, as well as other visions of purely African or wider-ranging influences. The fair will seek to reveal the richness and diversity of Africa, representing artists from the continent but also its diaspora. Parallel to the fair, a symposium, a video programme, and special projects will be presented to show a wide panorama of African creation.