“AFRICA: SEE YOU, SEE ME!”
Time：2011/4/23---2011/5/22
Venue：Li-Space,Red No.1-F,Caochangdi,Beijing.
Artist(s)：
AFRICA: SEE YOU, SEE ME! portrays the history of African photography and also its influence on non-African imaginings of Africa and the African diaspora in all their diversity. Together, the photographs are texts of African subjectivities, archives of history and societies in the making, and methods for understanding how images contribute to emancipation. They critique the pathologies of postcolonial and neocolonial Africa by depicting the continent’s communities disentangling themselves from repressive nation states. While some of the photographs document the participation of Africans in state affairs, others portray the formation of post-national voluntary communities as tools of empowerment. Africa is more than a place. It is also in the many spaces of sensibility within and beyond the continent – in Europe, the Americas, and Asia -- that African artists pry open to install their presence. Their interventions in exhibition halls beyond the continent of their heritage have made a mark on recent photographs of Africa and Africans by non African photographers. Moreover, they have spurred intra-African, inter-textual dialogues about self-representation in Africa itself.
AFRICA: SEE YOU, SEE ME! Portrays the history of African photography and also its influence on non-African imaginings of Africa and the African diaspora in all their diversity. The exhibition was the result of a proposal made by Lisbon’s centre of contemporary arts, AFRICA.CONT to Awam Amkpa, the exhibition’s curator, and professor at Tisch School of the Arts at the New York University. After touring New York, Lisbon, Accra, Lagos and Florence, the Macau- Angola Association invited Awam Amkpa to bring the exhibition to Li-Space as part of the 2011 Caochangdi PhotoSpring of Arles in Beijing. The Macau – Angola Association, believes that it is important to promote a cultural exchange between Africa and China given the today’s ever more strong economical relation.
Poster
This exhibition is promoted by Africa.Cont and curated by Professor Awam Amkpa from New York University.Speacks about “the experience of the african emigrants in Europe, the history of African photography and its influence on African and non-African imaginaries of Africa. It critiques the pathologies of postcolonial and neocolonial Africa by depicting the continent’s communities disentangling themselves from repressive nation states.”
In the Black Pavillion (Pavilhão Preto) of the City Museum (Museu da Cidade) in Lisbon until December 19. Then will continue its tour in Accra (Ghana) and Lagos (Nigeria).
There are three sections.
The first shows the stories of african emigrants from their absurde voyage from Africa to Europe, the hard life in the european society. “A tense dialogue between the photographer and the photographed as they collaborate in inscribing African spaces”.
The second section shows etnographic portraits :Africa as a wild land colonized by european settlers.
The final section is “the contemporay photos of Africa by non African photographers who share experiences with African artists and the spaces in which Africans are photographed as subjects of history”.
