Bubblegum Club

Tag: Mali

  • South Africa, What’s Up? Residency at ANTiGEL Festival

    Over the last 8 years ANTiGEL Festival has grown to become one of the largest cultural events in Geneva. By bringing artistic experience to parts of the city that are detached from this kind of engagement, the festival aims to be a reminder of the importance of making spaces for arts and culture. Africa What’s Up is a residency that falls within the festival. Artists from South Africa and Egypt have been invited to put together an evening dedicated to cultural music and cultural production on their countries.

    Photography by Chris Saunders

    Throughout the week-long residency, South African and Egyptian artist have been interacting with cultural producers from Mali, Nigeria and Switzerland. It has also provided a moment of pause and refection. In addition to the time spent networking and teasing out performance plans, artists have been able to engage with one another and the residency organisers in daily roundtable discussions. This expands the purpose of the residency to that of a space for conversations that directly affect artists. These include conversations around womxn’s access to performance time and how this is connected to networks, resources and development. Discussions also included the larger question of access for artists in general with regards to visa applications and funding to sustain their practices.

    Photography by Viviane Sassen

    Even though the residency has a focus on music, it also embraces the importance of cross-disciplinary pollination. This can be seen by the performance element.

    South Africa’s CUSS Group and the Swiss cultural organisation Shap Shap co-curated the South Africa What’s Up lineup, which includes performances by FAKA, DJ Prie Nkosazana, Dirty Paraffin and DJ Lag. Choreographer Manthe Ribane and Swiss electro-soul duo Kami Awori will be presenting their collaborative effort. Having met in Johannesburg, they have combined music, choreography and a visual display to present a full sensory experience.

    Photography by Kent Andreasen

    What is particularly important about the residency is how it encourages cross-disciplinary pollination and has opened up discussion around what it necessary to facilitate easier access to gigs and spaces for African artists. It has also provided a space to draw out how these kinds of conversations need to be translated into pragmatic steps for action.

    Photography by Chris Saunders
  • Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie // The work of African artists take centre stage

    Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie // The work of African artists take centre stage

    Established in Mali in 1994, Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie or Bamako Encounters is the first international festival of its kind devoted to photography from the African continent. Founded by Mali’s Ministry of Culture together with the Institut Francais the festival is dedicated to the elevation of African photographers.

    The event that takes place across numerous venues within the city is the home of the Pan African exhibition, held at the Museum of Mali, and it is arguably one of the festival’s main attractions. The exhibition will showcase the work of forty artists from across the continent.  This year’s photographic and video works appear under the title ‘Afrotopia’ bracing different components of African culture and heritage, in order to redefine subjects such as African bodies, sexuality and politics and is aimed atdeveloping possible futures for nations.

    Marie-Ann Yemsi is the curator of the Biennale and her title selection of ‘Afrotopia’ is an invitation to the featured artists to contextualize what and who will drive the future as well as the continent’s influence on a globalised world.

    The African Biennale of Photography, is currently in its 11th edition of which South Africa’s very own Athi-Patra Ruga was awarded the Seydou Keïta Prize, the Grand Prize of the Rencontres de Bamako.

    Fethi Sarahoui, B as Bouchentouf

    As the general delegate of Bamako, Samuel Sidibe expresses the festival creates great visibility for photographers from the continent contributing to the emergence of current African photography both in the professional landscape and to the general public.

    Enforcing the value of questions raised by African artists on the historical and social issues that are distinct to them, Bamako acts as an advocate for the verbalisation and contemporary visualisation of these questions. Platforms such as Bamako is of vital importance and has been from its inception in 1994.

    The biennale brings to light the issues that African artists are concerned and faced with emphasizing their validity. Despite all difficulties that the festival has seen like that of its 10th addition which saw Mali in a state of emergency despite having taken a four-year break, the festival prevailed and continues to elevate and honour some of the most noteworthy imagery and image makers on the African continent.

    The biennale took off on the 2 December and will run to the 31 January 2018. After the festival Bamako, the Recontres will be held at the National Museum of World Cultures from April 2018.

    Julien Creuzet, Head-to-head, hidden head, Light.