Mondes inventés, Mondes habités (“Invented Worlds, Inhabited Worlds”) unveils the singularity of universes developed by artists who are in turn thinkers, engineers and architects investigating the forces and flux that control and make up our universe, as well as the dynamics that animate it. Attentive to the mechanics of the world, sensitive to its potential energy, as well as to the streams of thought which irrigate it and define it, their work tackles questions of a scientific and metaphysical nature. Thus, these often complex artworks reveal the beauty of forces in action, as in the case of Conrad Shawcross and Miguel Palma, or are inspired by artworks such as “Bridges” by Chris Burden. Others, like Isa Melsheimer, are interested in architecture as a means of developing ideas about the space we inhabit, the conception we have of it but also its instability. Finally, some (such as David Altmejd) play on materials, whether mineral or organic, recreating fantasmagorical worlds.

Of all movements in art and design history, postmodernism is perhaps the most controversial. This era defies definition, but it is a perfect subject for an exhibition. Postmodernism was an unstable mix of the theatrical and theoretical. It was visually thrilling, a multifaceted style that ranged from the colourful to the ruinous, the ludicrous to the luxurious.

What does postmodernism mean, and where did it come from? The V&A will explore these questions in the exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990.

The one and only Richard Onyango is back this weekend at Gallery Watatu, with never-before exhibited works featuring Barack Obama, Grandma Sarah, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, and Michael Jackson. The show opens on Sunday 7th August, 2011 at Gallery Watatu, Lonrho House, Nairobi starting at 3pm and will run until 21st August, 2011.

German artist Carsten Höller has created JapanCongo, an exhibition featuring works from the art collection of Jean Pigozzi.

The exhibit brings together the world of African and Japanese art under one roof. Fifteen Congolese artists will be displayed including the talents of Peter Bodo, Chéri Samba, Pathy Tshindele, Jean Depara, Cheik Ledy and Bodys Isek Kingelez. An equal number of Japanese artists will also be displayed with works from Natsumi Nagao, Nobuyoshi Araki, Akihiro Higuchi, Kazuna Taguchi, Kaneuji Teppei, Hiroki Tsukuda and Keiichi Tanaami.

JapanCongo was first exhibited in France at Le Magasin in Grenoble. It will travel to Russia at The Garage - Center for Contemporary Culture of Moscow in summer 2011.

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Les œuvres de Pascale Marthine Tayou renvoient dos à dos dominants et dominés, Nord et Sud, créateur et spectateur. Tayou propose avec nonchalance des pièces qui traduisent avec brutalité l’étalage des maux du monde. Autodidacte, son œuvre est une expérience qui se vit plus qu’elle ne s’explique. On le connaît pour ses assemblages, ses dessins, ses installations et ses textes, dont la matière première est fournie par les détritus de la société.

The Board of the Venice Biennale appointed Bice Curiger as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, with responsibility for curating the 54th International Art Exhibition that will run June 4 to November 27, 2011 (Preview on June 1-2-3). The title Curiger has chosen for the exhibition is ILLUMInations.

“It is a great honour and a privilege to be asked to be the director of the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most important overviews on contemporary art. I am very much looking forward to the great challenge”.

On June 2, 2011, François Pinault Foundation presents the exhibition The World Belongs to You at Palazzo Grassi. François Pinault has appointed Caroline Bourgeois as the curator of this exhibition, which was conceived to coincide with the exhibition In Praise of Doubt at Punta della Dogana, and presents another re-assessment of the traditional limits of the geography of art, and how we relate to others and the world.

The World Belongs to You brings together works by artists from different practices, generations, and backgrounds, exploring artists’ relationships to history, reality and its own representation. «The exhibition revolves around major themes of contemporary history: from the breakdown of symbols, to the temptation of self-withdrawal and isolation, the attraction of violence and spirituality in a troubled and globalised world” (Caroline Bourgeois).

The premise of the ARS 11 exhibition is Africa in contemporary art. The themes are global, issues that affect us all. Memory, recollection and the simultaneous presence of different histories and layers of time, these are some of the common starting points of the work of many artists featured in ARS 11.

About 30 artists will be invited to participate in the exhibition, some of whom will produce new work for the show. The following artists have already started work for the exhibition: Georges Adéagbo (1942 Benin), Samba Fall (1977 Senegal), Laura Horelli (1976 Finland), Alfredo Jaar (1956 Chile), Otobong Nkanga (1974 Nigeria), Nandipha Mntambo (1982 Swaziland), Odili Odita (1966 Nigeria) and Barthélémy Toguo (1967 Cameroon). The Center for Contemporary Art Lagos CCA will produce an exhibition of work by the Nigerian photographer J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere (b. 1930), to be mounted on the second floor in Kiasma.

ARS 11 will extend across Finland and also to one venue in Sweden. The satellite exhibitions will be curated and produced by the partner museums and will showcase the themes of ARS 11.

ARS 11 will be part of the programme of the Capital of Culture year 2011 in Turku. The contribution of Kiasma will include two video installations from its collections: Where is Where? (2008) by Eija-Liisa Ahtila and WESTERN UNION: Small Boats (2007) by Isaac Julien. Both works will be on show for the first time in Finland. This part of the ARS 11 exhibition will be produced in cooperation with the Kiasma Foundation.

The ARS 11 curator team are Pirkko Siitari, Director of Kiasma, Arja Miller, Chief Curator, and Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Curator. The ARS 11 programme for Kiasma Theatre will be compiled by Riitta Aarniokoski. The African theme for ARS 11 was chosen by the former director of Kiasma, Berndt Arell.

The ARS 11 exhibition celebrates the 50-year history of the most important exhibition institution in Finland. Organised since 1961, the ARS exhibitions have played a crucial role in shaping ideas about art and giving a face to contemporary art in Finland. The history of the ARS exhibitions will be showcased during ARS 11 by two publications produced by the Central Art Archives of the Finnish National Gallery as well as by documentary material.

Afriques - André Magnin (Paris)

Joel Andrianomearisoa, Romuald Hazoumè, Moshekwa Langa, Cameron Platter, Chéri Samba, Kura Shomali, Billie Zangewa

André Magnin et Eric Hussenot présentent une exposition réunissant sept artistes venus d’Afrique du Sud, du Bénin, du Congo démocratique et de Madagascar. La diversité des oeuvres de ces artistes est à l’image d’une Afrique plurielle qui construit, qui partage et qui invente. Bien que les oeuvres nous propulsent dans des univers inspirés des réalités du quotidien en Afrique, des croyances ou des rêves, elles postulent une lisibilité internationale.

Works featured in this installation are highly creative re-imaginings of the iconic form of the African mask. Among them are sculptural assemblages made of incongruous combinations of discarded materials by two contemporary artists from the Republic of Benin, Romuald Hazoumé (b. 1962) and Calixte Dakpogan (b. 1958). These ironic tributes to the mask as the African form of expression most renowned in the West are considered within a wider art historical context through their juxtapositions with works in a variety of media by modern and contemporary American artists. The celebrated photograph by Man Ray (1890–1976), Noire et Blanche, recent interpretations in glass by influential sculptor Lynda Benglis (b. 1941), and composite creations by Willie Cole (b. 1955) are among these.”

Winner of the Arnold Bode Prize at documenta 12, Romuald Hazoumè is one of Africa’s leading visual artists. He has worked with a wide variety media throughout his career, from discarded petrol canisters, oil paint and canvas, to large-scale installation, video and photography.

The exhibition at IMMA focuses on his iconic sculptures made from discarded plastic canisters which resemble the primitive tribal masks that were so influential to the early Modernists, such as Picasso and Braque. The 40 works implicitly criticise the presence of multinational oil companies in West Africa where natural resources are exploited with no benefit to the local communities, a form of neo-colonialism that Hazoumè equates with an unending form of slavery. This is a point made in his major installation la Bouche du Roi, shown at the British Museum, London, during the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in 2007. Hazoumè has exhibited widely in Europe and America, including the Menil Collection, Houston; the Museé Quai Branly, Paris; Guggenheim Bilbao; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Hazoumè was born in 1962 in the Republic of Benin, where he continues to live and work.

The exhibition is curated by Enrique Juncosa, Director of IMMA, and Seán Kissane, Head of Exhibitions, and is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue published by IMMA with texts by Seán Kissane, Gerald Houghton, Yacouba Konate and André Magnin.

The exhibition is organised by IMMA and will travel to the Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales.

The exhibition is supported by Fondation Espace Afrique and the French Embassy.

German artist Carsten Höller has created JapanCongo, an exhibition featuring works from the art collection of Jean Pigozzi.

The exhibit brings together the world of African and Japanese art under one roof. Fifteen Congolese artists will be displayed including the talents of Peter Bodo, Chéri Samba, Pathy Tshindele, Jean Depara, Cheik Ledy and Bodys Isek Kingelez. An equal number of Japanese artists will also be displayed with works from Natsumi Nagao, Nobuyoshi Araki, Akihiro Higuchi, Kazuna Taguchi, Kaneuji Teppei, Hiroki Tsukuda and Keiichi Tanaami.

JapanCongo opens in France at Le Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain in Grenoble, from February 6th to April 24th 2011. Then it will travel to Russia at The Garage - Center for Contemporary Culture of Moscow in June 2011 and Italy at the Palazzo Reale - CIMAC of Milan in September 2011.

Environment and Object • Recent African Art examines recent African art according to two fluid and often intertwined aesthetic and conceptual frameworks: the impact of the environment on contemporary African life, and the use of found objects and appropriated materials as a recurring presence in current African art. Charting a wide range of ways that contemporary artists from Africa are responding to environmental conditions and their own situations to make art, Environment and Object includes sculpture, photography, painting and video by well-known artists from Africa and contemporary African artists living abroad.

The artists featured in Environment and Object • Recent African Art engage the environment in varied ways and display distinctly different approaches to the use of objects and media in their art making. Some artists in the exhibition focus on the interplay between natural resources, capitalism and colonialism, and their impact on life in Africa today. Decisively rejecting romanticized perceptions of Africa, they interrogate contemporary African conditions and their urban and natural landscapes as contested spaces of economic and political power, creating conceptually resonant images with an overt social critique. Other artists in the show employ strategies of accumulation and “recuperation,” drawing on objects present in their surroundings to create dense, poetically lyrical works that combine a love of abstraction with a commitment to the use of quotidian materials. The interdisciplinary implications of the art on view will underscore the range of ways environmental issues impact Africa, adding the frequently biting and provocative voices of these artists to scientific and political discourses on African nations, environments, and realities.



Environment and Object • Recent African Art is curated by Lisa Aronson, Associate Professor of Art History at Skidmore, and John Weber, Dayton Director of the Tang. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive catalogue with new essays on a range of topics related to art and the environment and will be a valuable resource on the current generation of African contemporary artists.

Environment and Object • Recent African Art is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Tadahisa Kuroda Exhibition Fund, the Virginia Gooch Puzak '44 Faculty Curatoria Endowment, Chief Oskar Ibru '81 and Chief Mrs. Wanda Swann Ibru '79, Institut Français and Friends of the Tang, with additional support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Creative Thought Fund at Skidmore.



Environment and Object • Recent African Art will be on view at The Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University from September 9 through December 11, 2011 and the Middlebury College Museum of Art from January 26 through April 22, 2012. The exhibition will be available to tour through December 2012.

An unprecedented exhibition exploring the broad spectrum of contemporary African art, design, and craft worldwide, The Global Africa Project premieres at the Museum of Arts and Design this November. Featuring the work over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean, The Global Africa Project surveys the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world. Through ceramics, basketry, textiles, jewelry, furniture, and fashion, as well as selective examples of architecture, photography, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition actively challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design without making the usual distinctions between "professional" and "artisan."

The CAAC is currently collaborating with Louis Vuitton and Edun in an exhibition called “Africa Rising” – an event taking place during Paris Fashion Week, October 6th - 18th.

Edun is the ethical clothing label founded by U2 singer Bono and his wife in 2005 to encourage trade with Africa. The Africa Rising exhibition will feature works from Jean Pigozzi’s African art collection, including sculptures from artist George Lilanga as well as some never before displayed prints from the photographer Seydou Keïta.
Edun's spring collection will also be showcased.

Aside from being a collector of African and Japanese contemporary art, Jean Pigozzi has taken photographs for the last 40 years. An exhibition of his work is currently on in Arles, France, in the Rock Trail (Promenade Rock) exhibit, Atelier de Maintenance, Parc des Ateliers.
His latest book, Catalogue déraisonné, will be published by Steidl/Dangin in the fall. The Arles exhibition catalogue is available now.

The Andrew Edlin Gallery presents a selection of works by Abu Bakarr Mansaray as part of a 4-artist summer exhibition.
Mansaray's featured works are populated with ghostly forms. Overtly violent and defiant, they depict anthropomorphized (hominoid) figures mutilated and dismembered by warfare, disease and humiliation. His characters are immersed in streams of blood and gunfire, surrounded by broken glass and strewn with a range of vengeful texts (The Day You See My Face You Will Never See the Next Sunrise).

The work of the artist Romuald Hazoumè from Porto Novo in Benin, West Africa, bears testimony to the mutual longing of both Africans and Europeans for the supposed paradise of each other’s countries.

The exhibition at the Gerisch-Stiftung displays several acrylic paintings that take as their theme the ritual acts and symbols of the Fa oracle. Also featured are numerous photographic works that illustrate the everyday use in Benin of the object that is most important in his work, the petrol can. Masks that make use of petrol cans as objets-trouvés can also be seen as well as large-scale sculptures and installations, some specially produced for a park in Neumünster.

Présentée dans la grande galerie du Centre Pompidou du 5 mai au 9 août 2010, l'exposition Dreamlands développe un propos inédit : montrer comment les modèles de foires internationales, d'expositions universelles et de parcs de loisirs ont influencé la conception de la ville et de ses usages.
Démultipliant la réalité par la pratique de la copie, jouant d'une esthétique de l'accumulation et du collage souvent proche du kitsch, ces mondes clos et parallèles ont en effet inspiré les démarches artistiques, architecturales et urbanistiques au XXe siècle, au point de s'ériger en possible norme de certaines constructions contemporaines.

Tate Modern is currently showing a selection of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré's drawings from the CAAC collection. These exhibits will be shown for one year, in one room (room 4), on level 3, in the "Poetry and Dream" section.

La Collection de l’Art Brut présentera des œuvres de Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, vivant en Côte d’Ivoire et de Ataa Oko, au Ghana.

In this exhibition dedicated to contemporary African art, the Caac is showing works by 20 artists from the collection, including:

Amani Bodo • Pierre Bodo • Frédéric Bruly Bouabré • Demba Camara • Seni Awa Camara • Chéri Chérin • Calixte Dakpogan • Efiaimbelo • Gedewon • Romuald Hazoumé • Bodys Isek Kingelez • Samuel Kané Kwei • George Lilanga • Esther Mahlangu • Abu Bakarr Mansaray • Joshua Okorodomeke • Richard Onyango • Chéri Samba

Take a look at the exhibition:


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Global Project

Roma Beni Culturali

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Cultura Italia

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Cultura Lazio

La manifestation Insiders rassemble plus de quatre-vingts artistes, architectes et collectifs de tous horizons qui ont en commun des facons de deborder des limites de leurs disciplines. A la manière des premiers folkloristes, les artistes contemporains se tournent vers une pratique de recensement de matériaux culturels, tandis que les architectes proposent des modes d'exercices alternatifs en relation avec de nouveaux modes d'appropriation de la ville et de l'architecture. La sélection des projets exposés résulte d'une enquête dans les champs respectifs de l'art, et de l'architecture, sur les interrelations entre cultures savantes et cultures populaires. Face aux questions sociales et économiques qui travaillent le monde, face au modèle d'une culture globale, Insiders explore la singularite des dynamiques d'échanges et d'organisations inédites porteuses de nouvelles valeurs collectives.

Works of the following Caac artists will be shown during the Moscow Biennale, at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, in the exhibiton entitled "Against Exclusion", curated by Jean Hubert Martin: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Chéri Chérin, Romuald Hazoumé, Kané Kwei, Esther Mahlangu,Chéri Samba,Cyprien Tokoudagba.