Saatchi Gallery will soon present: NEW ART FROM AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA

London in the spring ?

PANGAEA:
NEW ART FROM AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA

2 APRIL 2014 - 31 AUGUST 2014

Selection:
--

LEONCE RAPHAEL AGBODJÉLOU

SELECTED WORKS BY LEONCE RAPHAEL AGBODJÉLOU

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled triptych (Demoiselles de Porto-Novo series)

2012

C-print

180 x 130 cm each

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled triptych (Demoiselles de Porto-Novo series)

2012

C-print

180 x 130 cm each

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled (Demoiselles de Porto-Novo series)

2012

C-print

180 x 130 cm

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled (Vodou Series)

2011

C-print

57 x 40 cm

One can imagine photographs looking like this 150 years ago and, had the medium existed then, one thousand years go, when masqueraders began to appear at Yoruba funerals to guide the passage of the deceased to the spirit world.

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled (Vodou Series)

2011

C-print

57 x 40 cm

Much has changed for the Yoruba and their spiritual guides, who now find themselves in the Republic of Benin, and their costumes have probably absorbed a host of influences over the centuries, but Agbodjélou’s clever strategy of placing his subjects against mud brick walls conveys this sense of an essentially unaltered time.

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled (Vodou Series)

2011

C-print

57 x 40 cm

Today the Egungun masqueraders fulfill multiple functions in addition to being guides to the afterworld, performing the ceremony of cleansing the community prior to the rainy season, or delighting crowds with acrobatics and magical displays. But back a century ago, and more, the photographer would have been a white man, an anthropologist or missionary set out to document ‘the primitive, superstitious practices’ of people still back in ‘the childhood of Mankind’.

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou
Untitled (Vodou Series)

2011

C-print

57 x 40 cm

He would have seen, but he would not have understood. Today, that photographer is a black man, a citizen of Benin and the son of an illustrious photographer, Joseph Moise Agbodjélou (1912-2000). His generation of photographers had been exposed to the medium while fighting for the French in World War II and returned to West Africa to set up their own studios. His son has seen, and he has understood.

Text by William A Ewing

LEONCE RAPHAEL AGBODJÉLOU'S BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1965, Porto-Novo, Benin
Lives and works in Porto-Novo,Benin 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012
Jack Bell Gallery, London

2010
From Dahoney to Benin, Jack Bell Gallery, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012
Out Of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London

2011
Les Fantomes, Jack Bell Gallery, London 

--

SELECTED WORKS BY ABOUDIA ABDOULAYE DIARRASSOUBA

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled (Diptych)

2011

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

176 x 237cm (each canvas)

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled (Black painting)

2011

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

180 x 400 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Daloa 29

2011

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

180 x 400 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled (The God)

2011

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

180 x 240 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled

2013

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

200 x 400 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled

2013

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

125 x 200 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled

2013

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

125 x 200 cm

Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba
Untitled

2013

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

125 x 200 cm

ABOUDIA ABDOULAYE DIARRASSOUBA'S BIOGRAPHY

Born 1983, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Lives and works in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2013
Quitte le Pouvoir, Jack Bell Gallery, London

2011
Jack Bell Gallery, London

2009
Centre Culturel Franco-Guinéen, Conakry, Guinea

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2013
In All Cases, Nevada Museum of Art, USA

2010
Arkadi, Centre Culturel Français, Abidjan
Lion’s Art, Abidjan
BICICI Bank, Abidjan

2009
Arkadi, Centre Culturel Français, Abidjan
Centre Culturel Franco-Guinéen, Conakry, Guinea
Pinceaux d’Afrique, Stockholm, Sweden

2007
Ivory Coast Palais de la Culture, Abidjan 

--

SELECTED WORKS BY ANTONIO MALTA CAMPOS

Antonio Malta Campos
Things

2007

Acrylic on canvas

230 x 360 cm

Antonio Malta Campos
Black & Blue

2007

Acrylic on canvas

230 x 360 cm

Antonio Malta Campos
Figures in Red

2004

Oil on canvas

230 x 360 cm

Antonio Malta Campos
Figures in Red #2

2004

Oil on canvas

230 x 360 cm

ANTONIO MALTA CAMPOS'S BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1961, São Paulo, Brazil
Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012
Antonio Malta e Erika Verzutti, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo (curator: José Augusto Ribeiro)

2007
Antonio Malta, Galeria Virgilio, São Paulo

2004
Formas e Cores, Galeria Virgilio, São Paulo

2000 
Antonio Malta, CEMIG, Belo Horizonte

1999 
Antonio Malta, Galeria SESC Paulista, São Paulo

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1998 
Além do Arco-Íris, FAAP, São Paulo (curated by Per Hovdenakk)

1987
Olho&Óleo, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo

1985
Apto 13, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo (with Maína Costales). 

--

African leaders at crisis summit on Central African Republic - Interview for RFI English:

African news explained

• HOME
• PODCAST
• WRITE TO US

THURSDAY 09 JANUARY 2014

African leaders open crisis summit on Central African Republic

Listen (05:29)

Add to my playlist

Download

Embed

People stand in line for aid distribution near Bangui airport camp, 8 January 2014.

Reuters/Emmanuel Braun

By Melissa Chemam

African leaders met in Chad on Thursday to discuss the future of Central African Republic (CAR). The summit was called by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno and will bring together the 10 countries that make up the Economic Community of Central African States.  A Unicef official warned on Wednesday  that the CAR is heading for a humanitarian disaster, calling for urgent action to prevent deadly diseases from spreading in overcrowded refugee camps. Gregory Barrow of the World Food Programme comments.

--

NB. Previous interview on the humanitarian situation, Dec. 2013:

African news explained

• HOME
• PODCAST
• WRITE TO US

 

THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2013

Central African Republic on agenda at EU Summit

Listen (05:30)

Add to my playlist

Download

Embed

 

French soldiers patrol on the streets in Bangui

Reuters/Herve Serefio

By Melissa Chemam

Thursday's European Union Summit in Brussels will focus on, among other issues, the Central African Republic. So what's likely to come out of the talks? a question RFI put to Patrick Lambrechts, the Deputy Head of Unit for Central Africa, at the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department.

TAGS : CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC - EUROPEAN UNION

Remembering Simone de Beauvoir

Google says it all...

Happy birthday Madame Simone de Beauvoir!

--


"Toute oppression crée un état de guerre. Ce cas-ci ne fait pas exception. L'existant que l'on considère comme inessentiel ne peut manquer de prétendre rétablir sa souveraineté.

"Aujourd'hui, le combat prend une autre figure; au lieu de vouloir enfermer l'homme dans un cachot, la femme essaie de s'en évader; elle ne cherche plus à l'entraîner dans les régions de l'immanence mais à émerger dans la lumière de la transcendance."
-- Le Deuxième Sexe (1949)

"All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception. The existent who is regarded as inessential cannot fail to demand the re-establishment of her sovereignty.

"Today the combat takes a different shape; instead of wishing to put man in a prison, woman endeavours to escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag him into the realms of immanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of transcendence."

-- from "Conclusion", The Second Sex (1949)


--

“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself” -Simone de Beauvoir

--

Central Africa: African leaders meeting in Chad - WFP's Gregory Barrow on humanitarian crisis

 African leaders are to meet in Chad today (Thursday) to discuss the future of Central African Republic President Michel Djotodia, in a attempt to end the sectarian violence ripping the country apart.

The summit was called by Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno and will bring together the ten countries making up the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC/ ECCAS).

EU nations are considering a joint military operation in Central Africa amid looming fears of civilian massacres, 

but there may be little appetite for boots on the ground, experts said Wednesday.

A Unicef official lalso warned yesterday (Wednesday) that Central African Republic is heading for a humanitarian disaster, calling for urgent action to prevent deadly diseases from spreading in overcrowded refugee camps.

To try to understand the state of the humanitarian action, Melissa Chemam spoke to Gregory Barrow, he is the 

UN World Food Programme's head of the liaison office in London (WFP), coordinating actions on the ground.

--

Listen to Gregory Barrow

WFP's head of the liaison office in London.

By Melissa Chemam

on Soundcloud for RFI English:

https://soundcloud.com/radiofranceinternationale/car-invit-gregory-barrow-from

RadioFranceInternationale

CAR - Invité - Gregory Barrow from WFP

Posted 13 hours ago

Edit

Egypt: Morsi's trial adjourned to Feb. 1

An Egyptian court adjourned the murder trial of deposed president Mohamed Morsi to February 1, yesterday (Wednesday). The court cited "weather conditions" saying they prevented the former President's transport from his prison to court. The showing had been scheduled as the second hearing in Morsi's trial, after an initial court appearance in November in which he denounced the tribunal and insisted he was still the country's president. Morsi is accused of inciting the killings of opposition protesters in December 2012 outside the presidential palace. Melissa Chemam has more.

--

RFI English, January 9th, 2014

--

The announcement was made by the presiding judge, Judge Ahmed Sabry Youssef, yesterday.

Mohamed Morsi is being held in a prison situated about 40 miles outside the Mediterranean town of Alexandria, the second most-populated city in Egypt,  which was plunged into  heavy fog yesterday morning.

According to Egypt's Interior ministry, the pilot of the helicopter meant to transport the high-profiled prisoner refused to take off because of those bad weather conditions. 

Morsi's party, the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a statement saying the explanation was laughable.

They point out that no regular flights were affected by the heavy fog in Alexandria.

They also point to the fact that some of Morsi's co-defendant were brought to court, a police academy in the outskirts of Cairo.

Morsi's party accused the authorities of holding him in an undisclosed location...

His lawyers also complained they have not been able to visit him for a month.

Meanwhile, some of Morsi supporters rallied in Cairo to protest at the trial.

The police fired tear gas at the demonstrators and 17 of them were arrested. 

The defendants still claim the trial is a political conspiracy and remain on hunger strike. 

Mohamed Morsi and the 14 other defendants are accused of inciting the killings of opposition protesters in December 2012.

Bringing East and West: ART DUBAI 2014 - Insights

 Great news in the world of art:

Marker 2014

Stas Kharin, Poetic Entente or Occupation of the Heart, 2009, Courtesy of North Caucasus Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art

In 2014, Marker turns its focus to Central Asia and the Caucasus!!! 

Curated by the artists Slavs and Tatars, this themed series of exhibitions and educational initiatives includes gallery booth exhibitions, talks, research projects and commissioned artists’ projects. 
 

The five artspaces and organisations selected for Marker 2014 are: ArtEast (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); Asia Art (Almaty, Kazakhstan); North Caucasus Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art, NCCA (Vladikavkaz, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia); Popiashvili Gvaberidze Window Project (Tbilisi, Georgia); and YARAT Contemporary Art Space (Baku, Azerbaijian).

Slavs and Tatars are working with each space and their artists to present existing and new work that together forms a collective exhibition through a ‘regime of portraiture’, including faces, places and traces from mid-twentieth-century painting to contemporary drawings and sculptures.

At the fair, Marker will take the form of a chaikhaneh or Eurasian (tea) salon, to activate each work as a point of departure, to tell larger stories touching upon questions of faith, language, landscape; and importantly, how these notions are ritualised, interiorised, and hybridised beyond the often brittle politics of identity.
 

For more information on Marker 2014, download the latest press release from our Media Page here. 

ONESTAR PRESS COLLABORATION

2014 also marks a new collaboration between Marker and onestar press, the renowned Paris-based artist book publisher. onestar will publish books by emerging and established artists from Central Asia and the Caucasus invited by Slavs and Tatars including Reza Hazare, Taus Makhacheva and Armen Eloyan. 

MARKER EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Marker also features an extended education programme, which includes a research booth, daily talks and tours, and opportunities for upcoming curators to research and gain experience in this field. Marker’s education partner is Caspian Arts Foundation.
 

Slavs and Tatars

Slavs and Tatars is a collective with solo exhibitions at major museums—MoMA, Secession (2012), REDCAT (2013), Kunsthalle Zurich, Dallas Museum of Art (2014)—as well as group exhibitions across the Middle East, North America and Europe. They have published six books, including a translation of the legendary Azeri political satire Molla Nasreddin (2011, JRP-Ringier).

Slavs and Tatars are represented by The Third Line, Dubai; Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin; and Raster, Warsaw.

--

Very much looking forward!

More soon.

Quelques films...

Les films du week-end, je partage :


"Ma Nuit chez Maud", avec Jean-Louis Trintignant, Marie-Christine Barrault et la belle Françoise Fabian, ou pourquoi, comment et qui on choisit d'aimer, et - bien sûr - sur l'espérance mathématique et le sens de la vie ! Un classique à revoir, et revoir...

Sublime Chili d'Isabelle Allende dans "La Maison aux esprits" mis en scène au cinéma par Bille August, où la vie prend toute sa dimension via un peu de magie :


La bande-annonce : http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1945083417/

Extraits :

--

Soleil de nuit : lignes poétiques de René Char

Depuis mon récent voyage à Alger (dont il me faudra aussi parler ici bientôt), je relis Camus et ai découvert son amitié avec René Char.

Je relis donc le poète aussi...

Voir ce beau poème composé par Char pour le livre hors norme de Camus intitulé 'Postérité du Soleil', que je relis depuis Noel :

--

Et découvre de belles citations dans le monde électronique, dans mes solitudes de journalistes noctambules.

Citations relayées par le blog : http://artsrtlettres.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ren-char-lettera-amorosa



« Je ne puis être et ne veux vivre que dans l’espace et dans la liberté de mon amour » écrivait René Char dans le poème Lettera amorosa.

--

Lettera amorosa, (La Lettre d’amour) est le titre d’un poème de René Char paru en 1953, emprunté à un madrigal du compositeur italien Claudio Monteverdi.

En voici un extrait : 

« Merci d’être, sans jamais te casser, iris, ma fleur de gravité. Tu élèves au bord des eaux des affections miraculeuses, tu ne pèses pas sur les mourants que tu veilles, tu éteins des plaies sur lesquelles le temps n’a pas d’action, tu ne conduis pas à une maison consternante, tu permets que toutes les fenêtres reflétées ne fassent qu’un seul visage de passion, tu accompagnes le retour du jour sur les vertes avenues libres.»

--

La destinataire de cette Lettre d’amour désignée par le mot « iris » et dont le poète ne révèle pas le nom est peut-être Marguerite Caetani, princesse Bassiano, « bonne et terrible, amie affectueuse et tigre cruel », aux dires de Paul Valéry.

Soleil de nuit : promenade poétique électronique

De vers et tentatives de citations glanés sur Twitter, je pars à la quête de poèmes originels.

Trouvaille de ce soir :

"Si tu ne brûles pas,

Si je ne brûle pas,

Si nous ne brûlons pas,

Comment les ténèbres deviendront-elles clarté ?"

Nazim Hikmet - Kerem gibi (“Comme Kerem”)

Soleil de Nuit : Poésie

Twitter, c'est une possibilité de dialogue dans la nuit. Journaliste travaillant à l'antenne au petit matin, je vis à l'inverse des journées habituelles, la moitié de ces jours d'hiver...

Alors sur quoi tombe-t-on quand tout le monde dort? Un peu de poésie, véritable soleil de nuit...

Une première idée :

Robert Desnos : "J'ai tant rêvé de toi"

J'ai rêvé tellement fort de toi,

J'ai tellement marché, tellement parlé,

Tellement aimé ton ombre,

Qu'il ne me reste plus rien de toi.

Il  me reste d'être l'ombre parmi les ombres

D'être cent fois plus ombre que l'ombre

D'être l'ombre qui viendra et reviendra

dans ta vie ensoleillée.

--

D'autres infos sur ce blog de lectrice :

http://claudialucia-malibrairie.blogspot.fr/2012/03/dernier-poeme-de-robert-desnos-jai-reve.html

et ce blog d'analyse littéraire :

http://lewebpedagogique.com/asphodele/2012/12/19/robert-desnos-jai-tant-reve-de-toi-explication/