VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 10/10/2011

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 10/10/2011


Notre journal de la soiree de ce lundi 10 octobre 2011 :

H1 – Présidentielle au Cameroun : Attente des résultats

Au Cameroun, au lendemain de la présidentielle de dimanche, la vie a repris son cours normal à Yaoundé. Les commissions locales de vote poursuivent le décompte des résultats. Mais l’opposition rapporte des incidents.

H2 – Egypte : Deuil pour les 25 morts

En Egypte, l’heure est au deuil au Caire, après les violences entre communautés coptes et forces de l’ordre. Des milliers de personnes se sont rassemblées pour une cérémonie de funérailles des victimes dans la capitale. 25 personnes ont été tuées hier dont 17 chrétiens coptes.

H3 - Niger : Première assemblée Africaine des jeunes pour la sécurité routière

L’Assemblée s’est tenue à Niamey, du 07 au 08 octobre 2011. Placée sous le thème « la sécurité routière, un défi pour la jeunesse africaine », cette assemblée a réunie plus d’une centaine de jeunes

'Cactus" - Avishai Sivan's exhibition in East London

The Israeli filmmaker Avishai Sivan is currently working in London and presented his drawing and one of his film in his first British exhibition.

The exhibition takes palce at the Wayward Gallery in East London (47 MOWLEM ST, LONDON, E2 9HE, Bethnal Green). 

The opening was on Thursday and pictures are more relevant than words:

Drawings and photographs.

Maps and tube maps.

Filmmakers, musicians, painters and many more:

CACTUS
6 – 18 / 10 / 2011
Wayward Gallery


Avishai Sivan presents tube-map sketches and Polaroid prints - some are straight-forward photographs – others are over/underexposed print with etchings and inscriptions.

Finally, Sivan presents Returnee a twenty-one minute film, shot in 16mm.

--
 
Avishai Sivan, born in 1977, in Israel, is a filmmaker, visual artist and published author. 

His artwork has been presented galleries and art magazines in Israel and Europe. 

Sivan’s first feature film "The Wanderer" was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2010, in the Directors’ Fortnight section. 

He was awarded the 2010 Ministry of Culture’s Cinema Prize in Israel. 

In 2007, his first documentary, seven-part video diary "The Soap Opera of Frozen Filmmaker" won Best Video Art at the Jerusalem Film Festival 2007. Earlier this year, Sivan published his first book "Musings on Filmmaking whilst Cycling through the City".

--

More details, info and pictures here:


http://www.avishaisivan.com/art.html

Wayward Gallery:
www.thewaywardgallery.com  

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 07/10/2011

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 07/10/2011

Notre journal de vendredi soir:

Le Prix Nobel de la Paix revient a trois femmes!

Dont deux Libérienne : La Présidente Ellen Johnson Sirleaf et l'activiste pacifiste Leymah Gbowee.
La troisième lauréate est la journaliste et blogueuse yéménite Tawakkol Karman.

Cameroun : Derniers jours de campagne

Au Cameroun, dernière ligne droite pour les élections de dimanche. Paul Biya est toujours largement donné favori pour sa réélection au poste de président.

Haïti : Le nouveau gouvernement prêt à reconstruire

En Haïti, Le Président Michel Martelly a demandé à son nouveau Premier Ministre de lancer la reconstruction du pays. Après cinq mois de crise politique, Haïti dispose enfin d'un nouveau Premier ministre. Dans ce journal notre interview avec Michaelle Jean, journaliste canadienne d'origine haïtienne et née a Port-au-Prince. Ancienne gouverneur générale du Canada, elle est aujourd'hui Grand Temoin pour l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie et l'Envoyée spéciale de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'éducation, la science et la culture (UNESCO) pour Haïti.

All about DRC Music charity album

I always wondered why so few artists, and especially musicians, and especially British bands, were trying to use their fame and talent to bring attention to some bigger causes...

There we have an awesome exemple...  

'DRC Music' is the perfect produce of work, music, travel, fame and an attempt to encourage charity.

It's a European-African record which has been produced by a collective of musicians led by (on ne le presente plus) Damon Albarn.

They recently visited the Democratic Republic of Congo - DRC - to produce a new album for Oxfam. 

Here is the main track published a few day ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7eraoDoqE8&feature=related

T-E-E-D (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs), Dan The Automator, Jneiro Jarel, Richard Russell, Actress, Marc Antoine, Alwest, Rodaidh McDonald and Kwes all made the trip – with a plan to make an album in five days.

More here:

http://drcmusic.org/

Damon Albarn is well-know for his love of African music. He already created the AFRICA EXPRESS platform, a mix of African and Western bands touring the world to bring mied sounds to their audiences.

Oxfam tells that Albarn first visited Africa in Mali with the NGO in 2001. He then produced the album 'Mali Music'. 

He has since recorded in Nigeria with Tony Allen and has visited Congo, Mali and Nigeria with Africa Express.

There much more to say about 'DRC Music'.

This is why I'm trying to schedule a TV report for Vox Africa with some of the musicians and producers involved in this project.

I'll keep you posted...  

--

Oxfam link:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/drcmusic.html?cid=Rdt_drcmusic 

And to buy the record:

http://oxfam.fairsharemusic.com/release/kinshasa-one-two

 

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 04/10/2011

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 04/10/2011

Somalie, Sénégal, Cameroun, Bénin, etc. Notre Journal de ce soir, mardi 4 octobre 2011, sur Vox Africa - Voxnews: 18h - 04/10/2011 shar.es/b0DdT

Me and London Town

 Since I have been back from Nairobi three weeks ago, I have been working so much and doing so much, I didn't have time to comment on London art scene, which is probably what made me so happy to come back in the British city (with the amazing friends, of course).


The thing is there is so much to say!


I cannot sum it up all now, but I can briefly tour the most exciting places I have been lucky enough to come accross in the September London experience... Here's an insight of what you can still catch... in October or next year. 


September is the new summer

I live North and work South and it just gives me what I think of as a priviledge to cross the city almost entirely every morning and every evening.


And what is the most striking part is when I arrive South of Waterloo, around Battersea...

And after a very mild and grey summer, as I was expecting it from my favourite month, September has been the sunniest and warmest it could have been... A perfect weather and light to explore the city.




Open House, yeah


The Mid-September weekend were taking place the Open House events. I went West toward Notting Hill and Holland Park to visit the future site of the New Design Museum.


It happens to be in the former building of the former Commonwealth Centre.

Then, thanks to friends I discovered the amazing Leighton House on Holland Road. An amazing house which belonged to the British painter Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). It is now an incredible museum and art centre dedicated to arts from the Arab world.


It is unfortunately forbidden to take photographs, but here is a description from the Leighton House website:

'Built to designs by George Aitchison, it was extended and embellished over a period of 30 years to create a private palace of art. 

The Arab Hall is the centerpiece of the house. Designed to display Leighton's priceless collection of over a thousand Islamic tiles, mostly brought back from Damascus in Syria, the interior evokes a compelling vision of the Orient.'

I will definitely be back in this amazing place soon as it is holding the Nour Festival dedicated to the arab cultures, in October and November.




'Contested terrain': The Tate welcomes four African Artists


The next day I was lucky enough to be completely free and went to one of my London favourite locations. London Bridge, the Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge... This site, the view, the Thames, the Tate's building... The area always makes me want to live in London forever.


In the first room of the ground floor, this amazing art centre is currently displaying an never-seen-before exhibiting gathering the work of four African artists, coming from Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A tour of the continent...

Through painting, video, photography and the most contemporary sculptures, these artists "reveal that history is more than a straightforward succession of events and that the present remains contested terrain".

Names to remember: 


Kader Attia
Born 1970, Dugny, France
Lives and works in Berlin and Algiers

Sammy Baloji
Born 1978, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo
Lives and works in Lubumbashi

Michael MacGarry
Born 1978, Durban, South Africa
Lives and works in Cape Town

Adolphus Opara
Born 1981, Imo State, Nigeria
Lives and works in Lagos

There would be so much more to say on this - free - exhibition... A first for the Tate. African contemporary artists exploring the weirdness of our postmodern life in between Europe and Africa, as well as the current postcolonial relations between the two continents... But there's not enough space here and not enought time today to add much more. All I can add is that I felt in the centre of the world, in between all the meaningful crossroads of my own life, in between Europe and Africa.


The V&A rocks my world


Then, there is my favourite place on Earth, the Victoria and Albert Museum... 

Go and see - absolutely - the 'Postmodernism' exhibition. I'll have more on this one soon.


Daring, unexpected, well documented, fun, surprising, full of lights and sounds, this exhibit is a must see, especially if you've got a crush on the 1980's...




Waterloo, centre of the world, my world

There would be so much more to say...

This month, I also went to pay a visit to the Whitechapel Gallery which displays an amazing red painting from Rothko in a remembrance little exhibition about its first exhibition in Britain.


I spent amazing moment in Spitalfields, Covent Garden, Hampstead, Old Street, and of course around Waterloo Station, my new centre...

My morning view on the platform from the train...

From Waterloo Bridge, the Thames at night on a lovely Indian Summer night...

I have to take the train here every morning and every evening and it opened a lot of news possibilities, unexpectedly.


But this will be for a next episode. Hope you liked my little London September tour.

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 26/09/2011 - 12h

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 26/09/2011 - 12h

Notre journal de la mi-journée sur Vox Africa, ce lundi.

VOXAFRICA Video - Kenya : Décès de Wangari Maathai, Prix Nobel de la Paix

VOXAFRICA Video - Kenya : Décès de Wangari Maathai, Prix Nobel de la Paix

Triste nouvelle du Kenya ce lundi...

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 22/09/2011

VOXAFRICA Video - Voxnews: 18h - 22/09/2011

Notre journal de jeudi soir, 22 septembre, dans son intégralité.

VOXAFRICA Video - Notting Hill Carnival

VOXAFRICA Video - Notting Hill Carnival

Rportingt on the Notting Hill Carnival 2011...
Used to live on Blenheim Crescent for Carnival 2010.
Now filming it for Vox Africa.
Comments and interviews: James Sherwood for AfroBuzz.