DÁ FALA

O ponto de partida da exposição internacional Re-Lembrar (Mystery of Foreign Affairs) é uma reflexão sobre a vida entre culturas diferentes de vinte mil trabalhadores moçambicanos que trabalharam e moraram na República Democrática Alemã. Contudo, o projeto almeja também, de forma mais abrangente, contribuir para uma reflexão sobre as relações entre Europa e África, no passado e no presente.

A primeira parte da exposição decorreu em vários lugares da cidade de Schwerin, na Alemanha, entre setembro e novembro de 2017, com a participação de artistas de Moçambique, Angola, África do Sul e Alemanha. Nesta exposição, as obras de artistas como Dito Tembe, Iris Buchholz Chocolate e Katrin Michel abordam a temática das relações de intercâmbio da República Democrática da Alemanha com trabalhadores moçambicanos, conhecidos como Madgermans. Por seu turno, as obras de artistas como Matias Ntundo ou Gemuce proporcionam uma revisitação do passado colonial, enquanto os trabalhos de Edson Chagas e Zanele Muholi representam a presença e a questão de estereótipos e atribuições culturais no mundo atual.

A segunda parte da exposição decorre em dois espaços da cidade de Maputo, no Camões – Centro Cultural Português e na Fortaleza de Maputo, e estará patente entre 14 de junho e 27 de julho de 2018. Em Maputo, a exposição passa a incluir dois trabalhos sobre a Namíbia: Towards Memory, de Katrin Winkler, um projeto de vídeo e pesquisa que surgiu de uma colaboração com mulheres da Namíbia que foram enviadas em crianças para a RDA em 1979, aquando da luta da libertação e anti-apartheid no seu país. O segundo trabalho é intitulado Namibia Today, de Laura Horelli, e recorda a edição do jornal homónimo impresso na então RDA.

Em Maputo, são ainda apresentadas obras de Jorge Dias, Maimuna Adam, Gemuce, Dito Tembe, Luís Santos, Matias Ntundo, Iris Buchholz Chocolate, Edson Chagas e Katrin Michel. Através de diferentes meios, da instalação à pintura, passando pela escultura e vídeo, a exposição pretende contribuir para um trabalho de memória sobre o passado comum, bem como para uma reflexão sobre as relações atuais entre África e Europa.

When refering to Africa, news still - too often - focus on poverty, epidemics, pollution, deforestation, conflicts… Thus given the idea that the continent cannot stand for itself (corruption, lack of facilities, brain drain…), that it is doomed and utterly needs to be saved (NGO, etc.).

But what we think is as urgent and truly lacking in Africa is a mediatic coverage regarding its contemporary culture and hype.

Because we all know the impact of speech and representation on the most diverse actions and decision-making … Let’s just get back Africa’s opportunity to surprise us, unprecedentedly!

In order to participate in the death of the collective unconscious governed by « povery porn », and to put forward a more cultural and up-to-date side of Africa, we mandate a new communication principle! - That’s what we are willing to achieve here.

The question is not that of the existence of a literature or resources about modern Africa. However, we seek to make it more consistent and more than « real » in the eyes of the mainstream!

This question is all the more crucial than : « By 2035, Africa’s labour force will be larger than China. 15 of the 20 fastest growing cities in the world between 2015 and 2020 will be African. » Mo Ibrahim, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist 

It is high time Africa was given back the image of an influential world power, rich, dynamic and fertile. Not only is it booming (structurally, politically, on both social and cultural aspects) but it is also deeply and lastingly inspiring.

And as a matter of fact: you just can’t argue about the present/future of Africa, without restoring its history, also out of alienating views from the colonial era. One of Black(s) to the Future’s strategical move is therefore to broadcast the GHA (General History of Africa) of UNESCO. Genuinely, we are targeting the people apart from schools and universities, the only two fields, this remarkable Institution plans to cover up through its programs of dissemination… Thus, we have chosen to stand as a strong scientific reference yet addressing (through the internet) the largest public, both in Africa and overseas. So if, by grace, you accepted to carefully review our presentation blog please, browse topics presented and especially the article “Kan Hoho - The need for history” : it tells about this essential faith professions of ours!

As an afrofuturistic transmedia platform, B(s)ttF endorses a renewed - modern, sustainable and uninhibited - relationship with africanness and its means of expression. 
We believe that people (from the mainstream but also afro-related, young ones especially) lack an access to african (and its diaspora) features in terms of both art creation and general reflexion. Of course - and for the better! - more and more initiatives are now aiming to fill this gap. However - and mainly in the French-speaking world - many still lack taking into consideration (aside from the current fad), a long-term need for changing the very way we come accross such proposals and informations. Thus, we would like to highlight the work of visual artists but also journalists/writers/researchers, and later filmakers, performers, musicians… with who we could invent new showcasing formats of their art and thoughts.

B(s)ttF is thus built following two logics : the first being the broadcasting of practices and knowledge, the second of “value” creation. It gathers: an online mook (magazine/book, with a new heavier focus on translating existing contents starting next september), mixtapes and events, but also - to come -  a graphic communication studio, an e-shop +brand, and more specific projects on how to recover and share African History (before colonialism!) and contemporary habits & know-hows.
We are still in our “launching” phase, however since the releasing of our website past september we reached more than 2000 people through our facebook page and keep building collaborations because these are the true basis we want to grow on : people.
With its festival, Black(s) to the Future offers you to plunge into afro-futurism and to (re-)discover the sounds - but not only - that will shape Africa’s future: Dakar, Kinshasa, Paris, Johannesburg, Luanda… on a digital version!
Musically, we were looking for sounds at the crossroadsof Africa and other continents. Because our vision of afrofuturism is that it shatters all notions of gender, period, class and hierarchy. “Our” afrofuturism defends inclusion and cross values : “be as you want, we belong together”!
The line-up (live sets + clubbing): (you can find music links through the website and facebook)
IBAAKU - Afro-hypnotic experimental (Senegal / Akwaaba)GATO PRETO - Hypersonic beat-machine (Ghana – Mozambique / Damgaard)PHOTO ROMANCE - Afro & tropical bass (Belgium / La Brousse).MO LAUDI (South Africa)LULENDO (Angola)MOODY MATT (France)Les Afronautes d’Oberkampf : DJ Cucurucho + Piotr Kanyinda + MC-C Imperatriz + Pedrolito

But also:
*Dance workshops & performance by the company BONNE ENFANT and some pantsula 
*Exhibition: preview of the screen-exhibitionMEDIUM(S) co-curated by Stef Yamb (Afronauts Polyrhythmy) and myself withEmo de Medeiros, Tabita Rézaire, Kwesi Abbensetts, Dilo deMille, Yashua Klos, Suné Woods…
*Screenings: movies by Ishola Akpo(selected by Clementine Dramani-Issifou : Festival des Nouveaux Cinémas Documentaires / Ä F R O T O P I Ä) and audio documentaries by Hadrien La Vapeur and Corto Vaclav (collective Expedition Invisible in partnership with ARTE Radio)
*Conferences (/listening sessions): DJ KÔÔLet Claire Clouet/Sébastien Lefèvre
*Fooding : Les Cuistots Migrateurs – an association employing migrant as cooks
The event is free on Saturday from 4pm to 6amand Sunday from 4pm to 00 (except the night club € 10 on presale (excuding fees) / 13 € on site) NB: Registration for workshops (performances, lectures, projections) through hello@blackstothefuture.com.
Here are the links to the press release  (in French) + full programm (there is an English version of the website and the prog as well) + facebook event (in French).

The main question guiding the panel is the emergence of images in the context of imaginations of futures. Images as seismographers of radical shifts within societies - especially the iconography of revolution as the epitome of social change - will be discussed from interdisciplinary perspectives; .

This panel investigates the emergence of images as imaginations of futures. As seismographers of radical shifts within societies, images often anticipate changes before they appear in the political and social discourse. Revolutions as epitomes of social change produce visual figurations in art, film and popular cultures.

Africa is rarely discussed with a perspective on revolution and utopia in the sense of positive powerful concepts of futures. We argue that the investigation of visual archives of African revolutions may provide knowledge about appearance and trajectories of dynamic icons and the ‘agency’ of images (Gell 1998). Their affiliations and clusters in different media provide a deeper understanding of projections of futures and their relation to the past. If revolutions aim at something new, a “concrete utopia” (Bloch 1985), this has to be reflected in images as well. New images, we argue, can only emerge in the field of aesthetics, where imaginations of utopian space and time (Rancière 2006) are possible. Art emerges not as a tool for propaganda, but as powerful element of social and aesthetic discourse.

We invite interdisciplinary perspectives from literature, cinema and art studies, visual anthropology and cultural studies. We ask for different projections of the future from Africa and how these imaginations are traceable in art, film, and popcultures. How are they related to historical moments: revolutions, independences and the aftermaths? How can they (re-)define historical events? How can new images, imaginations, concepts of future be generated? How do aesthetic practice and politics relate in situations of change?

more Info:

http://www.nomadit.co.uk/ecas/ecas2013/panels.php5?PanelID=2081

Critical Interventions Special Issue on: Emerging Platforms for Artistic Production in DRC, Angola, and Mozambique, Fall 2013.

Critical Interventions invites submissions for Emerging Platforms for Artistic Production in DRC, Angola, and Mozambique, an issue that examines recent developments in arts institutions, their
administrative infrastructures, and creative practices in the DRC, Angola and Mozambique. These countries’ political and cultural profiles and influences have changed dramatically with expanding
global demand for minerals and oil. Linguistically and geographically tied to older categorizations (i.e., Lusophone, Central, and Southern Africa), there are new alliances forming among these nations as well
as with ascending cultural players, like Brazil and China. As a result of these engagements, new artistic platforms are constantly emerging: archives, state-funded spaces, independent spaces and workshops, a shifting and expanding pool of global funds for exhibitions, museums, programs, and scholarly engagement.

This issue of Critical Interventions will explore the changing and evolving relationships between artists, the state, and the local and global art markets, and particularly recent scenarios of art platforms as extensions and articulations of state, private, and individual power. We invite contributions that consider the formation and activities of these networks across media in the visual and performative arts. We are also interested in the processes of formation and politics of new artistic networks, and curatorial and exhibition strategies. Writing and work by artists, curators,
scholars, activists and other observers, particularly those working on the continent, are sought.

We invite proposals to be submitted by 15 July 2012. The deadline for the final version of the paper is 30 January 2013. Proposal for articles should be no more than 400 words. Articles should be based on
original research, which is previously unpublished and may be up to 10,000 words inclusive of the bibliography and contain up to ten images. All rights for reproduction of images must be cleared in
advance and submitted along with the final draft of each article.

Editors: Erin Haney and Drew Thompson
Proposals of no more than 400 words should be sent to:
Erin Haney erinlhaney@gmail.com and Drew Thompson thom2429@umn.edu.

Critical Interventions, a peer-reviewed journal, provides a forum for advanced research and writing on global African arts that investigates African and African Diaspora identities in the age of globalization,
as an arena for rethinking African art history and interrogating the value of African art/cultural knowledge in the global economy. The journal inaugurates a formal discourse on the aesthetics, politics and economics of African cultural patrimony as it affects African ownership of the intellectual property rights of its indigenous systems of knowledge and cultural practices.

H-AfrArts
H-Net Network for African Expressive Culture
E -Mail: H-AFRARTS@H-NET.MSU.EDU
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