Elvira Dyangani Ose: Collective Art Practices
part I
part II
part III
Elvira Dyangani Ose presents a series of works by African artists as a basis for a discussion with a group of students from Addis Ababa and Berlin. Several questions and issues are raised in relation to curatorial practices such as how an artist’s biography influences the collection of his or her work; the building of public space; the role of art in society; ‘African-ness’; Jürgen Habermas’s concept of public space; the use of public space by artists; the breakdown between centre and periphery in the art world; the politics of labelling world art in order to make it collectible; and the Western artist as opposed to the non-Western artist.
Synthesis
Question of identity · Post-colonialism · Growing up in Spain and studying art history · How artists deal with public space · How artists use their own biography to deal with public space · Expand…
Question of identity · Post-colonialism · Growing up in Spain and studying art history · How artists deal with public space · How artists use their own biography to deal with public space · What influences the collectability of art? · The influence of history and theory of architecture on Dyangani Ose’s curatorial career · Collective-ness is a central issue today · What is the role of the artist in society? · Do African artists present a notion of ‘African-ness’? · Researching African art · Dyangani Ose’s work with Tate Modern and her focus on African art · Can artists claim the public sphere as theirs? · Artist collectives around Africa · Cultural platforms that show what is happening in different African cities · Using borrowed spaces to show artists’ work · Using the public space to blur the boundaries between artist and viewer · Interdisciplinary approach to art production · Political awareness through art · First Festival of Black Art in Dakar 1966 · Initial cultural policy for African art · Raising the question of how to understand “African art” · Defining differences between how Africans see their own art in relation to how the West sees it · New internationalism · The breakdown between centre and periphery · A single mega show cannot fully represent what Africa is · Important to look at specific contexts · Who can judge “African-ness”?
Short biography
Elvira Dyangani Ose is a Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and curator of the eighth Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA 2015. Expand…
Elvira Dyangani Ose is a Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and curator of the eighth Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA 2015. From 2011 to 2014, she served as Curator of International Art at Tate Modern. Prior to her work at Tate, she was curator from 2004 to 2006 at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas la Gran Canaria, Spain, and from 2006 to 2008 at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville. At the CAAM, she curated works by, among others, Nicholas Hlobo, Tracey Rose, Moshekwa Langa, Zanele Muholi, and Mikhael Sutbozky. She has curated the retrospective exhibition Carrie Mae Weems: Social Studies at CAAC (2010) and the interdisciplinary project Attempt to Exhaust an African Place at Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona (2007–2008). She was also guest curator of the triennial SUD – Salon Urbain de Douala, Douala, Cameroon (2010), and the Artistic Director of the third Rencontres Picha:Lubumbashi Biennial, Democratic Republic of Congo (2013). Dyangani Ose has published and lectured on modern and contemporary African art and has contributed to art journals such as NKA and Atlántica.