Founded in 2013, 1-54 has dedicated itself to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora and strives to promote diverse perspectives. With editions in London, New York and Marrakech annually, 1-54 features leading international galleries specialising in contemporary African art and is accompanied by the 1-54 Forum talks and Special Projects programme.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Being “African” in the so-called “Middle East”: Curating our Multiple Selves with Touria El Glaoui, Dr. Omar Kholeif and Dr. Ridha Moumni. How does one define one's sense of ‘African-ness' in an age where slippages around both language and its comprehension; visuality and its contradictions, are no longer subject to the binary of a singular form of identarian position or politics. In this series of stories and provocations, speakers reflect on the evolving definition of African legacies and heritage and consider the contradictions that arise when a creative individual occupies more than a single identity. https://www.1-54.com/
The Poetry Salon: (My) Episodes of Everyday Racism, Interrupted with Raymond Antrobus, Phoebe Boswell, Lakwena Maciver, Andra Simons, and Dr. O. Drawing inspiration in-part from Grada Kilomba's book, Plantation Memories, and Lola Olufemi's Feminism, Interrupted, the FORUM's second edition of the poetry salon invites artists and writers to present and reflect on poems that disrupt and challenge the very concept of ‘everyday racism'. The mask, the mouth, and the wound are expressed and amplified from the interstices of silence — not marginal, but rather, enabling new centres of reclaimed imagination to come to bear. Merging oral testimony, with the diaristic, the meditative, and the propulsive — the readings are followed by a group discussion of lived experience, and the power of ‘interruption' facilitated through the singularity of the voice. https://www.1-54.com/
Introduction & Exhibition Itineraries with Dr. ‘Ugochukwu-Smooth' Nzewi and Dr. Omar Kholeif ‘Ugochukwu-Smooth' Nzewi is an artist, art historian, and curator who currently serves as the inaugural Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Both trained as artists, Nzewi and Kholeif, take a winding path through the exhibition halls of memory, reflecting on the projects that inspired and gave route to formative trajectories, such as the Dak'Art Biennial in Senegal, through to the art spaces, that nourished and inspired them — from Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. In this conversation, the duo negotiates the tension between the notion of ‘tradition' in art history against the accumulated concept of the contemporary. They consider the ethnographic and the anthropological in a dialogue that summons individual ways of looking and narrating art of Africa and its diasporas. https://www.1-54.com/
Ageing Ruins…: A Listening Session with Otobong Nkanga and a response by Dr. O. Otobong Nkanga, one of the leading artistic voices of her generation, returns to FORUM to present four tracks from her forthcoming vinyl record release, developed from her award-winning installation, ‘Ageing Ruins Dreaming Only to Recall the Hard Chisel from the Past,' at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, commissioned as part of Sharjah Biennial 14. Here, audiences are invited to an intimate evocation that explores the use of the artist's voice within her practice, proffering possibilities and questions about the multiple forms of imagination that can be conjured through this form of embodiment. Here, the duo discusses the voice in relation to the body as a site contingency with its natural surroundings — the environment, which is forever transmuting, seeping through our hands, as much as it is responding to the contours of our hands. A discussion with the audience will follow. https://www.1-54.com/
Narrating our “Pan-Afrikan” Connections: Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith in-dialogue with Lubaina Himid Marlene Smith is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator recognised for her research on Black Artists and Modernism in the UK. Claudette Johnson, known for her large-scale figurative drawings, are acknowledged for their ‘defiant' contribution to the study of Black visuality. Both Claudette Johnson and Marlene Smith were co-founders of the East-Midlands based, BLK Group formed in Wolverhampton in 1979, setting the stage for the anti-racist discourse of the British Black arts movement, which would follow the early 1980s. Lubaina Himid is an artist, who spent much of her life working to create space for herself and other Black women in the UK's artistic ecosystem, simultaneously operating as a curator, cultural historian, and as an educator. Here, she speaks to Marlene Smith and Claudette Johnson about the complexities of negotiating one's individual artistic practice, while also giving credence to the effective power of collective movement and action in shaping and nuancing our multiple histories of art. The panel draws its title from an exhibition held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in 1983. https://www.1-54.com/
Intro to FORUM & Overture Number 2/A Re-Play: Koyo Kouoh: The Curator as Storyteller with Dr. Omar Kholeif Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director, and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town and Founding Director of RAW Materials Company in Dakar, in conversation with Kholeif, narrates a path — as a storyteller who weaves and builds upon the intimacies of human relationships. Here, Kouoh, leads, guides, and enables us through her commitment to a nurturing curatorial practice of multiple convenings with artists and curators. How did this all begin, and where to from here, for Koyo Kouoh? The path may not always have been traditional, perhaps even thorny, but Koyo has utilised divergent routes to construct pavements for African artists, authors, historians, and curators to be seen. What shall, and can we do together? In this talk, curator Kholeif, invites Koyo to walk down lanes of memory, to a beginning — tracing itineraries, developing maps, and building worlds, which might offer audiences an inventory for how to consider art in the present. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (22/05/2022) Interlocking Histories (4:00 pm EST) Two new exhibitions opening in October 2022 examine the engagement of African and African American artists creating new art in the 1940s through the 60s, that fostered transnational conversations and upended notions of modernity depicted by African artists. Kimberli Gant, PhD, co-curator of Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, and moderator Niama Safia Sandy will discuss and preview some of the featured art, and illuminate this time in art history. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (22/05/2022) Archiving, Reclamation, and Authoring Your History (2:00 pm EST) The renaissance of archival resources and collections that center global Black experiences has fostered an appetite for a better understanding of how we define archives and how archival collections can be employed in the cultural arts. Whose narratives do the archives hold and what is missing? Should artists think about the archive as a mode of legacy building? Steven G. Fullwood (Nomadic Archivist Project), ceramicist King Houndekpinkou, Rianna Jade Parker (Brief History of Black British Art), and moderator Novella Ford are storytellers, archivists, researchers, and artists who will engage these questions and share their journeys to and through archives. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (21/05/2022) Textiles and the Global Politic of the Black Arts Movement (4:00pm EST) A conversation with Harlem-born fiber artist Dindga McCannon and art collector and gallerist Lewis Long will explore the influence of McCannon's Harlem upbringing, the politics that gave way to the creation of the Weusi Artist Collective and Where We At Black Women Artists Inc., and the enduring use of textiles in artmaking today. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 FORUM New York 2022 May 21-22, 2022 (21/05/2022) Under the Influence of Édouard Glissant (1:00pm EST) Martinican poet, novelist, philosopher, and academic, Édouard Glissant (1928-2011), is considered one of the greatest writers and thinkers of his generation. What can the theories and writings of Glissant help us to understand about navigating and preserving cultural complexities? How can they operate in artmaking, criticism, and artists serving spaces? Tiana Webb Evans, art maven, brand strategist, and founder of The Jamaica Art Society, with artist Johanna Mirabel, will consider and reconsider these questions and explore Mirabel's work in this context. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Closing Remarks - Motorised Justice: A Poem for the Drifters 1-54 Forum Curator Dr Omar Kholeif closes the day with a lyric poem authored during the course of the Fair and Forum https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) FOCUS: Zina Saro-Wiwa followed by an in-person Q&A with Professor Sarah Perks(14:45 pm – 16:15 pm CET) Esteemed artist and filmmaker, Zina Saro-Wiwa, presents a specially curated screening and in-person conversation on her film and video work, including a special preview of an in-development epic feature. From founding the alt-Nollywood movement to a near-mystical obsession with food and drink, Saro-Wiwa's oeuvre is characterised by storytelling that expands beyond belief systems, producing unique visual encounters that cross geographical, cultural, and metaphysical space. Saro-Wiwa's films and video installations combine personal and collective emotion with pop culture, reworking global historical cinematic genres from melodrama and sci-fi to biblical epic in order to consider legacies of trauma, historical memory, and the otherworldly potential to transcend them. Here, Saro-Wiwa shares existing works including the influential cult-classic Phyllis (2010), The Deliverance of Comfort (2010), and her acclaimed Table Manners series (2014-2019), alongside the inspiration, ideas, and extracts for a new feature-length work, Eucharia. The session will be moderated by curator and film producer, Professor Sarah Perks, who has a long-standing interest in the artist's work. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Have We Ever Been Modern? Joël Andrianomearisoa Christine Eyene Marie-Cécile Zinsou Moderator: Marie-Ann Yemsi How do we negotiate the tension between the notion of old and new; the ‘traditional' and the contemporary culture produced on the African continent and its diaspora today? Rather than retreating into debates of semantics, this conversation seeks to create a propositional sphere, where social justice is not merely an aspiration but a way of collaboratively thinking through the different means that solidarity around African art can be made manifest. Whether deliberating restitution or the framing of our present discourses of contemporary art, this session seeks to move us beyond the debate of western notions of modernity, in favour of a dichotomous and rapturous sphere of constant dissonance. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Painting a New Expressionism: A Keynote conversation between artist, Anuar Khalifi and Dr Omar Kholeif (11:45 am – 12:45 pm CET) One of the most exciting artists working in painting to emerge onto the international scene in recent memory, Anuar Khalifi, who splits his time between Barcelona and Tangier, was the subject of several exhibitions during the global lockdowns associated with Covid-19. Now, in a significant keynote conversation with Dr. Omar Kholeif, the artist takes us through the evolution of his stylistic forms and motifs, from his early pursuits of drawing as a child through to his recent collaboration with artist and musician, Yasiin Bey, AyYa. In their conversation, the duo traces their parallel lives living in multiple diasporas and their broad interests in expanding arts potential to be inclusive of the tensions of being from and of the Global South. They address the stylistic burdens of Orientalism versus modernity and explore the possibilities of pushing these formal limits. They ask: How should one express oneself in the freewheeling 21st century? https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum Paris 7 - 10 April 2022 (09/04/2022) Opening Remarks / A Memento to Marrakech (11:00 am – 11:15 am CET) Forum Curator Dr Omar Kholeif introduces 1-54 Forum Paris. Enter the Frame with Hassan Hajjaj (Video Address and Conversation, 11:15 am – 11:45 am CET) 1-54 Forum begins by reflecting on the complex cultural constellations of Marrakech, Morocco, a site where the 1-54 Forum and Fair has for the second time been moved due to the evolving contours of the Covid-19 pandemic. Audiences are invited to Enter the Frame of the Day in a special trans-border conversation with the polymath, Hassan Hajjaj. An Andy Warhol for the 21st Century, artist Hajjaj demystifies Morocco's cliches, immersing us into the heart of the city's Medina and revealing new work in progress in a conversation with Forum Curator, Dr Kholeif. https://www.1-54.com/
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October In the Last Days of the City Q&A A Q&A with the film's director Tamer El Said and the film's star Khalid Abdalla led by Dr. Omar Kholeif. In the Last Days of the City, Tamer El Said's ambitious debut feature, tells the fictional story of a filmmaker from downtown Cairo played by Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner, United 93, Green Zone, The Square) as he struggles to capture the soul of a city on edge while facing loss in his own life. Shot in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin during the two years before the outbreak of revolution in Egypt, the film's multi-layered stories are a visually rich exploration of friendship, loneliness and life in cities shaped by the shadows of war and adversity. AWARDS Caligari Film Prize at Berlinale Critics Award for Best Arab Film in 2016, Arab Cinema Center Grand Prix of New Horizons International Film Festival Grand Prix of Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes Best Film, San Francisco Arab Film Festival, USA, 2016 Best Director at Buenos Aires International Film festival (BAFICI) www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Walk Towards the Future (French) This open-ended conversation explores the concept of artist as philanthropist; the artist as the maker and progenitor of institutions, and the diverse ways that they approach this aspect of their practice. Is institutionalism a form of artistic practice? Or rather, is it a by-product of a hollowed vacuum that requires re-imagining, regenerating? How do these engines fuel a vision for a collective future? How do we sustain them and enliven them with the potential tools required to sustain their existence? Dr. Omar Kholeif leads a conversation with artists Michael Armitage, Bill Kouélany, and Otobong Nkanga. In partnership with Phaidon to celebrate the publication of 'African Artists.' Available for purchase on phaidon.com. Save 20% using PHAIDON20. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Walk Towards the Future (English) This open-ended conversation explores the concept of artist as philanthropist; the artist as the maker and progenitor of institutions, and the diverse ways that they approach this aspect of their practice. Is institutionalism a form of artistic practice? Or rather, is it a by-product of a hollowed vacuum that requires re-imagining, regenerating? How do these engines fuel a vision for a collective future? How do we sustain them and enliven them with the potential tools required to sustain their existence? Dr. Omar Kholeif leads a conversation with artists Michael Armitage, Bill Kouélany, and Otobong Nkanga. In partnership with Phaidon to celebrate the publication of 'African Artists.' Available for purchase on phaidon.com. Save 20% using PHAIDON20. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October The Poetry Salon: On Fragile Ground In this curated poetry salon, five artists-writers present a collective dreamscape. Newly commissioned pieces of lyric, poem and song exploring themes of environmental justice will converge in myriad life-like forms—the drift resuscitated. Join Anaïs Duplan, Lubaina Himid CBE RA, Isaiah A. Hines, Dr. Omar Kholeif and Otobong Nkanga. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 A History of Echoes Amidst this symphony of voices: curators, artists and creative collaborators discuss the exhibitions fashioned from the imagination of the late Nigerian curator, Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019). By exploring the sediments of the past, the collective voices herein sketch out a path for listeners to imagine an alternative possible future—one that is inclusive of the dissonant voices and identities, which make up our shared world. Hoor Al Qasimi (President and Director, Sharjah Art Foundation and President, The Africa Institute, Sharjah) leads a conversation with Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker (former Director, Villa Stuck; Vancouver Art Gallery; Frye Art Museum and Biennale of Sydney), Godfried Donkor(Artist, Gallery 1957) and Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Artists). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2021 14 - 17 October Performance : Objective Romance and Scarce New Flowers A short experimental musical performance by Zimbabwean musician, mbira player and poet Hope Masike. With three studio albums, a published poetry book and several collaborative and tour credits to her name, Masike shares her art with audiences across the globe. ww.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 The Virtual Salon The digital, the virtual, the augmented, the real, the imagined; A.F.K versus I.R.L—the lexicon around our digital world both perplexes and invigorates ‘our' collective consciousness. In the western world, debates of African digitality often summon references to ‘digital divides' and social inequity. The reality, in many instances, contrarily exhibits a much more complex picture. Internet diffusion across the continent has proliferated at warp speed across the last decade, enabling an entirely new generation of artists and makers to explore the possibilities of digitality in motion. Here, artists have produced a multitude of virtual forms and artefacts; NFTs, memes, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Within these interstitial spaces, creative practitioners have found tools that have enabled new forms of expression—an agency that enables independently-driven storytelling techniques that embody queer, feminist alter-narratives to breathe in open space. Princess Alia al-Senussi, PhD (Cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker and academic) leads a discussion with Osinachi (Artist), Sumayya Vally (Principal Architect, Counterspace), Gemma Rolls-Bentley (Chief Curator, Avant Arte) and Tinie Tempah (Rapper and Singer). ww.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 14 - 17 October 2021 Overture/Talk - The Continental Drift: Recuperating the Echoes, the Ghosts, the Songs In this opening keynote, 1-54 Forum curator Dr. Omar Kholeif frames the context of Continental Drift. They demonstrate this through the work of continental poets, songwriters, lyricists, and historians deceased and erased; forgotten or lost whose ghosts have been summoned. Here they beckon, primed to be heard. Dr. Omar Kholeif will be joined by Koyo Kouoh (Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA). www.1-54.com
1-54 VIP Webinar | Secondary market for contemporary African Art 2020/2021 7 October 2021 Drawing from Corrigall & Co's latest report, Mary Corrigall will discuss the status of the secondary market for contemporary African art. The findings are based on an analysis of figures from sales that have taken place from January 2020 to June 2021. As the focus is on gauging the temperature of the African art market only auctions dedicated to the sale of African art were under the microscope. These auctions were conducted in Africa and Europe by the following auction houses; Sotheby's (London), Bonhams (London, New York), Artcurial (Paris, Marrakesh, Piasa (Paris), Strauss & Co (Cape Town, Joburg), Aspire Art Auctions (Cape Town, Joburg), Compagnie Marocaine des Oeuvres et Objets d'Art (Casablanca) and Arthouse (Lagos). Over 9000 lots were analysed. Corrigall will introduce some of the important findings that relate to the contemporary works. Under discussion will be which countries in the African art ecosystem claim the market share for the sale of contemporary works at auction, as well as how the value and what is valued differs in markets in Africa and Europe. A few case studies will be included. For more information on the Contemporary African Art Auctions 2020/2021 visit: https://www.corrigall.org/contemporaryartauctions2020 Corrigall & Co is a Cape Town-based art research consultancy with a focus on mapping art ecosystems in contemporary art from the African continent. It was established in 2016 by Mary Corrigall, an award-winning art journalist and academic. Our research is channelled into bespoke art reports, presentations, workshops and consultations with collectors and art organisations. Previous reports include; South African Art Market: Pricing & Patterns, African Art Auctions, Europe, October 2020, Contemporary African Art Ecology: A Decade of Curating, Top 50 Artists & the Top 20 Curators who validated them and Joburg Art Fairs. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Artist Talk with Timothy Washington Join artist Timothy Washington and curator Kilolo Luckett as they discuss Washington's recent work and practice for his solo exhibition, INDUCTION & SUSPICION, currently on view at Duane Thomas Gallery. Alongside they will also be discussing Washington's life and work in ‘60s and ‘70s Los Angeles as a central figure in the Black Arts Movement that comprised of artists such as Charles White, David Hammons, Betye Saar, Noah Purifoy, John Outterbridge, and Senga Nengudi, amongst others. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 THE BLACK FILE: Perspectives of the Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Art Join Igi Lola Ayedun (Artist and Founder, HOA Galeria), Carollina Lauriano (Independent Curator and Co-curator, 13th Mercosul Biennial) and Thiago de Paula Souza (Curator and Researcher) as they discuss the importance of contemporary Afro-Brazilian art to Black art scenes globally and how it's full potential locally and globally can be reached through the art market and institutional frameworks. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 A Reflection: The arts in the time of the Black lives matter movement Join Destinee Ross-Sutton (ROSS-SUTTON Gallery), Rudy Shepherd (Artist), Everette Taylor (CMO, Artsy) and Claude Grunitzky (Founder, True Africa) as they reflect on a year of art world practices following the protests against police brutality and broader racial inequalities in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Are we witnessing change or statements unkept? Where there has been change, how is this materialising and set to change the future of the art world and beyond? www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Threading Histories: Dindga McCannon and Tina Williams Brewer in Conversation World-renowned artists Dindga McCannon and Tina Williams Brewer have taken quilting and storytelling practices to new realms, memorialising African American histories as they do. Led by curator and art historian Kilolo Luckett, McCannon and, Williams Brewer will explore their work in Knotted Ties as well as their work more broadly within the context of quilting practices in the US. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum New York 17 May - 2 June 2021 Artist Talk with the 2021 Ritzau Art Prize Winner | Micha Serraf We are pleased to announce that Micha Serraf is the winner of the Ritzau Art Prize 2021! Serraf will be speaking about his practice alongside Colleen Ritzau Leth (Founder of the Ritzau Art Prize) and Kneo Mokgopa (Advocacy Manager, Nelson Mandela Foundation). The Ritzau Art Prize is an award supporting extraordinary artists from the African continent with three-month career-enhancing residencies at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City supported by Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy. About ISCP The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) supports the creative development of artists and curators, and promotes exchange through residencies and public programs. Housed in a former factory in Brooklyn, with studios, galleries, and a project space, ISCP is New York's most comprehensive international visual arts residency program, founded in 1994. For more information visit https://iscp-nyc.org/ (here). About Ritzau Art Prize The Ritzau Art Prize is funded by Colleen Ritzau Leth, Executive Director at Tauck Ritzau Innovative Philanthropy, a private family foundation that since 2017 has supported residencies for young, promising African artists at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York. The prize builds on the foundation's commitment to provide artists from the continent with dynamic, immersive residencies that create visibility and advance their careers. For more information visit http://tripgiving.org/index.php (here). www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Performance Art in the time of Protest and Pandemic 3 March 2021 A conversation with artists Jelili Atiku, Shelia Chukwulozie and Adelaide Damoah led by Lisa Anderson, independent curator and founder of Black British Art. 2020 bore witness to a global pandemic and widespread protests against police brutality and racism. Within this context how have performance practices and processes changed? When an audience is being restricted from gathering but also driven to gather to fight against issues of systemic racism, how can, and has, performance been a part of these conversations? Where are performance practices going next? www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Making and Unmaking Art Schools from The Nineteenth Century to the Present Dans cette conversation, guidée par les recherches des commissaires et historiennes de l'art Aude Mgba et Nadine Atallah, nous explorerons l'histoire de l'apparition, la disparition et de la refonte des formations artistiques et institutions dédiés, sur le continent africain. À travers un parcours historique allant des formes de transmission précoloniales aux infrastructures coloniales et postcoloniales de la production de connaissance et artistique, la conversation examinera la manière dont les artistes, les collectifs et les mouvements ont évolué avec les formes d'éducation institutionnelles dominantes. D'autre part, en explorant la manière dont certains de ces acteurs ont tenté de recréer des modes d'apprentissage en les fondant sur des processus et des espaces de production de connaissances vernaculaires, nous tenterons de réfléchir aux futurs de l'éducation artistique. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Making and Unmaking Art Schools from The Nineteenth Century to the Present In this conversation led by Francesca Masoero and guided by the research of curators and art historians Aude Mgba and Nadine Atallah, we will explore histories of the making, unmaking, and remaking of artistic learnings and schooling institutes across the African continent. Through a historically-informed journey moving from pre-colonial forms of transmission, to colonial and post-colonial infrastructures of knowledge and artistic production, the conversation will examine on the one hand, the ways in which artists, collectives, and movements navigated dominant, institutional educational sites. On the other, by investigating the ways in which some of these actors attempted to recraft learning modes anew, grounding them on vernacular processes and spaces of knowledge-making, we will try to reflect on the situated futures of artistic education ahead. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech An Oral Gaze: Between Bouanani and Sembene Conversation entre Touda Bouanani et Samba Gadjigo, modérée par Nadir Bouhmouch. Réunissant l'artiste Touda Bouanani et le cinéaste / chercheur en cinéma Samba Gadjigo, cette conversation se situe à l'intersection entre le cinéma africain et les arts oraux populaires qui l'ont parfois inspiré. En mettant l'accent sur Ousmane Sembene et Ahmed Bouanani, la discussion portera sur la manière dont les arts oraux ont éclairé ou influencé les travaux des pionniers du cinéma africain qui cherchaient à “décoloniser le regard”. En effet, si Sembene a vu dans le cinéaste un “Griot”, Bouanani y aurait vu un “Amdiaz”. A ce titre, nous partirons de la récente sortie du livre La septième porte : Une histoire du cinéma au Maroc pour aborder la manière dont les cultures, les histoires et les arts indigènes ont contribué à créer un cinéma africain qui remet en question les codes et l'esthétique occidentaux. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech An Oral Gaze: Between Bouanani and Sembene Led by Nadir Bouhmouch and bringing together artist Touda Bouanani and filmmaker/film scholar Samba Gadjigo, this conversation situates itself at the intersection between African cinema and the popular oral arts which have sometimes inspired it. With a focus on Ousmane Sembene and Ahmed Bouanani, the discussion will revolve around how the oral arts have inspired or informed the works of African film pioneers looking to “Decolonise the Gaze.” www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Resounding Waves: on the making of sonic solidarities through radio Departing from their respective research projects Radio Earth Hold and we dreamt of utopia and we woke up screaming, in this conversation Rachel Dedman and Yasmina Reggad explore the formation of sonic solidarities across different regions and liberation struggles, carried out by and through radio, sounds, acoustics and acousmatics in Palestine, Algeria, and beyond. Recording Credits and References (1) VOICE: Salah Badis, From the sound intervention ‘On the Palestinian Cause and Western Sahara Question' by Yasmina Reggad, commissioned by ‘Kibrit: Reactivating collective histories, shares spaces and common places', broadcasted from Algiers via Skype to Le 18 (Marrakech, Morocco), December 2017. (2) ENG: 'This is the voice of Algeria', by Franz Fanon, From "A Dying Colonialism", Translated by Haakon Chevalier, Grove Press, 1965. FR: “Ici la voix de l'Algérie”, in Frantz Fanon, Sociologie d'une révolution (L'an V de la révolution algérienne). François Maspero, Paris, 1972. (3) المجد للثورة (Glory to the Revolution), provenance unknown, 1970s. Listen to the whole song https://soundcloud.com/markazeya/track-16 (here). (4) Abdullah Haddad, ‘Tactics', performed for Yasser Arafat at a ceremony devoted to the Palestinian revolution, Yemen, 1983. Listen to the whole song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaJbV4G6UDg&fbclid=IwAR052l1GuMHs7IN45KwUdK4JR1lRZ0r6J8WOiftcnJ8pXOxnXylNGr0OMhg&ab_channel=AhmedAlshiekh (here). (5) VOICE: José Francisco Falero From the digital sound archive of one broadcast of 'La Voz de Canarias libre'. Direction des Archives de la Radio algérienne, Algiers (Algeria), n.d. (6) Listen to Radio al-Hara: https://yamakan.place/palestine/ (https://yamakan.place/palestine/) (7) Jericho - First Palestinian TV Test Transmission, World Television News, no. w067280, 1994.See the whole video http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/Jericho-First-Palestinian-TV-Test-Transmission/b51f0816d045539b6a25266954ea02fc?query=first+palestinian+tv+transmission¤t=1&orderBy=Relevance&hits=8&referrer=search&search=%2fsearch%3fstartd%3d%26endd%3d%26a (here). (8)VOICE: AISSA MESSAOUDI ‘Palestinian Radio Ends Broadcasts From Algeria'. Algiers Voice of Palestine in Arabic 17.02 GMT 7 Aug 94 Daily Report. Near East & South Asia (FBIS-NES-94-152), 08 August 1994, Palestinian Affairs, Page 17 Sonic Links Eclosion: https://smartlink.ausha.co/eclosion?fbclid=IwAR0j7kVpG8a_Q2e0CtuZznWSEjCQo54iVMnrXzyhOZh9MivjOHoYvI798_Y (https://smartlink.ausha.co/eclosion?fbclid=IwAR0j7kVpG8a_Q2e0CtuZznWSEjCQo54iVMnrXzyhOZh9MivjOHoYvI798_Y) Elle m'écrit d'Alger: https://play.acast.com/s/elle-mecrit-dalger?fbclid=IwAR3gphJQotCm0S6vpTH9nsJLjMl08kbD7AwfXDfMXLG75awbzTltCKlrqqM (https://play.acast.com/s/elle-mecrit-dalger?fbclid=IwAR3gphJQotCm0S6vpTH9nsJLjMl08kbD7AwfXDfMXLG75awbzTltCKlrqqM) Machahou: https://smartlink.ausha.co/machahou (https://smartlink.ausha.co/machahou) Radio Corona Internationale: https://soundcloud.com/radio-corona-internationale (https://soundcloud.com/radio-corona-internationale) Radio M: https://radio-m.net (https://radio-m.net) Vintage Arab: https://soundcloud.com/vintagearab?fbclid=IwAR21A60neAV7MEy0XYgwOOnfxzJKhUfbtMYHIU0Be9jNj6emZfWyI87EYnY (https://soundcloud.com/vintagearab?fbclid=IwAR21A60neAV7MEy0XYgwOOnfxzJKhUfbtMYHIU0Be9jNj6emZfWyI87EYnY) Link to Radio Earth Hold #1: The Colonial Voice: https://soundcloud.com/user-854660269-405465536/radio-earth-hold-colonial-voice (https://soundcloud.com/user-854660269-405465536/radio-earth-hold-colonial-voice) Link to Radio Earth Hold #3: Pitch Blue https://thecontemporaryjournal.org/strands/sonic-continuum/radio-earth-hold-003-pitch-blue (https://thecontemporaryjournal.org/strands/sonic-continuum/radio-earth-hold-003-pitch-blue)
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January and through February 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech Sonic Archaeologies A radio performance by Abdellah Hassak in conversation with artist-performer Ghassan El Hakim, initiator of Cabaret Cheikhat, and artist Othman El Kheloufi, composer, saxophonist and theater director. Turning to a history of sound allows one to “de-center” history. While political history draws us to the formal places of power (capitals, royal courts, parliaments, palaces), sound history takes us to much more varied places, both strange and wonderful. Political history is centripetal; sound history is centrifugal. – David Hendy, author of the BBC Radio documentary series entitled Noise, a Human History of Sound and Listening Sonic Archaeologies is an invitation to experiment the multiple capacities of sound recording to re-construct and re-compose the historical narratives of territories, experiences, or policies. Proposed and animated by Abdellah Hassak, this spontaneous conversation, activated by a listening session of sound archives proposes to restitute the past, through an unconventional approach. A record, a voice, a song, a rhythm, or a sound archive can be listened to and discussed, from their socio-political context and through their sound practice, their production, and the recording context. What do recordings from the past tell us? How do they shed light on some important events of Moroccan history? The conversation, live streamed from LE 18 in Marrakech, will further reflect on the reciprocal influences between the recordings and the sociological, historical or anthropological evolution of Morocco. Full transcript in English here: https://www.1-54.com/paris/1-54-forum-paris-2021-sonic-archaeologies/ (https://www.1-54.com/paris/1-54-forum-paris-2021-sonic-archaeologies/)
1-54 Forum Paris 2021 20 - 23 Janvier Curated by LE 18, Marrakech SOURIEZ!Photographie vernaculaire ou l'album de famille, une histoire de moments choisis ou la performance sociale. La photographie vernaculaire est un genre de photographie d'amateur dont le sujet est la vie de tous les jours, sans intention esthétique ni artistique. De nombreux artistes depuis quelques décennies s'intéressent aux images pauvres, photos trouvées, albums récupérés, qui ne leur appartiennent pas et qui racontent des histoires, intimes, anonymes, constituant une matière brute à re-sculpter, fictionnaliser, pour en réinventer et re-présenter la fonction, d'objet de mémoire. Une conversation à trois entre Laila Hida artiste photographe et fondatrice du 18, Anne Delrez, photographe et fondatrice de la Conserverie et Carolle Bénitah, photographe pla, dont les pratiques convergent vers l'album de famille qu'elles ont de différentes manières, réactivé, manipulé, exposé pour explorer. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum Paris 20 - 23 January 2021 Curated by LE 18, Marrakech SMILE! Vernacular photography and the family album: a history of chosen moments, or performing the social. Vernacular photography is a kind of amateur photography whose subject is everyday life, without aesthetic or artistic intent. For several decades, many artists have been interested in poor images, found photos, recovered albums, which do not belong to them and which tell stories, intimate, anonymous, constituting a raw material to be re-sculpted, fictionalized, in order to reinvent and re-present its function as an object of memory. A three-way conversation between Laila Hida, artist photographer and founder of LE 18, Anne Delrez, photographer and founder of the Conserverie and Carolle Bénitah, photographer, whose practices converge towards the family album that they have in different ways, reactivated, manipulated, exhibited to explore. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Creating public installations across Africa and its diaspora 2 December 2020 Imagining, designing and filling public spaces gives creatives unique challenges and opportunities, from collaboration and production to establishing a work's post-artist existence. What is the position of public installations in Africa and across its diaspora, and where is it going next? Join Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell (Co-Founder, doual'art), Zak Ové (Artist), David Ogunmuyiwa (Founder, Architecture Doing Place) in discussion with Dr. George Tebogo Mahashe (Researcher). www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar | Artists to Watch: Anya Paintsil and DuduBloom More 18 October 2020 Join Touria El Glaoui as she speaks with two artists, Anya Paintsil (Ed Cross Fine Art) and DuduBloom More (Berman Contemporary), to discuss their sold-out solo booths at 1-54 London 2020 and their practices in textiles. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Relationship Status: it's Complicated The profound distortions related to African legacy in Argentina, Mexico and Peru are still far from being part of a mainstream narrative. The historical, institutional and personal difficulties in examining African identity in Argentina, Mexico and Perus are also becoming more and more relevant for various cultural producers using artistic activism as a tool for raising awareness. Speakers include Gaby Messina (Artist), Koral Carballo (Photographer), Entes (Artist) moderated by Gabriela Salgado (Curator). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. Following a brief introduction, this recording is in Spanish. If you would like to listen in English, please find the English recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Relationship Status: it's Complicated The profound distortions related to African legacy in Argentina, Mexico and Peru are still far from being part of a mainstream narrative. The historical, institutional and personal difficulties in examining African identity in Argentina, Mexico and Perus are also becoming more and more relevant for various cultural producers using artistic activism as a tool for raising awareness. Speakers include Gaby Messina (Artist), Koral Carballo (Photographer), Entes (Artist) moderated by Gabriela Salgado (Curator). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. This recording is in English. If you would like to listen in Spanish, please find the Spanish recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 A View From the Other Side of Things Many of the inequalities inherited from slavery in Colombia still remain, having an impact on different levels of society. This panel brings together cultural producers from afro-Colombian perspectives to discuss the notions of inequality and invisibility in the context of Colombia's creative/art sector. Speakers include Ramiro Camelo (Curator at Myymälä2), Nicolás Vizcaíno Sánchez (Artist), Carmenza Banguera (Artist) and moderated by Will Furtado (Artist, writer and deputy editor at Contemporary &). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. Following a brief introduction, this audio recording is in Spanish. If you would like to listen in English, please find the English recording on our channel as a separate podcast episode. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 A View From the Other Side of Things Many of the inequalities inherited from slavery in Colombia still remain, having an impact on different levels of society. This panel brings together cultural producers from afro-Colombian perspectives to discuss the notions of inequality and invisibility in the context of Colombia's creative/art sector. Speakers include Ramiro Camelo (Curator at Myymälä2), Nicolás Vizcaíno Sánchez (Artist), Carmenza Banguera (Artist) and moderated by Will Furtado (Artist, writer and deputy editor at Contemporary &). Interpretation to/from Spanish by Maria Barrera. www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 10 October 2020 Global Connections What are the shared histories, narratives and experiences, what are the differences that define the connections between Afro-Latin America, The Caribbean and Africa? How, if it all, does this affect cultural producers finding themselves in a creative state of flux? Speakers include Koffi Mensah (Artist), Evan Ifekoya (Artist) and moderated by Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba (Founding editors of Contemporary & and Contemporary América Latina). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 10 October 2020 Modes of Resistance What role does or should play contemporary art in moments like these? On a political, personal, global scale? Why is it crucial? Or isn't it? What role play important notions of solidarity and self-care? This panel invites artists and academics to discuss current urgencies and strategies in the context of the Brazilian art scenes. This includes academic and artistic perspectives. Speakers include Rosana Paulino (Artist, educator and curator), Luciane Ramos Silva (Dancer, independent curator, choreographer and anthropologist), Enorê (Artist) and moderated by Raquel Villar Pérez (Assistant Curator at Photoworks and researcher). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 2020 8 - 11 October 2020 Representation Beyond Representation In this current moment that sees a rise of interest in Europe and North America towards Caribbean art scenes and art histories the panel asks questions around who is represented by who, where and how? What does this rising attention mean? How or does this even affect cultural producers from the Caribbean and its Diaspora? Speakers include Caryl* Ivrisse-Crochemar (Founding Director of espace d'art contemporain 14N 61W), Alberta Whittle (Artist), Rhea Storr (Artist) and moderator Magnus Elias Rosengarten (Writer and artist). www.1-54.com
1-54 Forum London 8 - 10 October 2020 What is ‘Latinx'? The term “Latinx” is an update of traditional labels such as “Hispanic” or “Latin” which emerged around the mid-twentieth century to describe Latin American migrant communities in the US. Aldeide Delgado (Independent Latinx Curator and Founding Director of Women Photographers International Archive) talks about the implications and opportunities of the new expression. Relevant resource list compiled by Aldeide Delgado available on the 1-54 Forum London 2020 webpage. http://www.1-54.com (www.1-54.com)
1-54 x Christie's | Collect, Curate, Connect: Insights into Contemporary African Art 6 October 2020 With 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair's London edition and 1-54 Online, Powered by Christie's, Christie's is hosted a panel with leading experts working within contemporary African art scenes to open its 1-54 pop-up exhibition at the Duke Street Gallery. Join Isabel Millar (Junior Specialist and curator of the 1-54 pop-up exhibition) as she speaks with Pulane Kingston (Collector and member of the Africa Acquisitions Committee at the Tate Modern), Ayo Adeyinka (Director of TAFETA gallery) and Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba (Curators and Founding Editors of Contemporary &), to discuss Africa's dynamic art scenes and how to meaningfully engage with and collect contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar African biennales as portals for collaborative practices 22 July, 2020 1-54 invited Christine Eyene, Artistic Director, Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Sammy Baloji, Co-Founder, Biennale de Lubumbashi and Daudi Karungi, Director & Coordinator, Kampala Art Biennale to discuss African biennales and collaborative practices. Conversation moderated by Nkgopoleng Moloi, South African writer, curator and photographer. www.1-54.com
1-54 Webinar The Future of Art Collecting 15 July, 2020 1-54 invited collectors Sandra Mbanefo Obiago (Nigeria), Pulane Kingston (South Africa) and Kenneth Montague (Canada), for a conversation focusing on the future of art collecting. The webinar will be moderated by Chela Mitchell, art advisor and founder of Komuna. www.1-54.com
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