Reluctantly, South Africans are coming to terms with the fact that in the same way that no condition is permanent, no euphoria is permanent either. The innocence of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the country moved from apartheid to post-apartheid, has given way to a gnawing unease about the future of the democratic experiment. Two camps are emerging — there are those whose disenchantment expresses itself in the desire to burn everything, destroy everything, declaim everything. There are, on the...
Reluctantly, South Africans are coming to terms with the fact that in the same way that no condition is permanent, no euphoria is permanent either. The...
In July 2021, Julie Kretzschmer and Jay Pather presented a three-day programme full of multimedia installations from the field of contemporary dance, performance and visual arts to conclude the Here Comes Africa, Africa 2020 in the La Friche Belle de Mai centre in Marseille. Before Julie Kretschmer—who specialises in making projects in the Arab world, including Algeria and develops new contemporary cultural programmes on the spot—and Jay Pather—curator of Afrovibes and Infecting the City...
In July 2021, Julie Kretzschmer and Jay Pather presented a three-day programme full of multimedia installations from the field of contemporary dance,...
On June 12, Richard Kofi’s newest film, Imprenta , premiered online, streaming from Korzo Theatre in The Hague. The film forms part of the FluX programme series, where connection, movement, and conversation are central. Imprenta is a collaboration with choreographer and dancer Junadry Leocaria as well as filmmaker Conni Trommlitz and musician Ernest Guiraud Cissé. Richard Kofi is a member of the diaspora himself, having grown up in the Netherlands with Ghanian roots. He says he has always felt both...
On June 12, Richard Kofi’s newest film, Imprenta , premiered online, streaming from Korzo Theatre in The Hague. The film forms part of the FluX programme...
Belgian-Congolese rapper, songwriter, photographer, film and music video director Sammy Baloji will be present at the upcoming World Cinema Amsterdam (WCA21) festival. In collaboration with Cinedans, WCA21 will show two of Baloji’s shorts. Peau de Chagrin / Blue de Nuit , a spirited music video covering wedding rituals of Congolese pygmies. ‘I see music in colours’, Baloji says. ‘I have synaesthesia and I perceive music on a sensory level.’ In Zombies Baloji takes us on a journey between hope and...
Belgian-Congolese rapper, songwriter, photographer, film and music video director Sammy Baloji will be present at the upcoming World Cinema Amsterdam...
An exhibition opened recently at Nuweland Gallery in the northern part of the Netherlands. Curator, South African artist Morné Visagie, brought together the works of artists from around the world; from Namibia to Mexico, South Korea to Zimbabwe, Germany to the United States, and South Africa. It’s an amazing showcase of artistic expression. Artists Musa N Nxumalo and Haneem Christian, featured on this page, are only two of the participating artists. They might come from different worlds, but they...
An exhibition opened recently at Nuweland Gallery in the northern part of the Netherlands. Curator, South African artist Morné Visagie, brought together...
On Sunday 5 September, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema will unveil the Nelson Mandela Memorial. The work, inspired by the residents of the neighbourhood, was designed by South African visual artist Mohau Modisakeng and produced in Cape Town. The unveiling is the culmination of a week-long programme in which ZAM, Bijlmerpark Theatre, OBA, OSCAM, Imagine IC, Heesterveld, New Metropolis and CBK Zuidoost are participating. Thursday 26 August: In Conversation with Mohau Modisakeng During this informal...
On Sunday 5 September, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema will unveil the Nelson Mandela Memorial. The work, inspired by the residents of the neighbourhood,...
Amina Zoubir’s collages presented at Markk Museum were created as part of the artist residency 'Reversed Exploration', to which she was invited by the Kulturforum Süd-Nord e.V. in spring 2021 and introduced to the MARKK Museum. In the words of curator Jana Reimer: 'Amina Zoubir's work focuses on the representation and appropriation of the female body in colonially and ethnographically influenced photographs from North Africa. The MARKK's photo collection contains many of these photographs, which...
Amina Zoubir’s collages presented at Markk Museum were created as part of the artist residency 'Reversed Exploration', to which she was invited by the...
This group exhibition, hosted by Stevenson Gallery, is curated by Sisipho Ngodwana and Sinazo Chiya. The title of this exhibition is drawn from a quote by Sun Ra, in which the American artist, musician and thinker describes a moment of abduction and renewal. Ra states that, in a pivotal journey between Earth and Saturn, his tangible form and personal history were metamorphosed, allowing him to continue existence in a truer mode: as an alien brought to preach peace. In pursuing the questions raised...
This group exhibition, hosted by Stevenson Gallery, is curated by Sisipho Ngodwana and Sinazo Chiya. The title of this exhibition is drawn from a quote...
On July 9, 2021, the award winning Ivorian movie Night of the Kings premiers in Dutch cinemas. Its director, Philippe Lacôte (Abidjan), wanted to explore what fantasies can be developed when your body is locked up. A young man is sent to ‘La Maca’, a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new ‘Roman’ and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he...
On July 9, 2021, the award winning Ivorian movie Night of the Kings premiers in Dutch cinemas. Its director, Philippe Lacôte (Abidjan), wanted to explore...
A trip to Niger on the trail of colonial crimes was an eye-opener for a young British-Nigerian poet. At the end of the 19th century, European powers came together to carve up the great African cake. One of the pieces of land allotted to the French was an area branching into the Sahara Desert in what was to become Niger. My film African Apocalypse (showing at the Docville Festival in Leuven 10,16,19 June) follows the road created by the French invasion of 1898-99 in which a French colonial officer,...
A trip to Niger on the trail of colonial crimes was an eye-opener for a young British-Nigerian poet. At the end of the 19th century, European powers came...
The film Message from Mukalap captures a unique sound recording from 1936 in the now extinct Khoe language !ora. It will be screened at the upcoming International Film Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. At the core of the film Message from Mukalap lies a unique sound recording that captures a spoken message from a man named Mukalap. It was recorded around 1936 in South Africa. Mukalap speaks in the now extinct Khoe language !ora. In his message he calls on an European audience to just for once...
The film Message from Mukalap captures a unique sound recording from 1936 in the now extinct Khoe language !ora. It will be screened at the upcoming...
Traces of colonialism are often hidden in plain sight and continue to have a conscious or unconscious effect in today’s society. In this project/exhibition the traces are a school building, a park, imperialist myths, but also the presence of people with African roots (who are) born in Belgium. Fifteen international artists inhabit the imaginary city, Congoville ,where they guide the visitor over the Middelheim site. They walk as ‘black flâneurs’ through the present and history and guide us in a...
Traces of colonialism are often hidden in plain sight and continue to have a conscious or unconscious effect in today’s society. In this...
'As an Ethiopian I do not have a duty to focus my lens on suffering alone', the Ethiopian photographer says. Tsegaye graduated in painting from the Addis Ababa University School of Fine Arts and Design in 2002, but gave up painting when he developed an allergy to oil paint. He then found his real passion in photography and has turned this into a profession, and moreover into a way of expressing a very particular voice. 'As a photographer I try as much as possible to escape being pigeonholed. This...
'As an Ethiopian I do not have a duty to focus my lens on suffering alone', the Ethiopian photographer says. Tsegaye graduated in painting from the Addis...
Andrea Stultiens' breathing photographs, a hypnotising re-figuration of colonial imagery. Breathing photographs. That's Andrea Stultiens' fascinating invention. Stultiens, photographer, artist and researcher, came up with the concept while working on the collection of still images, films and written notes of Dr. Paul Julien (1901-2001), explorer and amateur anthropologist. Over the past 20 years or so, she has worked with photography archives, mainly on Uganda. Always in relation to the imaging of...
Andrea Stultiens' breathing photographs, a hypnotising re-figuration of colonial imagery. Breathing photographs. That's Andrea Stultiens' fascinating...
Here are the 25 photographers, selected by a panel of 21 international judges, making the shortlist of the 10 th edition of CAP: Aàdesokan | Yetunde | Ayeni-Babaeko | Thami Benkirane | Marcus Trappaud Bjørn | Nabil Boutros | Katel Delia | Justin Dingwall | Andrew Esiebo | Jason Florio | Pippa Hetherington | Brian Hodges | Eldin Zainab Imad | Matt Kay | Adil Kourkouni | Tamary Kudita | DeLovie Kwagala | Dillon Marsh | Fabrice Monteiro | Claudia Ndebele | Emeke Obanor | Joseph Obanubi | Léonard...
Here are the 25 photographers, selected by a panel of 21 international judges, making the shortlist of the 10 th edition of CAP: Aàdesokan | Yetunde |...
No one goes to Paradise to return from it. There is a pivotal moment in the great Mandé epic Sundiata , when Sundiata Keita, alias The Lion King, is forced to leave, to migrate. At this point, he is a young man, full of unbridled ambitions and possibilities. For the first time in his life, despite his obvious limp and speech difficulties, despite all the obstacles stacked against him, he is fully aware of his own powers. This event takes place sometime in the 13 th century and the world as we know...
No one goes to Paradise to return from it. There is a pivotal moment in the great Mandé epic Sundiata , when Sundiata Keita, alias The Lion King, is...
I am writing to give you an update on the process of restoring the property of the University of Cape Town (UCT). After any event as traumatic as the #UCTFire, it is common for people to speculate and even unwittingly spread false reports about the extent of the damage, the cause of the crisis and the long-term outlook for recovery. This is especially common after a fire, because the affected buildings often cannot be entered immediately. Investigators and building professionals need time to assess...
I am writing to give you an update on the process of restoring the property of the University of Cape Town (UCT). After any event as traumatic as the...
In conversation with Dr. Divine Fuh about the recent burning down of the University of Cape Town’s library. In an online Studio ZAM lunch time on Monday 26 April, 2021, the social anthropologist and director of the Institute for Humanities in Africa at UCT spoke about loss and solidarity with efforts to build what has been destroyed. Fuh has also been a visiting fellow at the Africa Study Centre and was involved in Langa Research and Publishing as well as the African Boon Collective. That Day “On...
In conversation with Dr. Divine Fuh about the recent burning down of the University of Cape Town’s library. In an online Studio ZAM lunch time on Monday...
Reports from the University of Cape Town have revealed that the entire contents of the Jagger Reading Room, along with six other buildings, were destroyed by the fire that swept through Table Mountain last week. According to a statement released by UCT, the fire destroyed the galleries, adjacent stores, and offices and gutted the roof of the Jagger Reading Room. The archival and published collections stored in the Reading Room were destroyed. This includes most of the African Studies published...
Reports from the University of Cape Town have revealed that the entire contents of the Jagger Reading Room, along with six other buildings, were...
In her first solo exhibition, Lola Keyezua (1988, Angola) explores the sexuality of the elderly by focusing on social, cultural and religious influences. After showing one of the photographs in the Amsterdam Galerie Bart group exhibition The Great Photography Special , last year, it was decided to present the whole series of ‘Never Too Old To Cut The Banana When Erected’ in the gallery. After graduating at the Royal Academy in The Hague in 2014, Keyezua returned to Luanda, where she lived from 2015...
In her first solo exhibition, Lola Keyezua (1988, Angola) explores the sexuality of the elderly by focusing on social, cultural and religious influences....
This group show investigates everyday objects and aspects of our daily lives that inspire the emergence of creativity —as well as the unexpected mediums that serve as canvases. Including artworks that are derived from, or stand in place of, everyday utilitarian objects, the exhibition includes such unlikely mediums as walking-sticks, motorbikes, ceramic tableware, and unique couture. Featuring Nyambo MasaMara, Laylaa Jacobs, Kevin Collins, Razia Myers, Hanna Noor Mohamed, Jeanius Exchange, Petrus...
This group show investigates everyday objects and aspects of our daily lives that inspire the emergence of creativity —as well as the unexpected mediums...
