Can the lens of continental African scholarship and Afropean thought provoke new pathways for challenging Eurocentric frames and perspectives on the modern? 听
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Olivia Scher
Location
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SOAS Wolfson Lecture Theatre
Senate House
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HU
Festival of Afro-European Arts, Performance & Scholarship
Organised and chaired by听Bea Gassmann de Sousa听(UCL), featuring听听(University of St Andrews),听听(Liverpool John Moores University & Tate Liverpool), author听听补苍诲听听(Makerere University).
The contributors aim to critically examine the continued resonance of Eurafrica in the decolonising educational and cultural infrastructure with focus on museums/ art production as well as scholarship. Initially conceived in Germany as 鈥淓urafrika鈥� the intellectual endeavour (von Coudenhove-Kalergi, 1933) became a political project, which saw Europe's future survival - its continued role in history - bound up with Europe's successful merger with Africa. Today the project is largely forgotten, but the fantasy of a continental 鈥減artnership鈥� on a pan-regional scale continues to influence the mediation of 鈥楢frica鈥� as an intellectual and as a geo-political 鈥淓uropean space鈥� (Luiza Bialasiewicz, 2011). We will interrogate this productively from an Afropean perspective, the African鈥搑ooted scholars, curators and artists in Europe, who defy epidermal characterization (Ekow Eshun, 2023) and the itinerant artists and scholars, who travel and work in both continents.
The discussion will centre on the resonance of 鈥淓urafrica鈥� in the decolonising educational and cultural infrastructure听as a听fantasy of a continental 鈥減artnership鈥�, which听continues to influence the mediation of 鈥楢frican modernism鈥� as听a 鈥淓uropean space鈥�:听European/ British museums, art criticism and historical scholarship jointly promote global cultural modernism(s). These institutional models continue to refer to听a racialised model of modernity in an expanded space, despite critically acknowledging its colonial roots.听The panel will interrogate this contested term from personal perspectives in literature, art history, curation and artistic production.听
The听discussion听will听add an art focus to听the series of talks scheduled by the [Black Europe] research group in听2023/24.
Speakers
Emmanuel Iduma studied law at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and art criticism and writing from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Iduma鈥檚 travelogue听A Stranger鈥檚 Pose听(2018 was longlisted for the 2019 Ondaatje Prize. His nonfiction and criticism have appeared in听Aperture, AGNI, Art in America, Artforum, Granta, n+1,听the听New York Review of Books, the听Yale Review. He received the AICA-USA Irving Sandler Award for New Voices in Art Criticism, an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and the C/O Berlin Talent Prize for Theory. In 2020, Iduma was recognized in听Apollo International Art Magazine鈥檚听鈥�40 under 40 Africa鈥� for the broad social impact of his work.Dr Christine Eyene is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art, Liverpool John Moores University and Research Curator, Tate Liverpool. Eyene was artistic director of the 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca (2019-2023). Since 2021, she has also been developing Bikoka Art Project, a new art and educational initiative dedicated to young people, women, and young creatives in Lolodorf and Bikoka, Cameroon. In 2022 she was a Turner Prize jury member 2022. She is the co-author and editor of听Sounds Like Her: Gender, Sound Art and Sonic Cultures听(Nottingham: Beam Editions, 2019).Dr Kate Cowcher is a historian of art from Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia, the arts of revolution, Cold War cultures and African socialism. She is a Lecturer in Art History at St Andrew鈥檚 University and the researcher of Dar to Dunoon of works from Eastern and Southern Africa, in the Argyll Collection Scotland. Prior to joining St Andrews, she was Post-Doctoral Fellow in Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Maryland Center for Art and Knowledge at the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. Prof. George William Kyeyune is a Ugandan visual artist and professor of Sculpture and History of African Art at the College of Engineering Design And Technology, Makerere University.听Kyeyune was appointed Dean of the School of Industrial and Fine Arts (2006鈥�2010) and a Fulbright Fellow at Emory University, Atlanta in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship at SOAS in 2014. He co-authored and edited the book Mwili, Akili Na Roho / Body, Mind, and Spirit Ten Figurative Painters from East Africa in 2022. Chair
Dr Bea Gassmann de Sousa is a historian of pre-Independence African听modernity with a special focus on continental archives. Her research queries early twentieth century constructions of non-European modernisms and nationhood through the lenses of intercultural entanglements and gender fluidity. She is a member of the Black Europe Research Group at 911爆料网 SELCS, a project based collaborative researcher for Tate Modern on Nigerian art and the academic course editor and advisor for the Makerere University Consortium for East African Art/ EAMAN Museum Nairobi.
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