[-empyre-] Thanks Tim and Renate

[motoba naboko]

Hi Tim and Renate,
Thanks so much for your invitation. Thanks everyone!
Apparently my email this morning went out void. Please, find the content of
that email below. I know it is maybe too late, but in case anyone is
interested... (nunca es tarde si la dicha es buena)
All the best,
E

Hi everyone,

Thanks John Cates… for those links.

I have been unable to follow up all the discussions, but since we have one
more day to go I thought that it would be maybe useful to present you here
some of the ways in which in my curatorial practice I have tried to
challenge notions on Otherness and Western paradigms, particularly in
relation to the so-called African Other…



My first attempt was to inscribe Africa and a new meaning of Africanness in
the realm of cultural institutions in Spain. The CAAM, Centro Atlántico de
Arte Moderno in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria gave me that opportunity, while
I was part of their curatorial team. I decided to begin challenging the
stereotypes and prejudices that determine the display of contemporary
African art. In order to do so, I invited three co-curators, Tracy Murinik,
Khwezi Gule, and Gabi Ngcobo, to join me in a curatorial enterprise
entitled *Olvida quién Soy – Erase me from Who I am*. You can download the
curatorial essay from NKA magazine,
http://nka.dukejournals.org/content/2008/22-23.toc



After that project, I have worked in many other initiatives, solo shows,
urban interventions projects and films.



Among them…



*Attempt to Exhaust an African Place*, a three-events project. A workshop,
bringing together Spanish young artists with artists and workshop’s
directors, Raimi Gbadamoshi and Mounir Fatmi; a conference, featuring Sonia
Boyce, Meschac Gaba, Salah Hassan, and Gilane Tawadros, among others; and
an exhibition (a documentation space) resulting from that experience.
http://cultura2.gencat.cat/centredartsantamonicanet/index.php?s=activitats_p&id=32&lang=es(only
in Spanish, unfortunately… I have photos and info on the video
program if somebody is interested).



*Africalls? *A movie, a dvd/book and a documentary exhibition. I didn’t
display artists’ works, the subject of the movie/show was artists’ lives,
their day-to-day living. It aimed to take a closer look at contemporary
African art through the voice of five individual artists and two artist
collectives inviting the spectator to take part in an unusual experience. You
can watch the entire movie film here… His director Pere Ortin and myself
presented the film at Conflux Festival in New York in 2008.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/4180/Africalls-



Two more examples of that… the 2009 and 2010 editions of *Arte inVisible*.
*Arte inVisible *use to happen every year since 2006 during the ARCO Fair
in Madrid.  I was invited to re-conceptualize meanings of Africanness, and
the visibility and/or invisibility of African art. This was a collaborative
project, involving curators, artists, and lecturers. It was a
multidisciplinary event including exhibition of a various media, a
performance program, panel discussions and artists’ presentation. Here you
have two links to the videos of the two editions. The website includes as
well information on the various participants…



http://www.aecidarteinvisible.es/arteinvisible/arco2009e.html (play video)

http://www.aecidarteinvisible.es/arteinvisible/arco2010-e.html (click on
ver video)



The last one… *Welcome to Paradise* was the first individual presentation
of Nontsikelelo Veleko in Spain. The exhibition presents the most important
series of the, as yet incipient, career of this South African photographer,
while, at the same time, showing the latest photographs taken by the artist
in Gran Canaria. Veleko visited the island’s capital to observe how young
Africans live here. The purpose of this project was to examine in depth not
only those communities that arrived here recently, but also generations of
Africans who were born in the Canary Islands, with a view to responding to
questions such as what is the current African presence in the islands?
Which representation parameters do they identify with? The result was an
interesting socio-cultural experience. Here you have more information about
it (although only in Spanish, unfortunately!).

http://vimeo.com/10282938 (Lolo Veleko’s exhibition at Casa Africa)





I explored all these projects during my participation at the conference… *The
28th State: European Borders in an Age of Anxiety *in 2010.

http://195.194.24.19/ccwborderline/node/28 (Second Keynote, please scroll
down).



I go back to check everybody’s links, hoping to have added more material to
our last day of discussions.

Thanks so much.

Un abrazo,

E
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