African culture: appointments in February 2024
In Lagos, Clermont-Ferrand, Venice, Abidjan, Paris, Marrakech, Brussels, Issoudun, Lyon, Alfortville, Kigali, Vienna, Stockholm, New York, Pantin, Saint-Denis, Togo, Johannesburg, Kampala, Tunis…, in theaters or outdoors, here are 25 events of Afro or African culture not to be missed this month of February. Do not hesitate to send us your next “unmissable” cultural events to rfipageculture@yahoo.fr.
Nyancho NwaNri, Här, 2022. Screenshot of a video work in the field of contemporary African art exhibited at the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm: “House of Reasoned Truths – unlearning erasures”. © Södertälje Konsthall Stockholm
By: Siegfried Forster Follow
Advertisement
Read more
From February 2, the Tiwani Contemporary gallery in Lagos presents
Caducado,
photographic installations by Angolan artist
Délio Jasse
. The title of the exhibition is taken from the Portuguese expression "caducado", "
which refers to the existence of expired or discarded ephemera such as documents, passports, personal effects, "archives" which were abandoned and recovered by the artist at flea markets.
» The artist also shows fleeting portraits of the port city of Luanda, Angola.
From February 2 to 10, the largest international short film festival takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, in central France. Among the 9,400 films registered, 133 short films from around the world were selected, with a significant presence of African films and a special
“Regards d'Afrique” program.
Also readDiscover the RFI Culture Newsletter. Receive free international cultural news in your mailbox that doesn't forget Africa.
From February 3 to March 31, the 193 Gallery is taking over one of the city's oldest pharmacies in Venice to present the collective exhibition
Melancholic Dreams
. A selection of artists from Africa (including the Burkinabè
Hyacinthe Ouattara
and the Cameroonian
Beya Gille Gacha
), but also from the Caribbean, Latin America, Oceania and the Balkans evokes the magic of diversity and invites us to embrace the dreams elsewhere.
Assoukrou Aké
, the winner of the 2022 Ellipse Prize, is currently in the spotlight at the Cécile Fakhoury Abidjan gallery. With
Seed seeds must not be ground
, the Ivorian artist writes a new chapter in his multidisciplinary artistic approach intended to develop “
a healing story
”. For him, the confrontation of his personal history with “the big story” serves to make visible the links between the two and “
to take a look that is both empathetic and distanced on the shadowy aspects of collective history
”.
Harold Offeh, Två positioner, 2016. Screenshot of a video work in the field of contemporary African art exhibited at the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm: “House of Reasoned Truths – unlearning erasures”. © Södertälje Konsthall Stockholm
From February 6, the Quai Branly museum in Paris welcomes
Ilimb, the essence of crying
, an immersive and sonic work by contemporary Franco-Gabonese artist
Myriam Mihindou
. In resonance with the collection of musical instruments kept at the museum, it celebrates Punu culture by allowing “
to see, hear and feel the relationship it maintains with its culture
”. A tribute to the ancestral practice of punu mourners, of which the artist herself is a member.
From February 8 to 11, the 2024 edition of 1-54 Marrakech will take place. Among the selected galleries of the African art fair, there is the Christophe Person gallery which presents
And the sap was... II
, a rejuvenating solo show by the Moroccan artist
Ghizlane Sahli
which "
mutates tradition
" and affirms “
its ethical and aesthetic bias, through the necessity of a return to origins, through the exploration of flora and feminine cycles
”.
From February 8 to 11, the Les Étoiles Cultural Center of Jamâa El Fna hosts the
Marrakech African Book Festival (FLAM)
. Authors from more than twenty countries in Africa and the rest of the world are expected. The editorial line of the second edition: “
Speaking and thinking about Africa and the world from African soil. Talking to each other among neighbors. Without taboos. Without rough edges. These remain our credos.
»
At the Beursschouwburg Art Center in Brussels,
Roaming the Imaginal
by artist Eden Tinto Collins has just opened. She/he/we grew up in Cachan, in the Paris region, with parents who arrived from Ghana, before going to the national school of fine arts in Paris Cergy. His first exhibition in Belgium promises “
a cosmology inhabited by fantastic characters navigating between myth and burlesque. The artist's imagination crosses genres, moving from music videos to epic stories, to draw a universe driven by flamboyance and hyperconnectivity.
»
The Atelier des Lumières in Paris invites us from February 9 to a new immersive exhibition,
Egypt of the Pharaohs. From Cheops to Ramses II
: “
Go back in time and rediscover the Egypt of the pharaohs through the masterpieces of this mythical civilization which spans three millennia and fascinates all generations
”.
Halida Boughriet, Gold Leaf (Gyllene blad), 2022. Screenshot of a video work in the field of contemporary African art exhibited at the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm: “House of Reasoned Truths – unlearning erasures”. © Södertälje Konsthall Stockholm
In Switzerland, the Franco-Swiss artist
Jean Zuber
(1943-2019) is in the spotlight with
Signes, diverted cosmogony.
From February 9, the Hospice Saint-Roch museum revisits the life and work of this great traveler who confronted non-European cultures “
such as the Hopis of Arizona, the Aborigines of the land From Arnhem and the Kimberly, the Maoris of New Zealand as well as the Bamanas, Bozos and Dogons of Mali
.”
On February 10, at the Sarraounia cultural space, in Lyon, the Carrefour des Cultures Africaines is organizing a literary evening around the book
African Pagne, Discourses and Symbols
(coordinated by Marie-Rose Abomo-Mvondo Maurin and Jean-Paul Kpatcha) in as part of the African Season in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.
A bilingual version of
El Ajouad–Les Généreux
is presented until February 11 at the Théâtre Studio in Alfortville.
Abdelkader Alloula
is considered the Algerian playwright most translated from Algerian Arabic into other languages.
El Ajouad
is Alloula’s flagship piece. Performed only once in France in 1998 at the Avignon Festival, it is offered in a new translation by Rihab Alloula, for 7 Algerian and French performers, under the direction of the director Jamil Benhamamouch.
Chaos, God's workshop
. From February 15, the Christophe Person gallery in Paris is showing the work of Senegalese artist
Sally Sène Sow
(“
whose figurative style introduces still life into the iconography of the Continent
”) and Ugandan artist
Paul Ndema
. The latter's works are "
inspired by mats found in the East African region." They would have been introduced by Arab traders before European colonization
. »
Between February 16 and 24,
the Kigali Triennale
opens its doors under the artistic direction of Dorcy Rugamba. Around a hundred artists from across the African continent, but also from Europe and North America, are expected to transform the capital of Rwanda into an international crossroads of the arts.
Minnette Vari, Quake, 2017. Screenshot of a video work in the field of contemporary African art exhibited at the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm: “House of Reasoned Truths – unlearning erasures”. © Södertälje Konsthall Stockholm
His exhibition at LaM near Lille has just ended and he is already opening a new major exhibition in Paris. From February 16, the Palais de Tokyo welcomes
Mohamed Bourouissa
. Born in 1978 in Blida, Algeria, this leading artist of the contemporary scene lives and works in Gennevilliers. Signal, retrospective at the age of 45, speaks of the “
enclosure of bodies and thoughts, representation of identities, determination and control of languages, care through plants, music and color, parallel economies, alienation and resistance … Based on intimate experiences, the work of Mohamed Bourouissa draws collective stories drawn from the roots of bitterness (seum, in Arabic). »
The beauty of diversity
is on display from February 16 at the Albertina Modern museum in Vienna, Austria.
The Beauty of Diversity
shows the richness and diversity of the contemporary collections of the prestigious institution, thus highlighting the attention paid today "
to women and LGBTQIA+ artists, people of color, Aboriginal positions and self-taught people, who stand out in front of the contrast of the old masters
”. A less Eurocentric vision allows the inclusion of artists from other continents such as Australia, Africa, Asia and South America.
At the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm has just opened an exhibition around video art in the field of contemporary African art.
House of Reasoned Truths
– unlearning erasures. Among the artists chosen by Togolese curator Kisito Assangni to “unlearn mistakes”:
Halida Boughriet, Cesar Schofield Cardoso, Djibril Drame, Victor Mutelekesha, Nyancho NwaNri, Harold Offeh, Minnette Vari, Haythem Zakaria. The exhibition brings together works by African artists interested in community and social fabric, feminist histories, diasporic subjectivity, geopolitical and environmental forces, and questions of power.
Between February 17 and April 7, the General Stores in Pantin, near Paris, invite the painter
Inès Di Folco Jemni
to take possession of the entirety of this vast place and its programming. His painting “looks like a dream. An infinite, peaceful and tumultuous dream, the fruit of an enigmatic recomposition between life and what can exist beyond. It takes its source from her heritage oscillating between North Africa and the Caribbean, and swells in contact with her lands of origin or adoption, so dear to her heart: there is Cuba and Havana where she lived, Tunis and La Marsa, Naples and Italy…
Starting February 25, the Metropolitan Museum of Art brings us
The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism
. Through 160 works of painting, sculpture, photography, film and ephemera, the exhibition explores the Harlem Renaissance and transatlantic modernism which placed at the center the modern black subject, the heart of the evolution of modern Art. The New York museum tells a unique story of the breadth and scope of how black artists depicted everyday modern life in the new black cities that took shape in the 1920s-1940s in Harlem, New York, and across the country during the early decades of the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans began leaving the segregated rural South.
Screenshot of a video work in the field of contemporary African art exhibited at the Södertälje Konsthall in Stockholm: “House of Reasoned Truths – unlearning erasures”. © Södertälje Konsthall Stockholm
From February 27 to March 11, the
Regards Satellites
festival in Saint-Denis offers a multitude of events not to be missed. Algerian filmmakers Damien Ounouri and Adila Bendimerad offer their selection of rare films during a Carte Blanche and also a Master class. It will also be an opportunity to see the beautiful film by Farid Bentoumi,
Good Luck Algeria
. Director Youssef Chebbi presents his first feature film,
Ashkal, the investigation of Tunis
, also followed by a Master class. Claire Diao, distributor and film critic, has put together a program around
From LA Rebellion to Black Lives Matter
. The festival will also offer a selection of rare and unique works from the African-American repertoire.
The Palais de Lomé
in Togo is currently presenting “Untitled Exhibition”. For this exhibition, the aim of which is to offer a snapshot of Togolese art today, “
we decided not to choose a title, to reflect the plurality of artistic practices, experiences, forms and materials used by artists in the city of Lomé.
» The selection shows Togolese sculptors, painters, visual artists and designers whose works reflect an intimate link with the city of Lomé: Abla Sika Akpaloo, Serge Anoumou, Ruben Assamagan, Kwami Da Costa, Jerry Doe Orlando, Clément Ayikoué Gbegno, Richard Late Lawson-Body, Pierre Segoh, Kodjovi Tessi and Thierry Tomety.
From February 27 to March 31, Denise Chaleme is staging her theatrical creation
A Man Who Drinks Always Dreams of a Man Who Listens to it
at the 13e Art theater in Paris. A story of friendship between a Frenchman and an Algerian who are separated by everything: origin, profession, geography... Written by Denise Chalem based on the chronicles of Kamel Daoud, the play allows the musician Ibrahim Maalouf to take his first steps as an actor.
From February 28 to March 1, the
Joburg Film Festival
welcomes film fans from the African continent and beyond. For the South African organizers, the JFF
"
is strategically positioned to become Africa's premier film festival through the selection and presentation of African and international films while offering young people as well as budding and established filmmakers and industry professionals various opportunities for development, training, skills transfer and networking.
»
Until March 9, AfriArt Gallery in Kampala examines human nature through Ugandan artist
Richard Atugonza
. Human Nature is a dive into “
a world of symbiosis – between humans and nature
”. In the environment of his workshop, “
spiders and humans seem to have formed a special kind of symbiosis
”.
Until March 20, the 5th edition of Talan Expo in Tunis, a major event on the Tunisian artistic scene, welcomes
Hirafen
. Through nineteen multidisciplinary artists, this proposal stages an unprecedented dialogue between contemporary art and Tunisian textile crafts in the workshops of the Technical Center for Carpet and Weaving.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
Culture Africa
Nigeria
Italy
Ivory Coast
France
Morocco
Belgium
Egypt
Swiss
Algeria
Senegal
Rwanda
Austria
Togo
UNITED STATES
Uganda
Sweden
South Africa
Culture
our selection