African culture: meetings in February

Text by: Siegfried Forster

During this month of February, where will be the flagship meetings of African culture? Here are thirteen propositions. And don't hesitate to send us your “must-haves” to rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.

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"Confronter sa fear" is the theme of the 2020 edition of the In Out Dance Festival in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. Between February 1 and 9, this international festival is one of the most important contemporary dance events on the African continent. The invited countries: Germany, Benin, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Canada, Ivory Coast, France, Ghana, Holland, Israel, Mali, Togo, United States.

" Culture and social ties - together, it's better " is entitled the 11th Rendez-Vous Chez Nous Festival in Ouagadougou. From February 1 to 16, this street arts festival offers shows, training, meetings and scenographies. Last year, it gathered 50 companies from West Africa and Europe as well as 220,000 spectators.

As part of the Black History Month , Cotonou Creative and Artisttik Africa invite to participate in the advocacy to declare the trafficking of blacks and slavery a crime against humanity. The meeting will take place on February 4 at 4 p.m. at the Artisttik Africa Cultural Center, in Cotonou, Benin, in the presence of Karfa Sira Diallo and Camille Amouro.

In Ségou, from February 4 to 9, the 16th edition of Ségou'Art, the Festival sur le Niger opens its doors under the sign of "Reconciliation & Social Cohesion" with a cultural caravan for peace, giant concerts on the banks of the Niger river, a contemporary art fair, theater, dance, master classes…

" A poem that is not ours ". From February 5 to July 5, the first major retrospective dedicated to William Kentridge in a French museum explores all the mediums of the great South African artist: drawing, engraving, sculpture, tapestry, animated film, performance, video installation ... Le Lille Métropole Musée in Villeneuve-d'Ascq (LaM) promises a poetic and critical vision of delicate subjects such as decolonization, apartheid or the role of Africa in the First World War.

South African artist William Kentridge in his studio in Johannesburg, 2019. © The Japan Art Association / The Sankei Shimbun

On February 8, the Vercingétorix, the prestigious trophies of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, in central France will be awarded. In the 2020 competition of the largest festival in the world dedicated to short films, there are films from Ghana, Egypt and South Africa, not to mention the special selection "Regards d'Afrique" with a slew of young filmmakers Africans who set "the tone of a new Africa".

A major meeting of the art scene in Africa, the 8th edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, in Cape Town, South Africa, takes place between February 13 and 16. An unmissable international event for artists and the art market to celebrate the art of South Africa and the African continent in general.

The 7th Kinshasa Book Festival in the DRC opens on February 14. Among the invited writers are In-Koli Jean Bofane, Julien Loiseau, Gauz, Wilfried N'Sondé… to exchange and share literatures in the present.

The exhibition Morocco, a modern identity tells how the millennial tradition, popular production and modern and contemporary art are linked. From February 15 to June 14, the Institut du monde arabe in Tourcoing tells the story of a meeting: that of Moroccan popular creativity and the artists of the Casablanca Group: Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Melehi, Mohamed Chabâa, Mohamed Hamidi…

The 12th literary season in Mali, which welcomes 50,000 festival-goers and a hundred writers from five continents each year, will take place from February 18 to 23 in Bamako, Sikasso, Djenné and Tombouctou. Under the theme "Small stories and great stories", the benchmark literary event in the country offers literary cafes, readings, dedications, debates, workshops, shows and literary prizes.

The Audiovisual Meetings of Douala (RADO) celebrate their tenth anniversary between February 21 and 28. Under the theme “Dynamics of festivals and new media in Africa”, the festival offers 24 films, including a selection of films awarded by partner festivals such as Fespaco, JCC or Vues d'Afrique. The guest of honor is Tunisia.

Have You Seen A Horizon Lately? Taken from a song by Yoko Ono, the exhibition resonates questions such as ecology, the distribution of wealth or the colonization of territories through a selection of works by international artists like Yoko Ono, Kapwani Kiwanga, but also the young Nigerian photographer Rahima Gambo or the Moroccan artist-painter Amina Benbouchta. From February 25 to July 19 at the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden (Macaal) in Marrakech.

The 4th edition of the Afropolitan Festival at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium, invites " artists and the public to celebrate their heroines and heroes ": Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Toni Morrison… The meeting is proposed between the 28 February to March 1 concerts, films, performances and fashion shows and an exclusive concert by the legendary Congolese group Zaïko Langa Langa which celebrates its 50th anniversary.

► Send us your “ essentials ” of African culture in 2020 to the address rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.

► Read also: African culture: 80 meetings in 2020

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• our selection
• Burkina Faso
• Belgium
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