1-54 Forum: Recent Episodes
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Founded in 2013, 1-54 has dedicated itself to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora and strives to promote diverse perspectives. With editions in London, New York and Marrakech annually, 1-54 features leading international galleries specialising in contemporary African art and is accompanied by the 1-54 Forum talks and Special Projects programme.
Being “African” in the so-called “Middle East”: Curating our Multiple Selves with Touria El Glaoui, Dr. Omar Kholeif and Dr. Ridha Moumni. How does one define one’s sense of ‘African-ness’ in an age where slippages around both language and its comprehension; visuality and its contradictions, are no longer subject to the binary of a singular form of identarian position or politics. In this series of stories and provocations, speakers reflect on the evolving definition of African legacies and heritage and consider the contradictions that arise when a creative individual occupies more than a single identity.
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The Poetry Salon: (My) Episodes of Everyday Racism, Interrupted with Raymond Antrobus, Phoebe Boswell, Lakwena Maciver, Andra Simons, and Dr. O. Drawing inspiration in-part from Grada Kilomba’s book, Plantation Memories, and Lola Olufemi’s Feminism, Interrupted, the FORUM’s second edition of the poetry salon invites artists and writers to present and reflect on poems that disrupt and challenge the very concept of ‘everyday racism’. The mask, the mouth, and the wound are expressed and amplified from the interstices of silence — not marginal, but rather, enabling new centres of reclaimed imagination to come to bear. Merging oral testimony, with the diaristic, the meditative, and the propulsive — the readings are followed by a group discussion of lived experience, and the power of ‘interruption’ facilitated through the singularity of the voice.
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Introduction & Exhibition Itineraries with Dr. ‘Ugochukwu-Smooth’ Nzewi and Dr. Omar Kholeif ‘Ugochukwu-Smooth’ Nzewi is an artist, art historian, and curator who currently serves as the inaugural Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Both trained as artists, Nzewi and Kholeif, take a winding path through the exhibition halls of memory, reflecting on the projects that inspired and gave route to formative trajectories, such as the Dak’Art Biennial in Senegal, through to the art spaces, that nourished and inspired them — from Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. In this conversation, the duo negotiates the tension between the notion of ‘tradition’ in art history against the accumulated concept of the contemporary. They consider the ethnographic and the anthropological in a dialogue that summons individual ways of looking and narrating art of Africa and its diasporas.
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Ageing Ruins…: A Listening Session with Otobong Nkanga and a response by Dr. O. Otobong Nkanga, one of the leading artistic voices of her generation, returns to FORUM to present four tracks from her forthcoming vinyl record release, developed from her award-winning installation, ‘Ageing Ruins Dreaming Only to Recall the Hard Chisel from the Past,’ at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, commissioned as part of Sharjah Biennial 14. Here, audiences are invited to an intimate evocation that explores the use of the artist’s voice within her practice, proffering possibilities and questions about the multiple forms of imagination that can be conjured through this form of embodiment. Here, the duo discusses the voice in relation to the body as a site contingency with its natural surroundings — the environment, which is forever transmuting, seeping through our hands, as much as it is responding to the contours of our hands. A discussion with the audience will follow.
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Narrating our “Pan-Afrikan” Connections: Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith in-dialogue with Lubaina Himid Marlene Smith is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator recognised for her research on Black Artists and Modernism in the UK. Claudette Johnson, known for her large-scale figurative drawings, are acknowledged for their ‘defiant’ contribution to the study of Black visuality. Both Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith were co-founders of the East-Midlands based, BLK Group formed in Wolverhampton in 1979, setting the stage for the anti-racist discourse of the British Black arts movement, which would follow the early 1980s. Lubaina Himid is an artist, who spent much of her life working to create space for herself and other Black women in the UK’s artistic ecosystem, simultaneously operating as a curator, cultural historian, and as an educator. Here, she speaks to Marlene Smith and Claudette Johnson about the complexities of negotiating one’s individual artistic practice, while also giving credence to the effective power of collective movement and action in shaping and nuancing our multiple histories of art. The panel draws its title from an exhibition held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in 1983.
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Intro to FORUM & Overture Number 2/A Re-Play: Koyo Kouoh: The Curator as Storyteller with Dr. Omar Kholeif Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director, and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town and Founding Director of RAW Materials Company in Dakar, in conversation with Kholeif, narrates a path — as a storyteller who weaves and builds upon the intimacies of human relationships. Here, Kouoh, leads, guides, and enables us through her commitment to a nurturing curatorial practice of multiple convenings with artists and curators. How did this all begin, and where to from here, for Koyo Kouoh? The path may not always have been traditional, perhaps even thorny, but Koyo has utilised divergent routes to construct pavements for African artists, authors, historians, and curators to be seen. What shall, and can we do together? In this talk, curator Kholeif, invites Koyo to walk down lanes of memory, to a beginning — tracing itineraries, developing maps, and building worlds, which might offer audiences an inventory for how to consider art in the present. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (22/05/2022)
Interlocking Histories (4:00 pm EST)
Two new exhibitions opening in October 2022 examine the engagement of African and African American artists creating new art in the 1940s through the 60s, that fostered transnational conversations and upended notions of modernity depicted by African artists. Kimberli Gant, PhD, co-curator of Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, and moderator Niama Safia Sandy will discuss and preview some of the featured art, and illuminate this time in art history.
https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (22/05/2022) Archiving, Reclamation, and Authoring Your History (2:00 pm EST)
The renaissance of archival resources and collections that center global Black experiences has fostered an appetite for a better understanding of how we define archives and how archival collections can be employed in the cultural arts. Whose narratives do the archives hold and what is missing? Should artists think about the archive as a mode of legacy building? Steven G. Fullwood (Nomadic Archivist Project), ceramicist King Houndekpinkou, Rianna Jade Parker (Brief History of Black British Art), and moderator Novella Ford are storytellers, archivists, researchers, and artists who will engage these questions and share their journeys to and through archives.
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1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (21/05/2022) Textiles and the Global Politic of the Black Arts Movement (4:00pm EST) A conversation with Harlem-born fiber artist Dindga McCannon and art collector and gallerist Lewis Long will explore the influence of McCannon’s Harlem upbringing, the politics that gave way to the creation of the Weusi Artist Collective and Where We At Black Women Artists Inc., and the enduring use of textiles in artmaking today. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (21/05/2022) Under the Influence of Édouard Glissant (1:00pm EST) Martinican poet, novelist, philosopher, and academic, Édouard Glissant (1928-2011), is considered one of the greatest writers and thinkers of his generation. What can the theories and writings of Glissant help us to understand about navigating and preserving cultural complexities? How can they operate in artmaking, criticism, and artists serving spaces? Tiana Webb Evans, art maven, brand strategist, and founder of The Jamaica Art Society, with artist Johanna Mirabel, will consider and reconsider these questions and explore Mirabel’s work in this context. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Closing Remarks - Motorised Justice: A Poem for the Drifters 1-54 Forum Curator Dr Omar Kholeif closes the day with a lyric poem authored during the course of the Fair and Forum https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) FOCUS: Zina Saro-Wiwa followed by an in-person Q&A with Professor Sarah Perks(14:45 pm – 16:15 pm CET) Esteemed artist and filmmaker, Zina Saro-Wiwa, presents a specially curated screening and in-person conversation on her film and video work, including a special preview of an in-development epic feature. From founding the alt-Nollywood movement to a near-mystical obsession with food and drink, Saro-Wiwa’s oeuvre is characterised by storytelling that expands beyond belief systems, producing unique visual encounters that cross geographical, cultural, and metaphysical space. Saro-Wiwa’s films and video installations combine personal and collective emotion with pop culture, reworking global historical cinematic genres from melodrama and sci-fi to biblical epic in order to consider legacies of trauma, historical memory, and the otherworldly potential to transcend them. Here, Saro-Wiwa shares existing works including the influential cult-classic Phyllis (2010), The Deliverance of Comfort (2010), and her acclaimed Table Manners series (2014-2019), alongside the inspiration, ideas, and extracts for a new feature-length work, Eucharia. The session will be moderated by curator and film producer, Professor Sarah Perks, who has a long-standing interest in the artist’s work. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Have We Ever Been Modern? Joël Andrianomearisoa Christine Eyene Marie-Cécile Zinsou Moderator: Marie-Ann Yemsi
How do we negotiate the tension between the notion of old and new; the ‘traditional’ and the contemporary culture produced on the African continent and its diaspora today? Rather than retreating into debates of semantics, this conversation seeks to create a propositional sphere, where social justice is not merely an aspiration but a way of collaboratively thinking through the different means that solidarity around African art can be made manifest. Whether deliberating restitution or the framing of our present discourses of contemporary art, this session seeks to move us beyond the debate of western notions of modernity, in favour of a dichotomous and rapturous sphere of constant dissonance.
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1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Painting a New Expressionism: A Keynote conversation between artist, Anuar Khalifi and Dr Omar Kholeif (11:45 am – 12:45 pm CET) One of the most exciting artists working in painting to emerge onto the international scene in recent memory, Anuar Khalifi, who splits his time between Barcelona and Tangier, was the subject of several exhibitions during the global lockdowns associated with Covid-19. Now, in a significant keynote conversation with Dr. Omar Kholeif, the artist takes us through the evolution of his stylistic forms and motifs, from his early pursuits of drawing as a child through to his recent collaboration with artist and musician, Yasiin Bey, AyYa. In their conversation, the duo traces their parallel lives living in multiple diasporas and their broad interests in expanding arts potential to be inclusive of the tensions of being from and of the Global South. They address the stylistic burdens of Orientalism versus modernity and explore the possibilities of pushing these formal limits. They ask: How should one express oneself in the freewheeling 21st century? https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Opening Remarks / A Memento to Marrakech (11:00 am – 11:15 am CET) Forum Curator Dr Omar Kholeif introduces 1-54 Forum Paris. Enter the Frame with Hassan Hajjaj (Video Address and Conversation, 11:15 am – 11:45 am CET) 1-54 Forum begins by reflecting on the complex cultural constellations of Marrakech, Morocco, a site where the 1-54 Forum and Fair has for the second time been moved due to the evolving contours of the Covid-19 pandemic. Audiences are invited to Enter the Frame of the Day in a special trans-border conversation with the polymath, Hassan Hajjaj. An Andy Warhol for the 21st Century, artist Hajjaj demystifies Morocco’s cliches, immersing us into the heart of the city’s Medina and revealing new work in progress in a conversation with Forum Curator, Dr Kholeif. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October In the Last Days of the City Q&A A Q&A with the film’s director Tamer El Said and the film’s star Khalid Abdalla led by Dr. Omar Kholeif. In the Last Days of the City, Tamer El Said’s ambitious debut feature, tells the fictional story of a filmmaker from downtown Cairo played by Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, United 93, Green Zone, The Square) as he struggles to capture the soul of a city on edge while facing loss in his own life. Shot in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin during the two years before the outbreak of revolution in Egypt, the film’s multi-layered stories are a visually rich exploration of friendship, loneliness and life in cities shaped by the shadows of war and adversity. AWARDS Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale Critics Award for Best Arab Film in 2016, Arab Cinema Center Grand Prix of New Horizons International Film Festival Grand Prix of Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes Best Film, San Francisco Arab Film Festival, USA, 2016 Best Director at Buenos Aires International Film festival (BAFICI) www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Walk Towards the Future (French) This open-ended conversation explores the concept of artist as philanthropist; the artist as the maker and progenitor of institutions, and the diverse ways that they approach this aspect of their practice. Is institutionalism a form of artistic practice? Or rather, is it a by-product of a hollowed vacuum that requires re-imagining, regenerating? How do these engines fuel a vision for a collective future? How do we sustain them and enliven them with the potential tools required to sustain their existence? Dr. Omar Kholeif leads a conversation with artists Michael Armitage, Bill Kouélany, and Otobong Nkanga. In partnership with Phaidon to celebrate the publication of 'African Artists.' Available for purchase on phaidon.com. Save 20% using PHAIDON20. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Walk Towards the Future (English) This open-ended conversation explores the concept of artist as philanthropist; the artist as the maker and progenitor of institutions, and the diverse ways that they approach this aspect of their practice. Is institutionalism a form of artistic practice? Or rather, is it a by-product of a hollowed vacuum that requires re-imagining, regenerating? How do these engines fuel a vision for a collective future? How do we sustain them and enliven them with the potential tools required to sustain their existence? Dr. Omar Kholeif leads a conversation with artists Michael Armitage, Bill Kouélany, and Otobong Nkanga. In partnership with Phaidon to celebrate the publication of 'African Artists.' Available for purchase on phaidon.com. Save 20% using PHAIDON20. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Poetry Salon: On Fragile Ground In this curated poetry salon, five artists-writers present a collective dreamscape. Newly commissioned pieces of lyric, poem and song exploring themes of environmental justice will converge in myriad life-like forms—the drift resuscitated. Join Anaïs Duplan, Lubaina Himid CBE RA, Isaiah A. Hines, Dr. Omar Kholeif and Otobong Nkanga. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 A History of Echoes Amidst this symphony of voices: curators, artists and creative collaborators discuss the exhibitions fashioned from the imagination of the late Nigerian curator, Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019). By exploring the sediments of the past, the collective voices herein sketch out a path for listeners to imagine an alternative possible future—one that is inclusive of the dissonant voices and identities, which make up our shared world. Hoor Al Qasimi (President and Director, Sharjah Art Foundation and President, The Africa Institute, Sharjah) leads a conversation with Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker (former Director, Villa Stuck; Vancouver Art Gallery; Frye Art Museum and Biennale of Sydney), Godfried Donkor(Artist, Gallery 1957) and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Artists). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October Performance : Objective Romance and Scarce New Flowers A short experimental musical performance by Zimbabwean musician, mbira player and poet Hope Masike. With three studio albums, a published poetry book and several collaborative and tour credits to her name, Masike shares her art with audiences across the globe. ww.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 The Virtual Salon The digital, the virtual, the augmented, the real, the imagined; A.F.K versus I.R.L—the lexicon around our digital world both perplexes and invigorates ‘our’ collective consciousness. In the western world, debates of African digitality often summon references to ‘digital divides’ and social inequity. The reality, in many instances, contrarily exhibits a much more complex picture. Internet diffusion across the continent has proliferated at warp speed across the last decade, enabling an entirely new generation of artists and makers to explore the possibilities of digitality in motion. Here, artists have produced a multitude of virtual forms and artefacts; NFTs, memes, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Within these interstitial spaces, creative practitioners have found tools that have enabled new forms of expression—an agency that enables independently-driven storytelling techniques that embody queer, feminist alter-narratives to breathe in open space. Princess Alia al-Senussi, PhD (Cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker and academic) leads a discussion with Osinachi (Artist), Sumayya Vally (Principal Architect, Counterspace), Gemma Rolls-Bentley (Chief Curator, Avant Arte) and Tinie Tempah (Rapper and Singer). ww.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 Overture/Talk - The Continental Drift: Recuperating the Echoes, the Ghosts, the Songs In this opening keynote, 1-54 Forum curator Dr. Omar Kholeif frames the context of Continental Drift. They demonstrate this through the work of continental poets, songwriters, lyricists, and historians deceased and erased; forgotten or lost whose ghosts have been summoned. Here they beckon, primed to be heard. Dr. Omar Kholeif will be joined by Koyo Kouoh (Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA). www.1-54.com
1-54 VIP Webinar | Secondary market for contemporary African Art 2020/2021 7 October 2021 Drawing from Corrigall & Co’s latest report, Mary Corrigall will discuss the status of the secondary market for contemporary African art. The findings are based on an analysis of figures from sales that have taken place from January 2020 to June 2021. As the focus is on gauging the temperature of the African art market only auctions dedicated to the sale of African art were under the microscope. These auctions were conducted in Africa and Europe by the following auction houses; Sotheby's (London), Bonhams (London, New York), Artcurial (Paris, Marrakesh, Piasa (Paris), Strauss & Co (Cape Town, Joburg), Aspire Art Auctions (Cape Town, Joburg), Compagnie Marocaine des Oeuvres et Objets d'Art (Casablanca) and Arthouse (Lagos). Over 9000 lots were analysed. Corrigall will introduce some of the important findings that relate to the contemporary works. Under discussion will be which countries in the African art ecosystem claim the market share for the sale of contemporary works at auction, as well as how the value and what is valued differs in markets in Africa and Europe. A few case studies will be included. For more information on the Contemporary African Art Auctions 2020/2021 visit: https://www.corrigall.org/contemporaryartauctions2020 Corrigall & Co is a Cape Town-based art research consultancy with a focus on mapping art ecosystems in contemporary art from the African continent. It was established in 2016 by Mary Corrigall, an award-winning art journalist and academic. Our research is channelled into bespoke art reports, presentations, workshops and consultations with collectors and art organisations. Previous reports include; South African Art Market: Pricing & Patterns, African Art Auctions, Europe, October 2020, Contemporary African Art Ecology: A Decade of Curating, Top 50 Artists & the Top 20 Curators who validated them and Joburg Art Fairs. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Artist Talk with Timothy Washington Join artist Timothy Washington and curator Kilolo Luckett as they discuss Washington’s recent work and practice for his solo exhibition, INDUCTION & SUSPICION, currently on view at Duane Thomas Gallery. Alongside they will also be discussing Washington’s life and work in ‘60s and ‘70s Los Angeles as a central figure in the Black Arts Movement that comprised of artists such as Charles White, David Hammons, Betye Saar, Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, and Senga Nengudi, amongst others. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 THE BLACK FILE: Perspectives of the Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Art Join Igi Lola Ayedun (Artist and Founder, HOA Galeria), Carollina Lauriano (Independent Curator and Co-curator, 13th Mercosul Biennial) and Thiago de Paula Souza (Curator and Researcher) as they discuss the importance of contemporary Afro-Brazilian art to Black art scenes globally and how it’s full potential locally and globally can be reached through the art market and institutional frameworks. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 A Reflection: The arts in the time of the Black lives matter movement Join Destinee Ross-Sutton (ROSS-SUTTON Gallery), Rudy Shepherd (Artist), Everette Taylor (CMO, Artsy) and Claude Grunitzky (Founder, True Africa) as they reflect on a year of art world practices following the protests against police brutality and broader racial inequalities in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Are we witnessing change or statements unkept? Where there has been change, how is this materialising and set to change the future of the art world and beyond? www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Threading Histories: Dindga McCannon and Tina Williams Brewer in Conversation World-renowned artists Dindga McCannon and Tina Williams Brewer have taken quilting and storytelling practices to new realms, memorialising African American histories as they do. Led by curator and art historian Kilolo Luckett, McCannon and, Williams Brewer will explore their work in Knotted Ties as well as their work more broadly within the context of quilting practices in the US. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Artist Talk with the 2021 Ritzau Art Prize Winner | Micha Serraf We are pleased to announce that Micha Serraf is the winner of the Ritzau Art Prize 2021! Serraf will be speaking about his practice alongside Colleen Ritzau Leth (Founder of the Ritzau Art Prize) and Kneo Mokgopa (Advocacy Manager, Nelson Mandela Foundation). The Ritzau Art Prize is an award supporting extraordinary artists from the African continent with three-month career-enhancing residencies at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City supported by Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy. About ISCP The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) supports the creative development of artists and curators, and promotes exchange through residencies and public programs. Housed in a former factory in Brooklyn, with studios, galleries, and a project space, ISCP is New York’s most comprehensive international visual arts residency program, founded in 1994. For more information visit https://iscp-nyc.org/ (here). About Ritzau Art Prize The Ritzau Art Prize is funded by Colleen Ritzau Leth, Executive Director at Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy, a private family foundation that since 2017 has supported residencies for young, promising African artists at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York. The prize builds on the foundation’s commitment to provide artists from the continent with dynamic, immersive residencies that create visibility and advance their careers. For more information visit http://tripgiving.org/index.php (here). www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Performance Art in the time of Protest and Pandemic 3 March 2021 A conversation with artists Jelili Atiku, Shelia Chukwulozie and Adelaide Damoah led by Lisa Anderson, independent curator and founder of Black British Art. 2020 bore witness to a global pandemic and widespread protests against police brutality and racism. Within this context how have performance practices and processes changed? When an audience is being restricted from gathering but also driven to gather to fight against issues of systemic racism, how can, and has, performance been a part of these conversations? Where are performance practices going next? www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Making and Unmaking Art Schools from The Nineteenth Century to the Present In this conversation led by Francesca Masoero and guided by the research of curators and art historians Aude Mgba and Nadine Atallah, we will explore histories of the making, unmaking, and remaking of artistic learnings and schooling institutes across the African continent. Through a historically-informed journey moving from pre-colonial forms of transmission, to colonial and post-colonial infrastructures of knowledge and artistic production, the conversation will examine on the one hand, the ways in which artists, collectives, and movements navigated dominant, institutional educational sites. On the other, by investigating the ways in which some of these actors attempted to recraft learning modes anew, grounding them on vernacular processes and spaces of knowledge-making, we will try to reflect on the situated futures of artistic education ahead. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Making and Unmaking Art Schools from The Nineteenth Century to the Present Dans cette conversation, guidée par les recherches des commissaires et historiennes de l’art Aude Mgba et Nadine Atallah, nous explorerons l’histoire de l’apparition, la disparition et de la refonte des formations artistiques et institutions dédiés, sur le continent africain. À travers un parcours historique allant des formes de transmission précoloniales aux infrastructures coloniales et postcoloniales de la production de connaissance et artistique, la conversation examinera la manière dont les artistes, les collectifs et les mouvements ont évolué avec les formes d’éducation institutionnelles dominantes. D’autre part, en explorant la manière dont certains de ces acteurs ont tenté de recréer des modes d’apprentissage en les fondant sur des processus et des espaces de production de connaissances vernaculaires, nous tenterons de réfléchir aux futurs de l’éducation artistique. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech An Oral Gaze: Between Bouanani and Sembene Conversation entre Touda Bouanani et Samba Gadjigo, modérée par Nadir Bouhmouch. Réunissant l’artiste Touda Bouanani et le cinéaste / chercheur en cinéma Samba Gadjigo, cette conversation se situe à l’intersection entre le cinéma africain et les arts oraux populaires qui l’ont parfois inspiré. En mettant l’accent sur Ousmane Sembene et Ahmed Bouanani, la discussion portera sur la manière dont les arts oraux ont éclairé ou influencé les travaux des pionniers du cinéma africain qui cherchaient à “décoloniser le regard”. En effet, si Sembene a vu dans le cinéaste un “Griot”, Bouanani y aurait vu un “Amdiaz”. A ce titre, nous partirons de la récente sortie du livre La septième porte : Une histoire du cinéma au Maroc pour aborder la manière dont les cultures, les histoires et les arts indigènes ont contribué à créer un cinéma africain qui remet en question les codes et l’esthétique occidentaux. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech An Oral Gaze: Between Bouanani and Sembene Led by Nadir Bouhmouch and bringing together artist Touda Bouanani and filmmaker/film scholar Samba Gadjigo, this conversation situates itself at the intersection between African cinema and the popular oral arts which have sometimes inspired it. With a focus on Ousmane Sembene and Ahmed Bouanani, the discussion will revolve around how the oral arts have inspired or informed the works of African film pioneers looking to “Decolonise the Gaze.” www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Resounding Waves: on the making of sonic solidarities through radio Departing from their respective research projects Radio Earth Hold and we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming, in this conversation Rachel Dedman and Yasmina Reggad explore the formation of sonic solidarities across different regions and liberation struggles, carried out by and through radio, sounds, acoustics and acousmatics in Palestine, Algeria, and beyond. Recording Credits and References (1) VOICE: Salah Badis, From the sound intervention ‘On the Palestinian Cause and Western Sahara Question’ by Yasmina Reggad, commissioned by ‘Kibrit: Reactivating collective histories, shares spaces and common places’, broadcasted from Algiers via Skype to Le 18 (Marrakech, Morocco), December 2017. (2) ENG: ’This is the voice of Algeria’, by Franz Fanon, From "A Dying Colonialism", Translated by Haakon Chevalier, Grove Press, 1965. FR: “Ici la voix de l’Algérie”, in Frantz Fanon, Sociologie d’une révolution (L’an V de la révolution algérienne). François Maspero, Paris, 1972. (3) المجد للثورة (Glory to the Revolution), provenance unknown, 1970s. Listen to the whole song https://soundcloud.com/markazeya/track-16 (here). (4) Abdullah Haddad, ‘Tactics’, performed for Yasser Arafat at a ceremony devoted to the Palestinian revolution, Yemen, 1983. Listen to the whole song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJbV4G6UDg&fbclid=IwAR052l1GuMHs7IN45KwUdK4JR1lRZ0r6J8WOiftcnJ8pXOxnXylNGr0OMhg&ab_channel=AhmedAlshiekh (here). (5) VOICE: José Francisco Falero From the digital sound archive of one broadcast of 'La Voz de Canarias libre'. Direction des Archives de la Radio algérienne, Algiers (Algeria), n.d. (6) Listen to Radio al-Hara: https://yamakan.place/palestine/ (https://yamakan.place/palestine/) (7) Jericho - First Palestinian TV Test Transmission, World Television News, no. w067280, 1994.See the whole video http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/Jericho-First-Palestinian-TV-Test-Transmission/b51f0816d045539b6a25266954ea02fc?query=first+palestinian+tv+transmission¤t=1&orderBy=Relevance&hits=8&referrer=search&search=%2fsearch%3fstartd%3d%26endd%3d%26a (here). (8)VOICE: AISSA MESSAOUDI ‘Palestinian Radio Ends Broadcasts From Algeria’. Algiers Voice of Palestine in Arabic 17.02 GMT 7 Aug 94 Daily Report. Near East & South Asia (FBIS-NES-94-152), 08 August 1994, Palestinian Affairs, Page 17 Sonic Links Eclosion: https://smartlink.ausha.co/eclosion?fbclid=IwAR0j7kVpG8a_Q2e0CtuZznWSEjCQo54iVMnrXzyhOZh9MivjOHoYvI798_Y (https://smartlink.ausha.co/eclosion?fbclid=IwAR0j7kVpG8a_Q2e0CtuZznWSEjCQo54iVMnrXzyhOZh9MivjOHoYvI798_Y) Elle m’écrit d’Alger: https://play.acast.com/s/elle-mecrit-dalger?fbclid=IwAR3gphJQotCm0S6vpTH9nsJLjMl08kbD7AwfXDfMXLG75awbzTltCKlrqqM (https://play.acast.com/s/elle-mecrit-dalger?fbclid=IwAR3gphJQotCm0S6vpTH9nsJLjMl08kbD7AwfXDfMXLG75awbzTltCKlrqqM) Machahou: https://smartlink.ausha.co/machahou (https://smartlink.ausha.co/machahou) Radio Corona Internationale: https://soundcloud.com/radio-corona-internationale (https://soundcloud.com/radio-corona-internationale) Radio M: https://radio-m.net (https://radio-m.net) Vintage Arab: https://soundcloud.com/vintagearab?fbclid=IwAR21A60neAV7MEy0XYgwOOnfxzJKhUfbtMYHIU0Be9jNj6emZfWyI87EYnY (https://soundcloud.com/vintagearab?fbclid=IwAR21A60neAV7MEy0XYgwOOnfxzJKhUfbtMYHIU0Be9jNj6emZfWyI87EYnY) Link to Radio Earth Hold #1: The Colonial Voice: https://soundcloud.com/user-854660269-405465536/radio-earth-hold-colonial-voice (https://soundcloud.com/user-854660269-405465536/radio-earth-hold-colonial-voice) Link to Radio Earth Hold #3: Pitch Blue https://thecontemporaryjournal.org/strands/sonic-continuum/radio-earth-hold-003-pitch-blue (https://thecontemporaryjournal.org/strands/sonic-continuum/radio-earth-hold-003-pitch-blue)
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Sonic Archaeologies A radio performance by Abdellah Hassak in conversation with artist-performer Ghassan El Hakim, initiator of Cabaret Cheikhat, and artist Othman El Kheloufi, composer, saxophonist and theater director. Turning to a history of sound allows one to “de-center” history. While political history draws us to the formal places of power (capitals, royal courts, parliaments, palaces), sound history takes us to much more varied places, both strange and wonderful. Political history is centripetal; sound history is centrifugal. – David Hendy, author of the BBC Radio documentary series entitled Noise, a Human History of Sound and Listening Sonic Archaeologies is an invitation to experiment the multiple capacities of sound recording to re-construct and re-compose the historical narratives of territories, experiences, or policies. Proposed and animated by Abdellah Hassak, this spontaneous conversation, activated by a listening session of sound archives proposes to restitute the past, through an unconventional approach. A record, a voice, a song, a rhythm, or a sound archive can be listened to and discussed, from their socio-political context and through their sound practice, their production, and the recording context. What do recordings from the past tell us? How do they shed light on some important events of Moroccan history? The conversation, live streamed from LE 18 in Marrakech, will further reflect on the reciprocal influences between the recordings and the sociological, historical or anthropological evolution of Morocco. Full transcript in English here: https://www.1-54.com/paris/1-54-forum-paris-2021-sonic-archaeologies/ (https://www.1-54.com/paris/1-54-forum-paris-2021-sonic-archaeologies/)
1-54 Forum Paris 2021 20 - 23 Janvier Curated by LE 18, Marrakech SOURIEZ!Photographie vernaculaire ou l’album de famille, une histoire de moments choisis ou la performance sociale. La photographie vernaculaire est un genre de photographie d’amateur dont le sujet est la vie de tous les jours, sans intention esthétique ni artistique. De nombreux artistes depuis quelques décennies s’intéressent aux images pauvres, photos trouvées, albums récupérés, qui ne leur appartiennent pas et qui racontent des histoires, intimes, anonymes, constituant une matière brute à re-sculpter, fictionnaliser, pour en réinventer et re-présenter la fonction, d’objet de mémoire. Une conversation à trois entre Laila Hida artiste photographe et fondatrice du 18, Anne Delrez, photographe et fondatrice de la Conserverie et Carolle Bénitah, photographe pla, dont les pratiques convergent vers l’album de famille qu’elles ont de différentes manières, réactivé, manipulé, exposé pour explorer. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech SMILE! Vernacular photography and the family album: a history of chosen moments, or performing the social. Vernacular photography is a kind of amateur photography whose subject is everyday life, without aesthetic or artistic intent. For several decades, many artists have been interested in poor images, found photos, recovered albums, which do not belong to them and which tell stories, intimate, anonymous, constituting a raw material to be re-sculpted, fictionalized, in order to reinvent and re-present its function as an object of memory. A three-way conversation between Laila Hida, artist photographer and founder of LE 18, Anne Delrez, photographer and founder of the Conserverie and Carolle Bénitah, photographer, whose practices converge towards the family album that they have in different ways, reactivated, manipulated, exhibited to explore. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Creating public installations across Africa and its diaspora 2 December 2020 Imagining, designing and filling public spaces gives creatives unique challenges and opportunities, from collaboration and production to establishing a work’s post-artist existence. What is the position of public installations in Africa and across its diaspora, and where is it going next? Join Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell (Co-Founder, doual'art), Zak Ové (Artist), David Ogunmuyiwa (Founder, Architecture Doing Place) in discussion with Dr. George Tebogo Mahashe (Researcher). www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Artists to Watch: Anya Paintsil and DuduBloom More 18 October 2020 Join Touria El Glaoui as she speaks with two artists, Anya Paintsil (Ed Cross Fine Art) and DuduBloom More (Berman Contemporary), to discuss their sold-out solo booths at 1-54 London 2020 and their practices in textiles. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Relationship Status: it's Complicated The profound distortions related to African legacy in Argentina, Mexico and Peru are still far from being part of a mainstream narrative. The historical, institutional and personal difficulties in examining African identity in Argentina, Mexico and Perus are also becoming more and more relevant for various cultural producers using artistic activism as a tool for raising awareness. Speakers include Gaby Messina (Artist), Koral Carballo (Photographer), Entes (Artist) moderated by Gabriela Salgado (Curator). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. Following a brief introduction, this recording is in Spanish. If you would like to listen in English, please find the English recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Relationship Status: it's Complicated The profound distortions related to African legacy in Argentina, Mexico and Peru are still far from being part of a mainstream narrative. The historical, institutional and personal difficulties in examining African identity in Argentina, Mexico and Perus are also becoming more and more relevant for various cultural producers using artistic activism as a tool for raising awareness. Speakers include Gaby Messina (Artist), Koral Carballo (Photographer), Entes (Artist) moderated by Gabriela Salgado (Curator). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. This recording is in English. If you would like to listen in Spanish, please find the Spanish recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 A View From the Other Side of Things Many of the inequalities inherited from slavery in Colombia still remain, having an impact on different levels of society. This panel brings together cultural producers from afro-Colombian perspectives to discuss the notions of inequality and invisibility in the context of Colombia’s creative/art sector. Speakers include Ramiro Camelo (Curator at Myymälä2), Nicolás Vizcaíno Sánchez (Artist), Carmenza Banguera (Artist) and moderated by Will Furtado (Artist, writer and deputy editor at Contemporary &). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. Following a brief introduction, this audio recording is in Spanish. If you would like to listen in English, please find the English recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 A View From the Other Side of Things Many of the inequalities inherited from slavery in Colombia still remain, having an impact on different levels of society. This panel brings together cultural producers from afro-Colombian perspectives to discuss the notions of inequality and invisibility in the context of Colombia’s creative/art sector. Speakers include Ramiro Camelo (Curator at Myymälä2), Nicolás Vizcaíno Sánchez (Artist), Carmenza Banguera (Artist) and moderated by Will Furtado (Artist, writer and deputy editor at Contemporary &). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 10 October 2020 Global Connections What are the shared histories, narratives and experiences, what are the differences that define the connections between Afro-Latin America, The Caribbean and Africa? How, if it all, does this affect cultural producers finding themselves in a creative state of flux? Speakers include Koffi Mensah (Artist), Evan Ifekoya (Artist) and moderated by Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba (Founding editors of Contemporary & and Contemporary América Latina). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 10 October 2020 Modes of Resistance What role does or should play contemporary art in moments like these? On a political, personal, global scale? Why is it crucial? Or isn’t it? What role play important notions of solidarity and self-care? This panel invites artists and academics to discuss current urgencies and strategies in the context of the Brazilian art scenes. This includes academic and artistic perspectives. Speakers include Rosana Paulino (Artist, educator and curator), Luciane Ramos Silva (Dancer, independent curator, choreographer and anthropologist), Enorê (Artist) and moderated by Raquel Villar Pérez (Assistant Curator at Photoworks and researcher). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Representation Beyond Representation In this current moment that sees a rise of interest in Europe and North America towards Caribbean art scenes and art histories the panel asks questions around who is represented by who, where and how? What does this rising attention mean? How or does this even affect cultural producers from the Caribbean and its Diaspora? Speakers include Caryl* Ivrisse-Crochemar (Founding Director of espace d’art contemporain 14N 61W), Alberta Whittle (Artist), Rhea Storr (Artist) and moderator Magnus Elias Rosengarten (Writer and artist). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 8 - 10 October 2020 What is ‘Latinx’? The term “Latinx” is an update of traditional labels such as “Hispanic” or “Latin” which emerged around the mid-twentieth century to describe Latin American migrant communities in the US. Aldeide Delgado (Independent Latinx Curator and Founding Director of Women Photographers International Archive) talks about the implications and opportunities of the new expression. Relevant resource list compiled by Aldeide Delgado available on the 1-54 Forum London 2020 webpage. http://www.1-54.com (www.1-54.com)
1-54 x Christie's | Collect, Curate, Connect: Insights into Contemporary African Art 6 October 2020 With 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair's London edition and 1-54 Online, Powered by Christie's, Christie's is hosted a panel with leading experts working within contemporary African art scenes to open its 1-54 pop-up exhibition at the Duke Street Gallery. Join Isabel Millar (Junior Specialist and curator of the 1-54 pop-up exhibition) as she speaks with Pulane Kingston (Collector and member of the Africa Acquisitions Committee at the Tate Modern), Ayo Adeyinka (Director of TAFETA gallery) and Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba (Curators and Founding Editors of Contemporary &), to discuss Africa's dynamic art scenes and how to meaningfully engage with and collect contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar African biennales as portals for collaborative practices 22 July, 2020 1-54 invited Christine Eyene, Artistic Director, Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Sammy Baloji, Co-Founder, Biennale de Lubumbashi and Daudi Karungi, Director & Coordinator, Kampala Art Biennale to discuss African biennales and collaborative practices. Conversation moderated by Nkgopoleng Moloi, South African writer, curator and photographer. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar The Future of Art Collecting 15 July, 2020 1-54 invited collectors Sandra Mbanefo Obiago (Nigeria), Pulane Kingston (South Africa) and Kenneth Montague (Canada), for a conversation focusing on the future of art collecting. The webinar will be moderated by Chela Mitchell, art advisor and founder of Komuna. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar Reinventing African Art Museums for Changing Times 8 July, 2020 1-54 invited Sonia Lawson, Founding Director, Palais de Lomé (Lomé, Togo); Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Cape Town, South Africa) and Dr. Karen E. Melbourne, Senior Curator, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC, USA). They were in discussion with Claude Grunitzky, Founder of TRUE Africa. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar What role can art centres in Africa play in navigating a rapidly shifting world? 1 July, 2020 1-54 invited Teesa Bahana, Director, 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust (Kampala, Uganda), Mirna Wessels, CEO, Spier Arts Trust (Cape Town, South Africa) and Ibrahim Mahama, Founder, The Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (Tamale, Ghana) to discuss what role their art centres, located in diverse parts of Africa, can play in a local and international context. They were in discussion with Rebecca Anne Proctor, former Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar Art and Harper’s Bazaar Interiors. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar Access all Areas: How to challenge institutions to break their exclusive structures? 17 June, 2020 The current eruptions around the globe instigated by century-long structural racism and ignorance has caused many cultural institutions to publicly acknowledge their blanks and faults. While this can be deemed as a first step towards change, the big question remains: how will this lead to in-depth, long-term transformations? 1-54 has invited Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba (Co-Founders and Editors-in-Chief of Contemporary And) to curate and moderate a conversation between Sepake Angiama (Artistic Director Iniva, London), Linett Kamala (Artist, Educator and Director for Lin Kam Art), and Touria El Glaoui (Founding Director, 1-54) discussing possibilities and tools for a diversification of the art world.
1-54 Lockdown Webinar How are contemporary African art galleries envisioning the post COVID-19 art world? May 28, 2020 1-54 invited Rakeb Sile, Founder and Director, Addis Fine Art (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and London, UK), Cécile Fakhoury, Founder and Director, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and Dakar, Senegal) and Ayo Adeyinka, Founder and Director, TAFETA (London, UK) to discuss how their galleries, located in diverse parts of the world, can and will adapt to a redefined art world. They will be in discussion with Touria El Glaoui, Founding Director, 1-54.
1-54 Lockdown Webinar The Future of Contemporary African Art Fairs May 22, 2020 1-54 invited art fairs Founders and Directors Tokini Peterside (ART X Lagos), Victoria Mann (AKAA), Mandla Sibeko (FNB Art Joburg) to a discussion on the future of contemporary African art fairs with 1-54 Founding Director Touria El Glaoui. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February 2020 Enacting Agencies [EN] Working across geographies, connecting with communities locally, highlighting aspects of craftmanship or vernacular knowledge. These are some of the defining aspects of projects such as Future Assembly, Caravane Tighmert and QANAT (Kibrit) whose founders Hansi Momodu-Gordon, Carlos Perez Marín and Francesca Masoero respectively will be in a discussion around models and methodologies for community based and peer-to-peer engagement projects. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February 2020 Curating as Collaborative Practice 2/ DREAM CITY [FR] Within On focus: Communal Knowledge at Large, a laboratory of three events taking place at key intervals took on a workshop approach. Entitled, Curating as a Collaborative Practice, the laboratory provided ESAV students, local practitioners and other members of the public with the opportunity to observe, debate, and participate in a dialogue around three case studies, which take as a source their immediate context and the communities that inhabit them. Meeting an urgency to reclaim public spaces confined by officialdom and its institutions, Dream City is a bi-annual contemporary arts festival in the medina of Tunis, Tunisia, that aims to reimagine the city. Co-founder of arts association, L’art Rue, and director of the festival, Sofiane Ouissi and artistic director Jan Goossens, lead a session delving into the festival’s concept and materialisation. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February 2020 Artist Talk: Katia Kameli [FR + EN] Artist Katia Kameli introduces us to her film trilogy, The Algerian Novel, in which she gathers a myriad of images to look at the complex relationships between notions of history and future. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February 2020 Artist Talk: Kiluanji Kia Henda [EN] Invested in a postcolonial imaginary beyond both conceptual and physical remains of the colonial era, artist Kiluanji Kia Henda’s work focuses on the role and engagement of individuals as participants of history writing and of the transformation of current or futuristic societies. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February Opening Remarks [EN] Elvira Dyangani Ose (1-54 Forum Programme Curator) gives insights into this year’s 1-54 Forum programme. Context as Source [FR + EN] What are the fundamental mechanisms that establish curatorial remits or exhibition-making as a tool to read a context? How do curators and artists predominantly working on the edges or outside of a determined territory or arena successfully build the connections with art and non-art audiences? Christine Eyene (Art Historian, Critic and Curator of the Biennale Internationale de Casablanca), Sofiane Ouissi (Co-Founder of L’art Rue and director of Dream City), Jan Goossens (Artistic Director, Festival de Marseille and Dream City), and Marie-Ann Yemsi (Art Consultant and Curator) in conversation with Elvira Dyangani Ose. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 20 - 24 February 2020 Curating as Collaborative Practice 1/ THE FICTIONAL MARRAKECH BIENNALE [EN + FR] Within On focus: Communal Knowledge at Large, a laboratory of three events taking place at key intervals took on a workshop approach. Entitled, Curating as a Collaborative Practice, the laboratory provided ESAV students, local practitioners and other members of the public with the opportunity to observe, debate, and participate in a dialogue around three case studies, which take as a source their immediate context and the communities that inhabit them. A speculative exhibition history exploring the performative attempt behind the formulation of The Fictional Biennale, an artist-driven project which questions the role and agency of artists in the absence of particular platforms of display. This laboratory takes as starting point Youness Atbane, M'barek Bouhchichi and Simohammed Fettaka’s inquiry and the ghostly imaginary their project generated, to expand their ideas and unveiled some of the fictional propositions they included in the ‘catalogue’ it archived in 2018. They will be joined by Florence Devereux, member of Mint Works and applicant to The Fictional Biennial. In partnership with ESAV, l'École Supérieure des Arts Visuels de Marrakech. Our partnership with ESAV commenced with the inaugural Marrakech edition in 2018. www.1-54.com
VIP Talk 20 - 24 February 2020 Inclusivity in the Arts, Culture and Commerce A panel discussion organised by Sotheby’s led by Mai Eldib (Head of 20th Century and Middle East Sales at Sotheby's) with Touria El Glaoui (Founding Director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair) Hassan Hajjaj (Artist), Amy Christiansen (Founder of Sana Jardin) and Shevanne Helmer (Founder of Helmer Bags). Image: © Nicolas Brasseur www.1-54.com
1-54 London 3 - 6 October 2019 Directors Talk: Supporting African and Diaspora Artists An opportunity to hear from directors at the forefront of institutions championing African and diaspora artists both on the continent, and internationally. Gus Casely-Hayford (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art), Koyo Kouoh (Zeitz MOCAA), Sonia Lawson (Le Palais de Lomé) and Othman Lazraq (MACAAL) are joined by moderator Rebecca Anne Proctor (Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar Art) Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 London 3 - 6 October 2019 Special Project London: Water Life – Aïda Muluneh on Art and Advocacy Artist Aïda Muluneh discussing her exhibition Water Life with Renée Mussai (Senior Curator and Head of Archive & Research, Autograph ABP). Engaging in issues of water scarcity and ecological emergency, photographer Aïda Muluneh presents a new series of work commissioned by WaterAid and supported by H&M Foundation. The Afrofuturist tableaux of images were shot against the extreme backdrop of one of the driest places on earth, Dallol, in the Afar District of Ethiopia. Reflecting on her travels across the country, Muluneh looks at the number of women who travel on foot carrying heavy containers of water. Each image in this body of work responds to the challenge of water access, exploring it as a social issue directly impacting rural regions and the development of whole communities. www.wateraid.org www.hmfoundation.com Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 London 3 - 6 October 2019 Special Project London 2019: Thread, Senegal Artists Silvia Rosi and Annie-Marie Akussah discuss their residency at Thread, Senegal Thread is a cultural centre and artist’s residency program in Sinthian, a remote village in eastern Senegal near the Gambia River and the border with Mali. It enables artists from around the world to advance their work in an exceptional setting and serves as platform for people from throughout the Tambacounda region to share their own stories with a wide audience that extends internationally. Besides being an uplifting space in which artists work, the Thread space serves the local people as a base for educational pursuits, while simultaneously serving the local population by retaining rainwater and thus creating a viable source for 40% of the village’s domestic water needs. Thread’s presentation highlights the work of two young London-based artists: photographer Silvia Rosi and painter Annie-Marie Akussah who explore ideas around identity and migration, subjects that are linked to their own West African heritage. At Thread, they have each, in different ways, taken a closer look at more and less visible cultural archives in the Tambacounda region. www.thread-senegal.org www.aflk.org Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 FORUM London 3 - 6 October 2019 Championing Photography Brendan Embser (Managing Editor, Aperture magazine), Yves Chatap (Independent Curator) and Akinbode Akinbiyi (Photographer) discuss the key platforms—spanning biennales and festivals to workshops and publications—supporting the professional development of photographers in Africa and facilitating their international exposure. This session will include a pre-recorded discussion between Antawan I. Byrd (Assistant Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago) and Oluremi C. Onabanjo (PhD candidate in Art History, Columbia University). 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Pursuing Opportunities for Dialogue And Collaboration Hansi Momodu-Gordon (Independent Curator and Writer) and N'goné Fall (Independent Curator and Art Critic) utilise their current projects, Future Assembly and Season Africa 2020, respectively, as starting points for a conversation about the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and the opportunities and challenges involved in working this way. 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 FORUM London 3 - 6 October 2019 Àsìkò: A Pan-African, Mobile Initiative In 2010 Bisi Silva initiated Àsìkò, a new model for radical arts education, which promoted independent and critical thinking, experimentation and multidisciplinary approaches. Over the course of six editions in five cities (Lagos, Accra, Dakar, Maputo and Addis Ababa) almost 200 individuals took part in the programme and contributed to its development. Tamar Garb (Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art at University College London) and artists Eddie Chambers and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Raqs Media Collective), all of whom participated in Àsìkò, discuss its impact on their own practices and reflect on its legacy. 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Transforming Education Systems from Within and Developing New Infrastructures In recent years, individual teachers, alumni and students have begun taking steps to update curricula and reshape the way art is taught in African universities to better serve young artists. Meanwhile new private structures incorporating pedagogical functions are emerging. Ibrahim Mahama (Artist and Founder of The Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Ghana) and Nontobeko Ntombela (Curator) discuss their experiences of transforming education systems in Ghana and South Africa respectively with Zoé Whitley (Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery). 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Reimagining Africa's Place In The Indian Ocean Artists, curators and art historians have explored Africa’s connection to Europe and the Americas extensively, but the continent’s position within the Indian Ocean has been relatively neglected despite its importance. As Ashraf Jamal (Cultural Analyst, Author and Associate in the Visual Identities and Design Research Centre, University of Johannesburg) describes, ‘long before the European circumnavigation of the southern tip of Africa, the Indian Ocean has been the ‘cradle of globalisation’. Jamal will be in conversation with Mauritius-born artist Shiraz Bayjoo, who works with archival sources to investigate the legacy of European colonialism and explore the complex histories and relationships of migration and trade in the Indian Ocean. Together they will discuss the artistic, social, cultural and political histories of the Indian Ocean and the role Africa has to play in shifting power relations. 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 The Value Of Developing and Maintaining Cultural Archives Private collections of printed and digital matter can provide crucial insights into histories, particularly in places where official records are inadequately compiled or maintained, deliberately skewed, or inaccessible. Although the importance of archives is easy to argue for, establishing and developing them is challenging even in the most favourable environments. Iheanyi Onwuegbucha (Curator, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos) and Bea Gassmann de Sousa (Independent Researcher and Founder of the Agency Gallery) share their experiences of working with and in archives in the context of Lagos, Nigeria. 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Research Based Art Practices Bisi Silva once remarked in an interview, ‘I have acquired the professional maturity to embark on difficult, long-term, research-driven projects in a context where the support structures may not exist.’ Research was a critical part of Silva’s curatorial practice, but she also believed that research was invaluable for art practitioners. Artists Godfried Donkor, Mary Evans and Leo Asemota reflect on what research means to their own art practices with moderator Paul Goodwin (Independent Curator, Urban Theorist and Researcher). 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Artists Talk: Seizing Public Space with Mary Sibande Artist Mary Sibande in conversation with Christine Eyene (Art Historian, Critic and Curator) on how her practice seizes public space and makes lesser-known histories visible. The discussion will use Sibande’s first solo exhibition in the UK, I Came Apart at the Seams, on view at Somerset House, as a point of departure. 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 3 - 6 October 2019 Opening Remarks An introduction given by the 1-54 Forum programme curator, Kerryn Greenberg (Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate). Reflecting on the Role Played by Women in the Arts Elvira Dyangani Ose (Director, The Showroom) discusses the impetus for and legacy of the international project Women on Aeroplanes, with Nontobeko Ntombela (Curator), Everlyn Nicodemus (Artist) and Marlene Smith (Artist and Curator). Through discussions, exhibitions and publications, Women on Aeroplanes aimed to examine the important role women played in the arts, transatlantic networks and liberation struggles. While highlighting the contributions of women, this project posed the following questions: ‘What makes it possible for certain individuals’ stories to prevail, while others remain invisible, or disappear into oblivion? What are the intricacies of institutional or structural erasure? And how does the unveiling of such silenced narratives contribute to collective thinking?’ 1-54 Forum London 2019 was generously supported by Arts Council England and Christie’s Education Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 Publication Launch: Some Writers Can Give You Two Heartbeats Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Tinashe Mushakavanhu (Founding Partners, Black Chalk & Co. and 1-54 Forum Programme Curators) discuss their recently released publication, Some Writers Can Give You Two Heartbeats (2019). This experimental publication is a thoroughly useful guide to the critical and historical texts on the literary culture of Zimbabwe. It has the advantage of being well focused on the topic and thus serves as an essential point of departure to celebrate notions of beauty as they relate to the literary and the visual, a product of Black Chalk & Co.’s preoccupation with the archive. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 The Zulus Of New York Zakes Mda (Writer, Poet and Painter) reads from his new novel The Zulus of New York (2019) with Tinashe Mushakavanhu (Writer-Scholar and 1-54 Forum Programme Curator) as respondent. The novel, based on historical events in the 1880s, follows Mpiyezintombi, a Zulu, as he is taken to England and later America as a performer. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 FORUM New York 3 - 5 May 2019 Butterfly Burning: Performativity and Aesthetics Paloma McGregor (Artist and Founding Director of Angela’s Pulse) and Candace Thompson-Zachery (Founder, Dance Caribbean Collective) speak to Nontsikelelo Mutiti (Artist and 1-54 Forum Programme Curator) on their movement practices and research, as well as their involvement in building institutions and communities that encourage artistic creativity, expression, learning, and appreciation. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 In the Courtyard: a space for Black art Mario Gooden (Principal, Huff Gooden Architects), Mabel Wilson (Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation) and Emanuel Admassu (Founding Partner, AD-WO architectural practice) explore the specificity of architecture as a framing device, a marker of time and a space to hold cultural heritage, past, present and future. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 To Exhibit Means to Show: the making of an artist's book Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (Photographer) and Derek Fordjour (Artist), draw on their publications One Wall a Web and FORDJOUR with Gee Wesley (Co-founder and Co-director, Ulises). The presentation investigates notions of display and the role of publishing artist books from the perspective of the artist. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 Milk And Moon: Black Aesthetics, Essentialism and Futurisms A conversation about technology and representation with Kaneza Schaal (Theatre Artist); Ayodamola Okunseinde (Artist and Interactive Designer) and Salome Asega (Artist and Researcher) moderated by Nontsikelelo Mutiti (Artist and 1-54 Forum Programme Curator). Panelists will discuss formal aspects of their work in relationship to cultural heritage, identity formation and presentation beyond the 21st century. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 Without A Name: On living and working between spaces What are our notions of studio, home and identity in the global art world today? Artists Richard Mudariki, Miatta Kawinzi, and Lizania Cruz, will engage in a conversation drawing on their experiences of working across cultural and geographic boundaries. Panel moderated by Siddhartha Mitter (Writer) Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 A Treehouse in the City of Lagoons A performative presentation by artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji. Located in a top flat of a seven-story building in Lagos, Nigeria and founded by artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, The Treehouse is one of the city’s only art spaces dedicated solely to creative experimentation. In this performance presentation Ogunji invokes the artists and atmosphere of this dynamic place. Situated between creek and lagoon, prison and polo fields The Treehouse provides a perfect platform for thinking about how spaces, architecture, and community influence and inform how we move, feel, and imagine the world. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 From the Pavement, A Gallery: Curator as Broker Tandazani Dhlakama (Curator and Education Manager, Zeitz MOCAA) and Ashley James (Assistant Curator, Brooklyn Museum) are joined by moderator Amber Esseiva (Assistant Curator, Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University) in a discussion around recent projects that extend the role of the curator into the realm of community builder and collaborator. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 Opening Spaces “A woman writer must have an imagination that is plain stubborn, that can invent new gods and banish ineffectual ones” wrote Yvonne Vera in her anthology Opening Spaces published in 1999. Our panelists discuss ways that they have innovated on the notion of spaces for viewing and engaging with art objects and audiences. Catinca Tabacaru (Founder, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery), Stephanie Baptist (Founder and Director, Medium Tings) and Sandrine Colard (Artistic Director, 6th Edition of the Biennale de Lubumbashi) join moderator Adeze Wilford (Curatorial Assistant, The Shed). Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 3 - 5 May 2019 The Queen Lozikeyi Lecture In the late 1990s, Yvonne Vera initiated the Lozikeyi Series, a unique public lecture platform for artists and intellectuals from Zimbabwe and elsewhere to share their views on knowledge production and the creative process. Lozikeyi was a powerful Queen of the Ndebele, and an important advisor to King Lobengula. 1-54 Forum curators BLACK CHALK & CO. (Nontsikelelo Mutiti, artist and Tinashe Mushakavanhu, writer and scholar) introduce the 1-54 Forum programme. Image: © Brittany Buongiorno www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Ted Joans in Context: Notes and Thoughts on Filmmaking [EN + FR] A unique opportunity to engage with rarely shown and recently digitised films featuring Ted Joans. Following her extensive research on Ted Joans, art historian and curator Karima Boudou (1-54 Forum Programme Curator) will introduce several films spanning the decade of the 1990s. What is the role of archives in generating discourse and understanding histories? What can we learn from the process of archiving film and the use of archived documentary films in contemporary cultural projects? In partnership with ESAV, l'École Supérieure des Arts Visuels de Marrakech Please note that this is not a live recording. We want to take this opportunity to recognise and thank Vincent Melilli for his very kind introduction. Our partnership with ESAV commenced with the inaugural Marrakech edition in 2018. Films copyright Estate of Ted Joans, courtesy of Laura Corsiglia. Special thanks to Laura Corsiglia, Terri Geis, Manthia Diawara and Jordan Packer. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Jazz is My Religion [EN] A rare opportunity to engage with the work of Dutch filmmaker Louis van Gasteren. In 1963, Dutch writer and poet Simon Vinkenoog started a Jazz & Poetry night in Sheherazade, a nightclub in Amsterdam, on behalf of his American friends - including Ted Joans - who asked him "Hey man, where can you read Poetry here?” In 1964, van Gasteren directed the film Jazz and Poetry (1964, 14’) in which Ted Joans reads his poetry with jazz musicians Piet Kuiters, Ruud Jacobs, Cees See and Herman Schoonderwalt at Sheherazade. In response to the film, curators from the Marrakech-based collective UNTITLED (Soukaina Aboulaoula & Yvon Langué) lead an intervention. UNTITLED draw on the repertoire of constraints (chimera, definitional literature, index, etc.) of the Ouvroir de Littérature potentielle (OuLiPo) to form a performed reading of Ted Joans' poems. In partnership with LE18. Recording courtesy of LE18. Film, Jazz and Poetry, copyright and courtesy of Spectrum Film. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Surrealism and Animated Photography [EN] Vince Fraser (Digital Illustrator and Artist, London) discusses his work and practice with Yvon Langué (Curator, Marrakech). Fraser’s work, consisting of animated collages and photography, draws on both contemporary and past Surrealists as well as Afrobeat influences. How can one use surrealism and its narratives to celebrate numerous facets of culture and arts from Africa and the diaspora? Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February Maghrebian Surrealism [FR] Habib Tengour (Poet and Sociologist, Mostaganem and Paris) and Olivier Hadouchi (Historian of cinema, Paris) will depart from Tengour’s surrealist manifesto which subtly shows that surrealism - a movement considered to be of French origin - is in fact a recent European variant of much older Maghrebian traditions and practices. Tengour and Hadouchi will discuss Maghrebian roots of surrealism as a revolutionary means of disengagement, as a form of subversion of the language of power and a passionate pursuit of the practice of poetry, and the formation of histories and memory in relation to the Algerian context. Le Surréalisme Maghrébin [FR] Habib Tengour (poète et sociologue, Mostaganem et Paris) et Olivier Hadouchi (historien du cinéma, Paris) s'appuient sur le manifeste surréaliste de Tengour, qui montre avec subtilité que le surréalisme - un mouvement considéré comme étant d’origine française - est en fait une variante européenne récente dérivant de traditions et pratiques maghrébines beaucoup plus anciennes. Tengour et Hadouchi débattent des racines maghrébines du surréalisme utilisé à des fins révolutionnaires de désengagement, en tant que forme de subversion du langage du pouvoir, poursuite passionnée de la pratique poétique, et création de récits et d'évocations liés au contexte algérien. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Comic Sounds [FR/EN] How can sound and orality reflect and document our (sur)realities and processes of imagination? Panellists will address the Netherlands’ jazz history and archives, and discuss immersive listening practices and audio recordings in the context of Morocco. A panel discussion with Jessica de Abreu(Anthropologist and Co-founder of The Black Archives, Amsterdam), Abdellah Hassak (Sound Artist, Casablanca) and Hassan Jouad (Linguist and Anthropologist, Paris) moderated by Karima Boudou. Sons Comiques [FR/EN] Dans quelle mesure le son et l'oralité peuvent-ils refléter et documenter nos (sur)réalités et autres processus de l'imagination ? Les intervenants traiteront de l'histoire et des archives du jazz aux Pays-Bas, ainsi que de l'écoute immersive, d’enregistrements et d’observations dans un contexte marocain. Une table ronde réunissant Jessica De Abreu (anthropologue et cofondatrice de The Black Archives, Amsterdam), Abdellah Hassak (artiste sonore, Casablanca) et Hassan Jouad (linguiste et anthropologue, Paris). Modéré par Karima Boudou. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Surrealism vs Scribbles: The Hostile Narratives Around the Surrealist Movement in Egypt [Arabic - translated into French] Since their rising in 1930s - 40s, Surrealist artists in Egypt have faced hostility. Alaa Abdelhamid (Interdisciplinary Artist and Writer, Cairo) will explore the nationalist and commercially grounded representations of Surrealist artists in film, press, and government communication. A reflection of their position in Egyptian society - where stories and official narratives collided - Abdelhamid will also explore the echos of these attitudes towards contemporary artists in this context. Surréalisme Ou Gribouillages ? Attitudes Hostiles Autour Du Mouvement Surréaliste En Égypte [Arabic - translated into French] Depuis leur émergence dans les années 1930-1940, les artistes surréalistes égyptiens ont fait face à des comportements hostiles. Alaa Abdelhamid (artiste et écrivain interdisciplinaire, Le Caire) se penche sur les représentations nationalistes et commerciales d’artistes surréalistes au cinéma, dans la presse et dans les communications gouvernementales. Dans ce contexte, Abdelhamid s’intéresse également aux échos de ces attitudes envers les artistes contemporains, reflets de leur statut au sein de la société égyptienne, où s’entrechoquent anecdotes et récits officiels. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
Public Programme Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Le Palais De Lomé Followed by a screening of 'Infinity,' a tribute to Kossi Aguessy for Le Palais de Lomé, Togo, Sonia Lawson (director) and Sandra Agbessi (curator) give insight into the vision and building of Le Palais de Lomé into a cultural ecosystem. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February Keepin’ Words Surreal [FR] How can language and word be used to liberate the unconscious? Boniface Mongo-Mboussa (Writer and Cultural Critic, Paris) draws on the life and work of Congolese poet Tchicaya U Tam’si (1931-1988) and his involvement with surrealism. M’barek Bouhchichi (Artist, Tahanaout) gives insights into his work and research around M’barek Ben Zida (1925-1973), a black Amazigh poet from Tata, south-eastern Morocco, while Noureddine Ezarraf (Multidisciplinary Artist and Poet, Aghmat) introduces several threads which highlight orality’s role in activating a playful and poetic approach to materiality and everyday life. Moderated by Karima Boudou. Préserver Le Surréalisme Des Mots [FR] Comment user du langage et des mots pour libérer l'inconscient ? Boniface Mongo-Mboussa (écrivain et critique culturel, Paris) puise dans la vie et l'œuvre du poète congolais Tchicaya U Tam'si (1931-1988) et son implication dans le surréalisme. M'barek Bouhchichi (artiste, Tahanaout) donne un aperçu du travail et des recherches qu’il a effectuées autour de M'barek Ben Zida (1925-1973), poète amazigh noir originaire de Tata, dans le sud-est du Maroc, tandis que Noureddine Ezarraf (artiste multidisciplinaire et poète, Aghmat) présente une série de thèmes soulignant l'importance de l'oralité dans l’adoption d'une approche ludique et poétique de la matérialité et de la vie au quotidien. Modéré par Karima Boudou. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 22 - 24 February 2019 Introductory Remarks by Karima Boudou [FR] Karima Boudou (1-54 Forum Programme Curator) gives insights into this year’s 1-54 Forum programme. Ted Joans, Surrealist Traveller [EN] Starts at 10:00 in the recording. Ted Joans’ engagement with surrealism was often removed from the movement’s supposed bedrock of Paris, and closely involved with broader transatlantic dialogues of anti-colonialism and anti-racism. Grounding the forthcoming programme and drawing on current research, Joanna Pawlik (Lecturer at the University of Sussex) discusses Ted Joans’ relationship with surrealism, what it offered him as an artist and poet and how these could be used as a lens through which to place surrealism in contemporary discourse. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Reading Group - Black Togetherness as Lingua Franca A dynamic reading of parts of Fatima El-Tayeb’s book European Others: Queering Ethnicity in Post National Europe as part of ‘Diasporic Self: Black Togetherness as Lingua Franca’ (198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London and Framer FRAMED, Amsterdam December 2018).‘Diasporic Self: Black Togetherness as Lingua Franca’ is a project convened by Amal Alhaag (Independent Curator and Researcher) and Barby Asante (Artist, Curator and Researcher) exploring the possibilities and impossibilities of a black togetherness in Europe. The project explores everyday vernacular, performativity, improvisation, unconstituted archives and informal memory practices that inform and map contemporary black cultures in Europe. Alhaag and Asante will be joined by longtime collaborators from the Sorryyoufeeluncomfortable collective, Nadeem Din-Gabisi and Imani Robinson, a UK-based collective creating intentional space for radical study, conversation and multi-disciplinary art making. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Artist talk with Hurvin Anderson Sonia Boyce (Artist and Curator) leads a conversation with artist Hurvin Anderson on Anderson’s most recent work. Anderson’s paintings explore spaces occupied by Caribbean immigrants, such as public parks, gardens, barbershops, and domestic interiors, which function as sites for both social gathering and economic enterprise. These settings represent Anderson’s personal and cultural memories of functional spaces and shared experiences of the Caribbean. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Public Programme London 4 -7 October 2018 Contemporary African Art Ecology African contemporary art has operated in and become a part of its own idiosyncratic ecosystem. Mary Corrigall (Founder and Director of Corrigall & Co) is committed to deconstructing and understanding each ‘element’ of this nascent ecosystem through in-depth art reports. She will introduce Corrigall & Co.’s inaugural report by presenting a map that offers insights into the rising visibility of art from the continent and its anticipated future growth. Mary Corrigall is a Cape Town based contemporary African art specialist and researcher. She has been reporting on and analysing contemporary African art for 15 years as an art journalist and academic. She pursued this category as a research associate at the University of Johannesburg and as a full-time art critic at the Joburg-based The Sunday Independent for a decade. She has written for numerous South African, PanAfrican publications, art and academic journals and produced numerous monograph texts for artists. CNN, the European Commission, the English Academy of South Africa, have all awarded her arts journalism. In 2015 she established Corrigall & Co art consultancy, which, drawing from her contemporaries insight on the continent, is focussed on producing industry art reports mapping and revealing the shifting dynamics underpinning the art eco-system particular to contemporary art from the African continent. The first was released in early October. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 – 7 October 2018 Portraiture as Politics Against a backdrop of retreating notions of multiculturalism and an increasing populist nationalism in Europe and America, is portraiture emerging as a resonant medium by which to assert black visibility? Does portraiture take on a dual role, both as the artistic practice of individuals and a form of collective endeavor? Led by David A. Bailey MBE (Artist and Curator), artists Kimathi Donkor, Irvin Pascal and Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, discuss how they are articulating their presence in portraiture at a time of rising reactionism. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 The Fugitive Image What is driving artists to use vintage video footage as a source material to explore ideas of African diaspora identity and history? Is archive imagery a means to craft works grounded in authentic documentation of events? Or a way to create new fictions and new futures, from the fragments of the past? And what are the freedoms or constraints artists find in working with such elusive, fugitive images? Gaylene Gould (Head of Cinema and Events at British Film Institute) in conversation with artists NT, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yaidom and Onyeka Igwe. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 - 7 October 2018 Artist Talk As an avid swimmer, Modupeola Fadugba has a profound personal affinity for the pool and its capacity to foster health and confidence. This talk, with curator Katherine Finerty, will discuss Fadugba’s current exhibition Dreams from the Deep End at Gallery 1957, Accra. During the artist’s residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, she created a series highlighting The Harlem Honeys and Bears – a senior citizen synchronized swimming team – and interrogated the socio-political history of swimming pools and race relations in America. After a short documentary, Finerty and Fadugba will discuss the artist’s evolving research-based process and creative practice to represent this resilient community. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Artist Talk Harold Offeh (Artist) leads a conversation with multi-disciplinary artist Larry Achiampong on Achiampong’s immersive installation at Somerset House. The mixed-media installation explored syncretism in religion and domesticity in diasporic communities living in the global West and the dynamics that unfold through the complex amalgamation of beliefs and cultures. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Images of Africa Works brought together in African photography survey exhibitions such as Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako), New African Photography III (Nataal, New York) and Africa State of Mind (New Art Exchange, Nottingham) explore a wide range of topics, from issues of place and history to questions of gender and identity. But do such geographic group shows risk turning individual artists into regional representatives? And how do curators take on the task of identifying the tendencies and artworks that can sum up the artistic practices of a continent? With Lebohang Kganye (Photographer) and Marie-Ann Yemsi (Art Consultant and Curator), moderated by Helen Jennings (Founder and Editorial Director of Nataal). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2018 4 -7 October 2018 Black Magic Through his visually engaging interdisciplinary work, Rashaad Newsome (Artist) explores the complexities of social power structures and questions of agency. Newsome will discuss his use of the diasporic tradition of improvisation as a tool to achieve abstraction. His work speaks to the power of the human spirit to reinvent and transform itself as evidenced in the Black and Queer cultural practices referenced and abstracted throughout the work. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 The Birth of a Black Surrealism? In 1945, André Breton came to Haiti and gave a series of lectures which – some say – helped spark a political revolution. Yet it was his visit to the radical art studio, Le Centre d’Art d’Haïti, which would change him and the course of art history forever. This open-forum conversation will include audience members to discuss a critical moment in the development of the mid 20th century African diaspora aesthetic. James Brett (Filmmaker, Founder of The Museum of Everything // The Gallery of Everything), Leah Gordon (Artist, Founder Ghetto Biennale), Axelle Liautaud, John Cussans (Artist, Writer, Researcher) and Wendy Asquith (Researcher at The University of Nottingham). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Artist Talk Ekow Eshun (Writer and 1-54 Forum Curator) in conversation with artist Athi-Patra Ruga on his practice and first major solo exhibition in the UK, Of Gods, Rainbows and Omissions, currently on display at Somerset House. Through mythical characters set in dramatic scenes and presented in multiple mediums, Ruga criticises and parodies South Africa’s political status quo, ideas of utopia and the pre-colonial. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 - 7 October 2018 The Scope and Practice of ‘liquid blackness’: a reading of Kahlil Joseph’s work When blackness is recognised as something that is produced and conjured what choices become available to cultural makers? Through Kahlil Joseph’s latest video works, Black Mary, mAAd and Fly Paper, Alessandra Raengo (Associate Professor at Georgia State University) discusses the founding and methods of her research group, liquid blackness, and how ‘liquidity’ can be used as a tool to investigate blackness as an aesthetic mode, rather than solely a marker of identity. The talk will focus on the way Joseph pursues fluidity in the expression of blackness in cinematic image by being attuned to the sounds and textures of a variety of black communities and the rich archive of African American cultural expressions. For further interest, a short review of Kahlil Joseph's 'Fly Paper' by Alessandra Reagno can be read here: http://liquidblackness.com/lb-art-reviews-kahlil-josephs-fly-paper-by-alessandra-raengo/ Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 4 -7 October 2018 Welcome & Opening Remarks by programme curator Ekow Eshun. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4 - 6 May 2018 Remix ←→ Culture Live video remix by Hatim Belyamani founder of Remix Culture. Remix ←→ Culture is a nonprofit artist collective committed to growing a conversation between traditional music(ians) and digital remix art(ists). www.remix-culture.org Credit: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4 - 6 May 2018 Remix ←→ Culture Live video remix by Hatim Belyamani founder of Remix Culture. Remix ←→ Culture is a nonprofit artist collective committed to growing a conversation between traditional music(ians) and digital remix art(ists). www.remix-culture.org Credit: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4- 6 May 2018 Holding Space(s) In conversation with Neelika Jayawardane (Art writer and Academic), artists Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Joiri Minaya discuss the significance of cultivating spaces that reconstitute “home”, and the necessity of re-fashioning the (shattered) self through rituals that recreate intimacy. By performing the double task of purging and healing, their work helps us to reconfigure our own emotional landscapes. Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4- 6 May 2018 Intimate Strangers - The Black Panthers in Algiers For a good part of the 1960s and 70s Algiers was, in Amílcar Cabral’s phrase, ‘the Mecca of Revolutionaries’. In 1969, Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, seeking refuge from US justice, settled there, joining a cosmopolitan community of liberation movements. Elaine Mokhtefi (Journalist and Writer) helped establish the International Section of the BPP and accompanied the Cleavers on their eventful North African journey. She shares her memories with Sophia Azeb (Scholar and Specialist of black diasporas). Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4 - 6 May 2018 Dear Photo Lover What autonomous thing comes into being when word saunters into image, language being so approximate and superfluous? This is an invocation, an evocative ballad by writer Emmanuel Iduma; a travelogue in response to collages by Frida Orupabo, found sound, and images from a range of sources. The address is made to an ‘intimate stranger’, one who traverses a black Atlantic, mindful of Edouard Glissant’s notion that ‘the landscape of your world is the world’s landscape. But its frontier is open’. Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4- 6 May 2018 No Sweetness Here This panel brings together voices and perspectives that pertain to African women’s liberation and provide a complex vision of ‘African feminism’. Rooted in both recent and past liberatory practices, the speakers present artworks and provocations that resist the legacy of political and legal subjection of African women’s bodies and sexualities. With artist Phoebe Boswell, artist and activist Babirye Leilah and philosopher and art historian Nkiru Nzegwu. Moderated by writer Serubiri Moses. Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4- 6 May 2018 Otherwise We are Lost Hatim Belyamani (Musician and Multimedia artist) discusses the reason and process behind remix ←→ culture, a non-profit collective committed to inspiring people to reconfigure their relationships with other cultures. The work, which aims at building an open yet economically responsible ecosystem, is based on recording and filming underrepresented musical traditions from around the world, and making them available for listening, watching, and sampling. In this light, remixing appears as a possible door to the ‘living room’. Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4-6 May 2018 Living Archive: Performance after Apartheid Can healing work be channelled through artistic articulations of intimacy? In the context of post-apartheid South Africa, Jay Pather (Choreographer) and Oluremi C. Onabanjo (Curator) discuss the work of memory in the wake of historical trauma, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its shortcomings, and the persistent, vulnerable body in the public sphere. Presented in partnership with ICI (Independent Curators International). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4- 6 May 2018 Pushit! [exercise 1 in getting well soon] Can resistance be choreographed? Pushit!, a site-responsive performance by NIC Kay, is a meditation on emotional labour and the impossibility of the stage as a place of freedom for the Black performer. This recording is a discussion with artist NIC Kay and Omar Berrada (Curator) following NIC Kay's performance which took place at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York. Image: ©Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4-6 May 2018 Collage, Colour and Complicating Blackness Derrick Adams’ multidisciplinary work mines the histories of art and popular culture in order to visually present a complex understanding of black life in the US. Lawrence Lemaoana is known for his embroidered kanga cloths, which humorously appropriate the language of South African politics and mass media. In conversation Aruna D'souza (Art Writer), they will discuss consciousness and community, as well as the centrality of text, fabric and craft in their work. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 4-6 May 2018 Archiving Distance Lyle Ashton Harris (Artist) discusses intimacy, collective memory, and photography with Ekow Eshun (Writer and Curator). Harris’s archive of 35 mm Ektachrome images registers ephemeral moments and emblematic figures from the late 1980S and early 1990s against a backdrop of seismic shifts in the art world, the emergence of multiculturalism, the second wave of AIDS activism, and incipient globalisation. Harris and Eshun will discuss the archive and other projects in relation to the 'unfinished business' of mourning in the African Diaspora. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 Moroccan Craft in the 21st Century Artisans, who represent 20% of the Moroccan workforce, are too often constrained by a narrow range of products geared toward the tourist market. The Mahjouba Initiative, which aims to make artisanally-made motorbikes for the local market, is an ambitious attempt at reviving craft by exploring its relations to art, economics, and imagination. A panel discussion with Eric Van Hove (Artist, Marrakech), Samya Abid (Director, Atelier Eric van Hove), Driss Khrouz (Economist, Rabat) and Driss Ksikes (Writer, Rabat). L'ARTISANAT MAROCAIN AU XXIème SIECLE [Fr] Les artisans, qui représentent 20% de la main-d'œuvre marocaine, sont trop souvent contraints par une gamme étroite de produits orientés vers le marché touristique. L'initiative Mahjouba, qui vise à fabriquer des motocyclettes artisanales pour le marché local, est une tentative ambitieuse de relancer l'artisanat en explorant ses relations avec l'art, l'économie et l'imaginaire. Un panel avec Eric van Hove (artiste, Marrakech), Samya Abid (directrice de l'Atelier Eric van Hove), Driss Khrouz (économiste, Rabat) et Driss Ksikes (écrivain, Rabat). Image: Eric van Hove © Keetja Allard www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 Toward A Self-Image How does one build a truthful, decolonised self-image? This conversation will raise issues of representation and self-representation, and explore how questions of culture and identity can be performed or given shape through artistic forms that are singular, subjective or intimate, be they drawn portraits or dancing bodies, with Zineb Benjelloun (Artist and Illustrator, Casablanca) and Elisabeth Efua Sutherland (Choreographer and Theatre Director, Accra), moderated by Driss Ksikes (Writer, Rabat). Vers une Image de Soi [Fr / Ang] Cette conversation soulèvera des problèmes de représentation. On verra comment de vastes questions de culture et d'identité peuvent être abordées par le biais de formes artistiques singulières, subjectives ou intimes, qu’il s’agisse de portraits dessinés ou de corps dansants. Comment construire une image juste – décolonisée – de soi-même ? Avec Zineb Benjelloun (artiste et illustratrice, Casablanca) et Elisabeth Efua Sutherland (chorégraphe et metteur en scène, Accra), modérée par Driss Ksikes (écrivain, Rabat). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 Decolonising Knowledge What is the significance of intangible cultural heritage? How can we re-order the narratives and representations from and about the African continent? And what does truly free education look like? This panel will explore decolonial strategies in the field of knowledge production, with Nana Oforiatta-Ayim (Writer and Art Historian, Accra), Ahmed Skounti (Anthropologist, Marrakech), Grada Kilomba (Artist and Writer, Berlin) and Donna Kukama (Artist, Johannesburg), moderated by Omar Berrada. Image: ©Adnane Zemmama www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 Narcissus and Echo Grada Kilomba (Artist and Writer, Berlin) will present and discuss a new video work, Illusions (2018, 32’), which re-stages the myth of Narcissus and Echo using the oral tradition of African storytelling, where the artist herself plays the role of the Griot. Here, Narcissus is a metaphor for a society that has not come to terms with its colonial history and takes itself and its own image as the only objects of love, while Echo is reduced to endlessly repeating Narcissus’ words. Kilomba asks, how do we break out of this colonial and patriarchal mould? Talk begins at 34:00 in the recording. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 When Rain Falls on the Mountain of Punt Contemporary understandings of the Red Sea region are fixed to territorial affinities that are entangled in colonial logics. Drawing on the recent discovery linking Egypt to Eritrea through ancient mummified baboons, Black Athena Collective (Dawit L. Petros and Heba Amin) will investigate contemporary geographies using an alternative conceptual framework. Archaeological and forensic approaches to mobility with an array of visual forms will converge into an expanded performance of history. Image: © Black Athena Collective www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Marrakech 23 - 25 February 2018 The Return of Amilcar Cabral A rare opportunity to engage with the work of filmmaker Sana na N'hada (Guinea-Bissau), an artist-protagonist of African liberation struggles. N’hada was a disciple and companion of Amílcar Cabral, and the author of the first film produced in Guinea-Bissau, The Return of Amílcar Cabral (1976, 31’), which will be screened alongside his more recent documentary on contemporary urban life in Bissau, Bissau d’Isabel (2005, 52’). In partnership with ESAV, Ecole supérieure des arts visuels de Marrakech La Lutte N'est Pas Finie [Fr/Ang] Spell Reel de Filipa César est un voyage dans lequel des archives cinématographiques fragiles qui témoignent de la naissance du cinéma guinéen sous l’égide décolonisatrice d'Amílcar Cabral deviennent un prisme pour observer le présent. Numérisées à Berlin et diffusées en divers lieux, les archives stimulent débats, contes et prévisions. De leur projection dans des villages isolés en Guinée-Bissau jusqu'aux capitales européennes, les bandes silencieuses sont désormais un lieu à partir duquel on peut chercher des antidotes à un monde en crise. Une projection de Spell Reel (2017, 96') suivie d'une discussion entre Filipa César (artiste, Berlin), Ruth Wilson Gilmore (géographe, Lisbonne / New York) et Sana na N'hada (cinéaste, Guinée-Bissau). Recording courtesy of ESAV www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Artist Talk Koyo Kouoh in conversation with Senzeni Marasela (Artist) on building conversation through durational performance and parafiction. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2017 6 - 8 October 2017 Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Emmanuel Iduma Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries) in conversation with Emmanuel Iduma (author, editor and associate curator of the Nigerian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017) on reactivating historical material through writing and conversation as a critical, poetic or speculative enquiry. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Writing into History How are independent practitioners performing critique within and on the margins of cultural centres through forms of ‘writing’? And what are the alternative narratives that are being prioritised? In this discussion, the panel engages with the expression of critique through the written and spoken word. With Sofia Niazi (Editor of OOMK Zine), Belinda Zhawi (Writer, Educator and 2016/17 Institute of Contemporary Arts Associate Poet) and Etienne Joseph (Researcher, Archivist and Educator), moderated by Hansi Momodu-Gordon (curator, writer and producer). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Artist talk Nadine Bilong (Independent Curator) will lead a conversation with Pascale Marthine Tayou around the artist’s current projects, including his site-specific artwork Summer Surprise (2017), installed at the fair in The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court. (in French with English interpretation) Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Performing Critique How do artists navigate the position of invited critic and self-directed agent of resistance, and where are the lines of agency drawn? This panel aims to examine whether and how practitioners are challenging and disrupting the notion of the ‘essential critic’ through collaborations, interventions/take overs, alternative modes of production and resistance aesthetics. With Travis Alabanza (Performance Artist, writer and theatre maker), Evan Ifekoya (Artist) and Jacob V Joyce (Artist), moderated by Legacy Russell (Writer, Artist and Cultural Producer). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 The Future of Conversation What is the future role of programming? Which publics will be served, and how will these actions permeate and respond, beyond discursive reiterations, to the conditions of a wider community that the institution is a part of? This panel aims to unpack the role of discourse, what it can potentially achieve and its shortcomings as a productive or non-productive entity. With András Szántó (Author and Cultural Consultant), Adenrele Sonariwo (Lead curator of the Nigerian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017) and Tumelo Mosaka (Curator of Cape Town Art Fair 2017), moderated by Koyo Kouoh. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Situating Conversation How and where do practitioners situate their practice, and how through one’s practice, are spaces for critical exchange developed? From artist-led platforms to projects developed from within and in critique of institutional formats, this panel aims to engage with the dialogic as an artistic and educational practice. With Michael Armitage (artist and co-founder of The Gathering, Nairobi) and Mukami Kuria (writer and co-founder of The Gathering, Nairobi), moderated by Koyo Kouoh. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Artist talk Nick Hackworth (Creative Director at Modern Forms) in conversation with artist Emeka Ogboh on his practice and aurality and sound as a vehicle for narrating and assembling sonic forms of resistance. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 8 October 2017 Opening Remarks by Koyo Kouoh & Discussion: Re-visiting ‘the After’ What is ‘the after’ and what occurs in this implicit posterior phase? The opening panel addresses the reverberations of the so-called ‘African art boom’ in an effort to examine how to continue to engage with Africa as a subject, terrain or sensibility within the context of an international narrative, and in a manner that prioritises the development of Africa and diaspora-centred discourse. With speakers Elvira Dyangani Ose (Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths and Senior Curator at Creative Time) and Sepake Angiama (Head of Education at documenta 14) and Melanie Keen (Director of Iniva), moderated by George Shire (cultural theorist and historian of ideas). Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 Madness of the Present: Abstraction’s Radical Possibilities Focusing on Adam Pendleton’s art of the past two years, from his installation for the Belgian Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale to his recent suite of paintings entitled Untitled (A Victim of American Democracy), Pendleton and curator explore abstraction as a platform for revolutionary possibilities in art and politics. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 Dis/assembly: The Body in Abstraction In a panel chaired by Nicola Vassell (Founder, Concept NV), artists Derrick Adams, Marcia Kure, and Tschabalala Self discuss strategies of collage and new media abstraction – both online and offline – in visualizing and celebrating blackness. Looking to their respective practices, the dialogue will consider how revisiting modernist and conceptual traditions of collage and dis/assembly make possible new aesthetic forms in an era of viral imaging. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 Family Tree: An intergenerational Discussion In a discussion moderated by Eungie Joo (Artistic Director, 5th Anyang Public Art Project–APAP 5), artist Charles Gaines, his son, Malik Gaines and son-in-law, Alexandro Segade (2/3 of the collective My Barbarian) continue their 25-year discussion on the shifting terms of a shared political imaginary, considered through their artistic and academic practices. This conversation touches on how their very different practices speak to each other across generations of influence, appropriation, rejection, and transformation. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 I Belong Here: Art in times of Resurgent Nationalism Tavares Strachan’s You belong Here (2011), a 120ft x 27ft neon piece, was displayed on a barge on the Mississippi River during Prospect.3, the New Orleans biennale, in 2014. With the work, the Bahamian-born artist boldly affirms his presence, his right to belong, to be firmly emplaced, and to be part of an American consciousness. Yet as he also explained, “to belong” is polemical and complex when considered against the history of race and immigration in the United States. In this current political climate of resurgent nativism and nationalism in the United States and around the world, how might we consider the values of Black art and aesthetics as a strategy of engagement? In this conversation with Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi (Curator of African Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College), artists Odili Odita and Sadie Barnette respond to the assault on “otherness,” drawing upon their creative practice, backgrounds, and individual experiences. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 A Slip of the Ear: Sufflating Blackness Through Sound Artists Mendi & Keith Obadike discuss the ways their art deploys technology, narrative structure, and sound in space. Sharing details about past and upcoming projects, they delve into the significance of aural expansion, textual assemblage, and unexpected juxtapositions in their intermedia work. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 5–7 May 2017 Opening Remarks & Keynote, Looking for Freedom Welcome & Opening Remarks by programme curator Koyo Kouoh (Raw Material Company, Dakar) followed by the opening keynote on 'Looking After Freedom' by Raél Jero Salley (Professor in Art History at the Maryland Institute College of Art, MICA) For 1-54 Forum’s opening address, Salley discusses how "Looking After Freedom" is a way of making “we, the people.” “Looking After Freedom” means caring enough to invent more humanly workable visual, material, and conceptual resources. Artworks provoke new forms for and of imagination. Here, Salley’s point of return is that artists (makers) are always already doing this nurturing work, and invite their viewers to join in. Creative works can mediate fundamental paradoxes that were built into contemporary politics after, during and through struggles for liberation. The struggles are not “post” – citizens find themselves struggling through present-colonialism, present-apartheid, and present attacks on civil rights. “Looking After Freedom” is, therefore, a shorthand for dynamic creativity that goes beyond reflecting situations of injustice, inequality, oppression, violence and the like – from merely documenting them or responding to them – toward generative tools and methods for transformation. Image: © Katrina Sorrentino www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 Malick Sidibé: The People’s Photographer, a Malian Legend Kerryn Greenberg (Curator, International Art at Tate Modern) discussing the artist's work and legacy with André Magnin (Director of MAGNIN-A and author of the first monograph of Malick Sidibé). Part of this conversation is in French with English interpretation. 'Malick Sidibé: The Eye of Modern Mali' continues at Somerset House until 15 January 2017. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 ‘Antidisciplinarity’ in architecture A discussion examining some of the sociopolitical, cultural, and urban conditions that underpin design and collaborative practice. Architecture in Africa is changing the way we look at the continent, and architects are more often than ever being asked to solve problems beyond their domain. Chaired by Aaron Kohn (Executive Director, Museum of African Design, Johannesburg) with Kunlé Adeyemi (Founding Director, NLÉ, Amsterdam), Rashid Ali (Founding Director, Rashid Ali Architects, London) and artist Driss Ouadahi. Part of this conversation is in French with English interpretation. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 -9 October 2016 Waveforms A discussion between Princess Alia Al-Senussi (Academic and Patron), Phoebe Boswell (Artist) and Ifeanyi Oganwu (Architect, Designer and Director at Expand Design Ltd, London) on their collaborative project for the 1-54 Lounge and bookshop and more broadly their approach to interdisciplinary practice. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 Without Beginning or End Joël Andrianomearisoa in conversation with Huguette Malamba (Programme Specialist & Director of Diversity and Cultural Development, l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie). The conversation is in French with English interpretation. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6- 9 October 2016 African Design: Locating ‘It’ and its Constituents Aaron Kohn (Executive Director, Museum of African Design, Johannesburg) with comments from Mark Rappolt (Editor-in-Chief, ArtReview). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6- 9 October 2016 Why Design Matters How objects and post design ideals formulate contemporaneity of the pan African Aesthetic in a globalised world. Chaired by Azu Nwagbogu (Founding Director, African Artists’ Foundation, Lagos and LagosPhoto Festival) with Amelie Klein (Curator, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein) and artists Karo Akpokiere and Hassan Hajjaj. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 Rediscovering the Ordinary Michele Mathison in conversation with Liese Van Der Watt (Critic). The starting point for this conversation is South African writer Njabulo Ndebele’s injunction to rediscover the power of the ordinary. Mathison’s sculptural practice shows us how the ordinary is intimately connected to and revealing of wider political circuits of labour and cultivation, of power, globalisation and migrancy. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 Artist Talk Artist Serge Attukwei Clottey in conversation with Nana Oforiatta Ayim (Creative Director of Gallery 1957, Accra and Founding Director of cultural research initiative, ANO). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 6 - 9 October 2016 Opening Remarks & Dandyism and Black Masculinity Opening Remarks by Koyo Kouoh (Curator of 1-54 Forum) on Material Propositions Ekow Eshun (Cultural Commentator and Curator of the exhibition, Made You Look: Dandyism and Black Masculinity) looks at themes of race, identity and style as radical personal politics in the work of artists such as Samuel Fosso, Malick Sidibé and Hassan Hajjaj. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 -7 May 2016 Typing Machine Adrienne Edwards (Curator at Performa and Curator-at-Large at the Walker Art Center) in conversation with Dave McKenzie (Artist). McKenzie is a conceptual artist working in performance, photography, and video. McKenzie was invited by Adrienne Edwards to compose a special text-based performance for 1:54, which he performed at intervals throughout the fair. This conversation between Edwards and McKenzie explores the depth of the project as an expression of the influence of printmaking on the artist’s approach to multi-disciplinary performance. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 -7 May 2016 Materiality, Storytelling, and Grand Narratives in Contemporary African Art Dexter Wimberly (Independent Curator) in conversation with Billie Zangewa (Artist). Billie Zangewa is an internationally celebrated Johannesburg based Malawian artist who works with fabrics, mostly silk, to create intricate tapestries. By way of her rich, elaborate silk ‘paintings’, Zangewa celebrates black femininity, self-empowerment and the importance of storytelling. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 -7 May 2016 Museums and Contemporary African Art The panel explores practices in collecting, curating, and the display of contemporary art by African artists in American museums with discussants Karen Milbourne (Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art); Kevin Dumouchelle (Associate Curator of Arts of Africa and the Pacific Islands at the Brooklyn Museum); and Yesomi Umolu (Curator of Exhibitions at University of Chicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts). Moderated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 -7 May 2016 Emerging Social Entrepreneurs and Cultural Brokers This panel explores the changing dynamics and growing interest in contemporary art and cultures of Africa and African Diaspora. It spotlights an upcoming generation of African social entrepreneurs who are seizing the opportunity to mobilize new platforms of discussion. Discussants are Ifeanyi Awachie (Curator of Africa Salon: Yale University’s contemporary African arts and culture festival); Shimite Obialo (lawyer and Founder of the digital platform Anoko); Sharon Obuobi (Founder of Art Accra); and Amy Sall (Founder and Editor-In-Chief of SUNU Journal of African Affairs, Critical Thought + Aesthetics). Moderated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. www.1- 54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 - 7 May 2016 The Politics and Privilege Of Play Dexter Wimberly (Independent Curator) in conversation with ruby onyinyechi amanze (Artist). Navigating the liminal space between fantasy and reality, ruby onyinyechi amanze’s drawings envision speculative narratives of self-discovery, supernatural existence and spatio-temporal escapism to evoke ideas around cultural hybridity, belonging, and displacement. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 - 7 May 2016 Media Platforms for the Promotion of the Arts, Visual Cultures, and Social Experiences of and about Africa and the Diaspora This panel explores the new wave of omnibus digital content providers focused on African and African diaspora contemporary cultures and social activities. The discussants are Claude Grunitzky (Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of TRUE Africa); Ginny Suss (President and Co-Founder of OkayAfrica); and Antoinette Isama (Associate Editor at OkayAfrica). Moderated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi (Curator of African Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 6 -7 May 2016 Beyond Cultural Polarities: Africa’s Creative ‘Repats’ As Africa’s international creative class becomes more visible on the continent – particularly in major metropolises like Dakar, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Luanda and Johannesburg – many diaspora Africans are choosing to return to the continent. Many of these returnees, known as ‘repats’, are highly educated and skilled, and while they have shown that they can seize new opportunities and transfer skills to Africa’s nascent creative industries, they face plenty of challenges. This panel frames the concept of African repatriation through the insight of three entrepreneurs: Andrew Dosunmu (filmmaker based in Nigeria); Nina Keïta (entrepreneur based in Côte d’Ivoire); and Elinyisia Mosha (journalist based in Tanzania). Moderated by Claude Grunitzky (Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TRUE Africa). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Omar Berrada (Writer, Critic, and Director of Dar al-Ma’mûn in Marrakech) in conversation with artist Nidhal Chamekh. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Dexter Wimberly (Independent Curator and Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International) in conversation with artist Theo Eshetu. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Omar Kholeif (Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London, Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse and HOME, Manchester, and Senior Editor at Ibraaz) in conversation with artist Kemang Wa Lehulere. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Marc Stanes (Co-Founder of EBONY Curated, South Africa and Curator of Momart EG, Equatorial Guinea) in conversation with artist Richard Mudariki. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Book Launch: Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of Six African Artists Book launch and conversation with exhibition artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah and Body Talk’s curator Koyo Kouoh. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 The 55th State Discussants Gilbert Achcar (Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London) and Dr Andrew Arsan (University Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History at St John’s College, University of Cambridge) consider Lebanese migration into Africa. The session was moderated by Omar Berrada (Writer, Critic, and Director of Dar al-Ma’mûn in Marrakech). Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 In Focus: Diptyk Osei Bonsu (Independent curator, researcher and Founding-Director of CRANE) in conversation with Meryem Sebti (Editor-in-Chief of DIPTYK Magazine) Founded in 2009, DIPTYK serves to provide a unique perspective on the contemporary art scene in North Africa. This discussion will consider how DIPTYK navigates the politics of artistic representation and cultural identity within the context of the publication, the art market and critical discourse. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Selmani Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi (President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation) in conversation with artist Massinissa Selmani. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Artist Talk Omar Berrada (Writer, Critic and Director of Dar al-Ma'mûn, Marrakech) in conversation with artist Katia Kameli. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2017 Gallery Talk with Rose Issa, Selma Feriani & Antonia Carver Antonia Carver (Fair Director of Art Dubai) in conversation with discussants Rose Issa (Curator, Writer and Exhibition Producer), and Selma Feriani (Director of Selma Feriani Gallery in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia). Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 15 - 18 October 2015 Opening Remarks & Keynote Opening Remarks by Koyo Kouoh (1-54 Forum Programme Curator) followed by Jihan El-Tahri's keynote address entitled 'The Great Divide.' Jihan El-Tahri is a director, writer, producer and artist. Image credit: Benjamin Hoffman www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Book Launch: Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of Six African Women Artists Exhibition catalogue Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of Six African Women Artists (2015) with curator Koyo Kouoh and participating artist Marcia Kure. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Gallery Talk With discussants Mariane Ibrahim-Lenhardt (Director of Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle); and Lisa Brittan (Director of Axis Gallery, New York). Moderated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi (Curator of African Art at the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Breaking the Ice Christian Haye (Art Dealer and Founder of The Project) is in conversation with artist Melvin Edwards to discuss the historical and political legacies played by the pioneering galleries Just Above Midtown (JAM) founded by Linda Goode Bryant (1974–1986) and Haye’s The Project (1998–2009), as critical platforms for African and African American artists. Moderated by Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi (Curator of African Art at the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Cultural Specific Curating in Institutions Representing MoMA, Newark Museum and LACMA respectively are discussants Thomas J. Lax (Associate Curator in the Department of Media and Performance Art at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York); Christa Clarke (Senior Curator, Arts of Global Africa at Newark Museum); and Franklin Sirmans (Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head, Contemporary Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)). Moderated by Steven Nelson (Professor of African and African American Art History at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Artist Talk Adrienne Edwards (Curator, Performa) is in conversation with artists Hank Willis Thomas and Lyle Ashton Harris to consider the semantics of the term ‘diaspora’ in relation to contemporary art practice. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 15 - 16 May 2015 Opening remarks By Koyo Kouoh Artistic Director RAW Material Company and Curator of Forum Education Programme 1-54. Global Black Subjectivities: Here and Now This panel centres on cultural belonging in the artistic arena with discussants Naima J. Keith (Associate Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York); Rujeko Hockley (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum, New York) and artist Julie Mehretu. Moderated by Chika Okeke-Agulu (Artist, Curator and Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology, and Center for African American Studies at Princeton University). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Collector Talk Collector Sindika Dokolo on an African collection of contemporary art. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Simon Njami (writer, curator and co-founder of the seminal magazine Revue Noire) on the establishment of a canon with artists Sokari Douglas Camp and Abdoulaye Konaté. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Gallery Talk Henri Vergon (Director Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg) and Elisabeth Lalouschek (Art Director and Art Sales October Gallery, London) in conversation with Cornell DeWitt (Vice President of Business Development artnet, New York) on feeding the international art market with contemporary African art. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Koyo Kouoh in conversation with artist Zina Saro-Wiwa on nurturing artistic environments through the experiences of Boys’ Quarters Project Space in Port Harcourt and Raw Material Company in Dakar. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Elvira Dyangani Ose (Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London and Curator, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) 2015, Göteborg) in conversation with Osei Bonsu (Independent Writer and Curator) on the Lubumbashi Biennale and the practice of artist Sammi Baloji [Please note, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control Sammy Baloji is unable to attend the discussion in person, however the artist will remain to be a contributor to the talk through other means.] www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Christine Eyene (Guild Research Fellow at the School of Art, Design and Performance at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston) in conversation with artists Billie Zangewa and Marcia Kure on texture, forms and fabrics. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Osei Bonsu (Independent Writer and Curator) in conversation with artist Ibrahim Mahama. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Artist Talk Koyo Kouoh in conversation with artists Miriam Syowia Kyambi and James Muriuki. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 The Legacy of the Blk Art Group John Akomfrah (Artist, Writer and Filmmaker) in discussion with Marlene Smith (Artist, Curator and Co-founder of the Blk Art Group Research Project) on the legacy of the Blk Art Group today. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 19 October 2014 Opening Remarks Opening remarks by Koyo Kouoh (Artistic Director Raw Material Company and Curator of 1-54 Forum) www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Criticism & Publishing A conversation with Simon Njami, Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Brendon Bell Roberts and Mark Rappolt. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Artist Talk Koyo Kouoh in conversation with Olafur Eliasson and Carsten Höller. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Artist Talk Koyo Kouoh in conversation with Not Vital. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Private and Public Collections: Panel on Public Collections A discussion with Chris Dercon, Gill Saunders and led by Dr Maria Balshaw. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Private & Public Collections: Building an African Collection of Contemporary Art A discussion with Bassam Chaïtou, Robert Devereux and led by Koyo Kouoh www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 February 2013 Book Launch: Condition Report on Building Art Institutions in Africa Introduction and conversation between Koyo Kouoh and Zineb Sedira. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Artist Talk Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Godfried Donkor. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Artist Talk Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Otobong Nkanga. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Market, Economies & Galleries: Exploring New Territories A panel discussion with Antonia Carver, Bisi Silva, Chab Touré and led by Valerie Kabov. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 Market, Economies & Galleries: The Genesis of New Markets A keynote by Paul Hewitt www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 16 - 20 October 2013 A discussion with Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Edson Chagas and led by Koyo Kouoh. www.1-54.com