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.

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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