African culture: artistic meetings in the time of the coronavirus

Screen capture of films presented online at the Gabès Cinema Fen Festival in Tunisia. © GCFEN

Text by: Siegfried Forster

Faced with the danger of the epidemic, almost all the festivals, exhibitions and other meetings of African culture have been canceled or postponed. Here are eleven proposals among those that took up the challenge of containment by creating events to discover and share online. And don't hesitate to send us your “must-haves” at rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.

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It is a first in Tunisia and in the Arab world. Following the confinement of the country, the Gabès Cinema Fen festival offers until April 11 all its programming online. Instead of bringing together moviegoers in the theaters of this city of 130,000 inhabitants, this ambitious festival of auteur cinema and art videos invites you to watch films (from Ala Eddine Slim to Suhaib Gasmelbar or Ladj Ly ) and discuss with the filmmakers online. For internet users, everything is free, however, part of the films is reserved for festival-goers located in Tunisia.

In the United States, in Houston, Texas, the large exhibition African Cosmologies exploring " the complex relationships between daily life in Africa, the African diaspora, stories about colonialism, photography, rights and representation " had to close doors because of the coronavirus crisis. But, from April 8, the FotoFest Biennial, one of the largest meetings of photographic art in the world, launches online a series of interviews which begins with the artists leo and Shobun Baile. The public is invited to participate in the debate through Zoom and YouTube.

The #DontGoViral campaign calls on African artists to unite to fight "infodemia", the spread of disinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic. In collaboration with Unesco, the Foundation for Political Innovation (i4Policy) invites creatives from across the African continent "to produce culturally relevant information under open license in local African languages ​​in a participatory manner " . The deadline to contribute (painting, video clip, comedy, hip-hop dance ...) and win one of the eight prizes is April 15. Among the artistic supporters, there is the Ugandan musician Bobi Wine with his hit song Corona Virus Alert .

From April 17 to 26, Vues d'Afrique , the unmissable event for African and Creole cinema in North America, presents its first digital edition. Among more than 1,600 candidate films, 64 titles were originally selected for theatrical screenings in Montreal. After the restrictions linked to the crisis caused by the coronavirus, 37 films will finally join the digital experience on the tv5unis.ca platform, that is 23 works of fiction or animation and 14 documentaries from 27 different countries. And for the first time, the public will vote online for a Views of Africa Audience Prize 2020. All films are made available online for free, but only accessible from Canada.

Wilfred Ukpong: BC1-ND-FC: By and by, I Will Carry this Burden of Hope, till the Laments of my Newborn is Heard # 2, 2017. From the series “Blazing Century 1”, “Niger-Delta / Future- Cosmos ”, 2011–17. © Courtesy of the artist and Blazing Century Studios, Nigeria

Thanks to a virtual tour set up after the closure of the Institute of Islamic cultures in Paris, the exhibition Beliefs, making and undoing the invisible remains accessible. In this journey designed by Jeanne Mercier, co-founder of the Afrique in Visu platform, artists photographers and videographers explore the evocative power of religions, superstitions and myths of the African continent, like the Prayer to wifi , by artist Seumboy VRAINOM: €.

In Senegal, the collective of graffiti artists RBS Crew sensitizes the population with frescoes to the dangers of the coronavirus. Based in Dakar, Radical Bomb Shot has become a pan-African artistic movement thanks to their giant images of “barrier gestures” against the Covid-19. Very inspired frescoes, painted in the street, but also to admire on their Facebook page.

The Templon gallery in Paris offers Soldier of Love , a virtual visit to contemplate the intimate and transgressive works of Billie Zangewa. Born in 1973 in Malawi, a landlocked country in south-eastern Africa, the artist lives and works between London and Johannesburg. In his embroidered silk compositions, created from brilliant and colorful scraps of silk, Zangewa often stages himself in stories inspired by contemporary life.

The seventh edition of the Prix ​​RFI Théâtre awaits your candidacies before April 26. French speaking authors, you can send us your texts to prix.theatre@rfi.fr. The price is open to authors living in Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean or the Middle East, but also to nationals of the countries of the aforementioned areas, living in France for less than four years and holding a card resident or a political refugee. The lucky winner or the lucky winner will benefit from several writing residencies, her text will be staged and broadcast on RFI in Ca va, ça va le monde! .

Until April 30, you can submit your application to the Festival Couleurs d'Afrique 2020 which will take place between August 26 and 30 in Porto-Novo, Benin. Artists from the African continent and the African diaspora can send their projects in the fields of dance, music, puppetry, humor, fashion, theater, cinema, circus, around the theme " Leadership and empowerment of African women "

Do not hesitate to send us your “ essentials” of African culture at the time of the coronavirus to rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.

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