The arrival of spring heralds the time for new encounters with the arts of Africa. It is a cocktail of events around contemporary African art and pan-African cinema that we propose to share with you. Classified in accordance with a progressive chronology, they take place as much in Europe as in Africa, and sometimes on both continents.
The textile-sculptures of Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien
In Abidjan, the Cécile Fakhoury gallery presents the first personal exhibition of Marie-Claire Messouma until June 11, 2023, entitled “Mixed bodies”. The visual artist weaves links between cultures, countries and materials. Through her “Maps”, polymorphic cartography, she invites us to follow a path to discover symbols and elements from different universes and takes us into a poetic world made of the ordinary and the sacred.
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She mixes materials: aluminum, earth, plaster, raffia fiber, linen, small ceramic objects, photos but also ordinary objects… Between natural, artisanal and industrial materials, she questions the relationship between people and their environment and poses a look at femininity.
Born in 1990, from an Ivorian father and a Guadeloupean mother, she feeds on her double culture, mixing the contemporary, the mystical and the tradition. “The artist regularly introduces symbols of equality between beings through new forms and evocative imagery of a female body, in symbiosis with nature and cosmic balance”, comments the gallery.
Leaving Côte d’Ivoire in 2004, during the civil war, she continued her studies in France, then at the School of Fine Arts in Cergy. She describes herself as a storyteller and pursues her artistic research through multiple mediums, textiles, sculpture, video.
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien will also be in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo, from June 16 to September 8, with a project that will stage a series of her recent works set against a large stage curtain that she designed for the Belfry of Montrouge. During performances, she will suggest investing the place with readings of her poems and rituals.
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, in Abidjan, until June 10.
Zohra Opoku, explorer of memory and identity
Gallery owner Mariane Ibrahim presents German-Ghanaian artist Zohra Opoku. In this solo show called “I have arisen… Part 2”. Zohra Opoku offers a series of works inspired by the ancient Egyptian “Book of the Dead”, the first set of which was exhibited in Chicago last year.
The Book of the Dead is a generic term that refers to rolls of papyrus covered with funerary formulas, placed near the mummies, to accompany them on their journey to eternity.
Through this series, Zohra Opoku engaged in an artistic practice that sought to be both healing and transformative. “She brings the past into the present, for example by embroidering the outlines of a series of faces carved in stone alongside a photographed and screen-printed collage so that we no longer know which is the artifact and which is the reference. “, deciphers the writer Delali Ayivor.
On the linen canvas, often dyed with indigo, the artist incorporates her own archive consisting of before and after images of her body as she undergoes radiation. She was also inspired by countless photographs of trees taken in a Berlin park in winter, interested in the idea of ??the renewal of spring, of dormant life. The trees appear screen-printed as a background in some works or in sculptural form in others. Each of his works is accompanied by a long title, a passage taken from the “Book of the Dead”.
Galerie Mariane Ibrahim, exhibition by Zohra Opoku in Paris, until June 3, 18, avenue Matignon, Paris 8th.
In Paris, the exhibition-event “Ramses and the gold of the pharaohs”
From April 7 to September 6, 181 ancient Egyptian treasures are on display at the great hall of La Villette in Paris. Visitors can immerse themselves in antiquity: 3,000 years before us, in the kingdom of Ramses II.
Unlike its receptacle, the mummy of Ramses II did not make the journey from Egypt. As a reminder, 46 years ago, he came to France for treatment, in order to stop the spread of the fungi that devoured the mummy. The best known of the pharaohs, reigned for 66 years. A record and an exceptional longevity for the time. His passage on the throne marks the apogee of ancient Egypt, renowned for its military strength, with many battles won. Monarch builder, he is at the origin of the construction of great monuments, including the temple of Abu Simbel in Nubia. Died at over 90, he is also famous for having had several royal wives, including Nefertari and Isetnofret, and some 110 children.
Grande halle de la Villette, 221, avenue Jean-Jaurès, Paris 9th, until September 6.
In Lagos, spotlight on Johnson Ocheja
In its art space, the Lagos-based African Artists Foundation (AAF) unveils ‘A Pilgrim’s Journey; Through the Shades of Yellow”, the latest series of works by emerging Nigerian artist Johnson Ocheja. This first personal exhibition is produced at the end of a two-week artist residency at the AFF headquarters.
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The exhibition takes place in two locations, at the Alliance Française de Lagos and at the headquarters of the AAF, Lagos, Nigeria and presents 12 large format paintings by Johnson Ocheja as well as works produced in collaboration with four other artists. By creating opportunities for collaboration and strong community engagement, AAF seeks to strengthen ties with local communities and interaction with the public.
A portraitist, Johnson Ocheja uses yellow as an emblematic color of happiness and bliss, in the theological sense. The artist’s subjects are represented in their secret gardens, their paradise. “The title of the exhibition has its roots in Ocheja’s pursuit of a symbolic quest, the artist’s ultimate journey, in search of a safe, often solitary space, envisioned as a pilgrimage to happiness. The pilgrim is usually associated with religious iconography, but the pilgrim is really someone who seeks a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life. This quest is part of Ocheja’s journey,” explains the AAF.
African Artists Foundation (AAF), and the Alliance Française, until May 30.
“Diallo Diery”, the solo exhibition of photographer Eva Diallo in Dakar
The expression “Diallo Diery” which gives its title to the exhibition recalls the anchoring of the photographer Eva Diallo in her region of origin. Le Diery, in the north of Senegal, an area of ??dry farming and grazing for Fulani herders. “Diallo Diery” has become the common name of the Fulani populations of the region whose existence takes place between tradition and modernity.
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Dakar, rue Carnot x Béranger Feraud, until June 10.
Le Havre, Honfleur and Rouen dive into history with “Slavery, Norman Memories”
From May 10, 2023, the symbolic date of the National Day of Memories of the Slave Trade, Slavery and their Abolition, the exhibition “Slavery, Norman Memories” takes place in three places; in Le Havre, Honfleur and Rouen. This exhibition offers a first state of scientific knowledge on the involvement of the Normans and the territory in the Atlantic slave trade and slavery between 1750 and 1848.
“The archives present all the stages of the slave trade: the financial arrangement to prepare a boat, the way in which the groups are formed, the profitability of the investments, the plantations, the dwellings in America, the living and working conditions of the people in slavery, and the use of raw materials in France. The museums keep works that illustrate this history and the questions of representation, “explains Guillaume Gaillard, general curator of the regional exhibition.
An unprecedented approach, which the organizers wish to see as a necessary work of pedagogy and memory in order to restore this subject to its rightful place in national and international history. This exhibition continues until November 10.
Museum of Art and History of Le Havre, Hôtel Dubocage de Bléville, “Fortunes et servitudes”, at the Eugène-Boudin museum, Honfleur “From one land to another”, as well as at the museum of the Corderie Valois, “The Other Side of Prosperity” Notre-Dame-de-Bondeville, Rouen, until 10 November.
“African futures”: Africa in force in Cologne
The Cologne Festival offers an extremely dense, rich and varied program with more than 50 events planned. Concerts, film screenings, theatrical performances, readings, workshops, conferences will be organized in different places in Cologne. The festival promises to outline visions for the future, to meet challenges while showing the complexity, diversity and creativity of modern Africa and the African diaspora.
African Futures, organized by the University of Cologne, is intended for all citizens present in the city.
In diverse and multiperspective approaches, the participating guests are as well scientists, artists, intellectuals, activists, musicians, representatives of the African diaspora… This event offers a stage for science, socio-political and development discussions. , theatre, dance, performance, media art, music and literature.
“It will discuss common challenges and questions for the future that influence our relationship and ties with the African continent. These relations are also marked by the colonial heritage. The city of Cologne is committed to actively working on this (post)colonial heritage and to asking the question what this common history means for the current coexistence in Cologne.
University of Cologne, Germany, until June 11. https://african-futures.koeln/fr/
Carte blanche to Dominique Zinkpé and his “Human Poetry”
The Parisian gallery Vallois presents a major personal exhibition of the Beninese artist Dominique Zinkpè “Human Poetry”, in its two spaces. At 35 rue de Seine, there are his works on canvas and sculptures while 41 rue de Seine hosts his works on paper.
This exhibition will also be an opportunity to discover a new work by the artist, one of his great books, which the artist designed and exhibited for the first time last year at the Montresso Foundation in Marrakech and through which he invites us to “read the painting”.
Dominique Zinkpé is one of the most recognized contemporary African artists.
Galerie Valois, at 35 and 41, rue de Seine, Paris 6th.
Nollywood Week, the festival of Nigerian cinema, celebrates its tenth anniversary
The Parisian cinema l’Arlequin welcomes from May 11 to 14, the Nollywood Week at the cinema L’Arlequin in Paris. This festival launched in 2013 celebrates its tenth edition. This year, his godfather will be the comedian, actor and French director of Ivorian origin Jean-Pascal Zadi. Since the success of his film Simply Black in 2020, for which he received the César Award for Most Promising Actor, Jean-Pascal Zadi has become a rising and committed figure in French cinema. The former rapper co-directs the series En place in 2023 where he questions the place of blacks in France, a series available on Netflix.
Nollywood Week is a nod to the bubbling Nigerian film industry. A contraction of Nigeria and Hollywood, Nollywood produces a thousand films each year and is also reminiscent of Bollywood, another great film industry: that of musical films shot in Bombay.
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On the program for these 4 days of screenings, 9 feature films and 14 short films as well as 3 animated films are offered in the official selection. For the opening night, the short film Love Language, on the dynamics of an inter-ethnic couple, will be followed by the feature film Obara’M in the presence of its director, Kayode Kasum, one of the most prolific Nigerian filmmakers. .
Alongside screenings, masterclasses, round tables, and exchanges with directors and actors are offered, as well as Afrobeats evenings. Festival-goers are invited to vote for their favorite film in order to designate the winner of the audience award for the best feature film in the official selection.
For this 10th anniversary, new features were introduced with a screening for children called Nolly Kids and a jury prize for both feature and short films.
Nollywood Week is a film festival organized by the association Okada Media, based in France and directed by Serge Noukoué and Nadira Shakur.
Cinema l’Arlequin, 76 rue de Rennes, Paris 6th.
