Berceau de l’humanité, pourvoyeur de force de travail, d’or et de matières premières depuis des millénaires pour les autres continents, l’Afrique a une histoire inscrite dans la dynamique internationale. Panorama d’un continent au carrefour des mondes, à contre-courant des idées reçues.

À PROPOS DE L'EXPOSITION

L’Afrique, un continent sans Histoire ? Si les a priori ont la vie dure, les faits, eux, sont indéniables : les Africains n’ont jamais vécu dans l’isolement. Longtemps ignorés, les échanges panafricains et extra-africains ont pourtant débuté voici des millénaires, bien avant les indépendances, la colonisation et l’arrivée des premiers navires portugais au milieu du XVème siècle. En témoignent les sculptures, pièces d’orfèvrerie ou d’ivoire, peintures et autres objets présentés dans l’exposition L’Afrique des routes.

The leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary African art will return to New York for its third edition, from the 5-7th of May 2017, while October 2017 will mark the fifth London edition of the fair.

With biannual editions in London and New York, 1:54 is the leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Drawing reference to the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, 1:54 is a sustainable and dynamic platform that is engaged in contemporary dialogue and exchange.

Initiated by Touria El Glaoui in 2013, May 2017 will mark its third consecutive edition at Pioneer Works, New York, having returned from its fourth London edition in October 2016.

The 2017 New York edition will welcome 19 galleries hailing from Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, France, Ghana, Italy, Kenya, Morocco, the UK, the US and South Africa, collectively exhibiting the work of more than 60 contemporary artists of emerging and established profile. 1:54 aims to welcome a global mix of galleries that are dedicated to pioneering and supporting African art and artists from across the world.

1:54 New York 2017 will be accompanied by an educational and artistic programme, FORUM, curated by Koyo Kouoh and will include lectures, film screenings and panel discussions with international curators, artists and art professionals.

A solo exhibition of the late Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé, in celebration of his iconic career beginning in 1950’s Bamako, Mali, will be jointly presented with ‪1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair and MAGNIN-A, Paris. The Eye of Modern Mali will feature 37 works by the artist, acclaimed for his black and white images chronicling the lives and culture of the Malian capital in the wake of the country’s independence. Among extensive international exhibitions, Sidibé’s accolades include the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2003, the Gold Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in 2008.

Opening May 4, 6-9pm

Opening of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair will be held simultaneously, and open to the public from May 5-7, 2017 12-8pm.

For press inquires or further information, please contact anastasia@redhooklabs.com

Gallery Hours: 10am-6pm (daily)

A place of extraordinary cultural vitality, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be honored in the exhibition Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with André Magnin, Chief Curator.

Modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s
Taking as its point of departure the birth of modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s, this ambitious exhibition will trace almost a century of the country’s artistic production. While specifically focusing on painting, it will also include music, sculpture, photography, and comics, providing the public with the unique opportunity to discover the diverse and vibrant art scene of the region.

Precursors
As early as the mid-1920s, when the Congo was still a Belgian colony, precursors such as Albert and Antoinette Lubaki and Djilatendo painted the first known Congolese works on paper, anticipating the development of modern and contemporary art. Figurative or geometric in style, their works represent village life, the natural world, dreams and legends with great poetry and imagination. Following World War II, the French painter Pierre Romain-Desfossés moved to the Congo and founded an art workshop called the Atelier du Hangar. In this workshop, active until the death of Desfossés in 1954, painters such as Bela Sara, Mwenze Kibwanga and
Pili Pili Mulongoy learned to freely exercize their imaginations, creating colorful and enchanting works in their own highly inventive and distinctive styles.

Popular painters
Twenty years later, the exhibition Art Partout, presented in Kinshasa in 1978, revealed to the public the painters Chéri Samba, Chéri Chérin, and Moke and other artists, many of whom are still active today. Fascinated by their urban environment and collective memory, they would call themselves “popular painters.” They developed a new approach to figurative painting, inspired by daily, political or social events that were easily recognizable by their fellow citizens. Papa Mfumu’eto, known for his independent prolific comic book production and distribution throughout Kinshasa in the 1990s, also explored daily life and common struggles throughout his work. Today younger artists like J.-P. Mika and Monsengo Shula, tuned-in to current events on a global scale, carry on the approach of their elders.

THE PIGOZZI COLLECTION
6 October 2007 – 3 February 2008
curated by André Magnin

The Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli is pleased to present Why Africa? The Pigozzi collection, as part of its new cultural programme dedicated to art collections.

The exhibition is having its Italian première, curated by André Magnin, Artistic Director of Contemporary African Art Collection (the Pigozzi collection), the world’s most important collection of contemporary African art.

Created in 1989 by the joint efforts of Jean Pigozzi and André Magnin, who was deputy curator of the exhibition Les Magiciens de la Terre being held at the Pompidou Centre at the time, the collection is constantly evolving with the addition of works by artists of various generations from sub-Saharian Africa. It maintains strong links with the artists it supports, giving them visibility and recognition on the international art scene, and this was confirmed this year when the 52nd International Venice Biennale awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievements to 72 year old photographer Malick Sidibé, because no one is worthier than him to receive this honour (Robert Storr).

Jean Pigozzi reveals his passion and obsession for African art in about one hundred works selected from the collection, several of which have never been exhibited before. The exhibition includes drawings, paintings, sculpture, photographs, installations and site specific works as the one conceived by the South -African artist Esther Mahlangu for the new Fiat 500.

The great wealth of African contemporary artistic output is presented through the work of several artists -Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Chéri Samba and Malick Sidibé, George Lilanga and Keita Seydou, precursors of contemporary African art who died recently – who overcame the stereotype of folklore and decorative art of the postcolonial period and forged links with Western art, developing their own autonomous language.

The majority of these artists produce works that are figurative or inspired by current topics, depicting a reality that is both local and global.

One of the most obvious constants is the deep bond with the territory: the artists address the territory first and foremost, and they work with what is familiar to them; their art is inclusive, rooted in history and against division. Art that comes from the people, addresses the people and returns to the people, in the words of André Magnin.

The exhibition will be presented in a special setting created by Ettore Sottsass and Marco Palmieri.

A number of conferences and meetings and a film screening dedicated to Africa will be organised during the exhibition, supporting by ERSEL.

The guide to the exhibition has been realized by Fabrica, Benetton research centre on communications. Created to lead the visitor through the ‘itinerary’ of the show, the guide offers an insight to the artists and their work.

This exhibition presents 25 contemporary African artists who live and work in sub-Saharan Africa. Painters, draftsmen, photographers, sculptors, and video artists from several generations are featured, including artists of international renown like portrait artist Seydou Keïta, painters Chéri Samba, George Lilanga, and Richard Onyango, the encyclopedist and universalist Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, the unclassifiable Bodys Isek Kingelez and Romuald Hazoumé, as well as younger, highly promising artists such as Abu Bakarr Mansaray, Titos Mabota, Pathy Tshindele, and Calixte Dakpogan, in an installation by leading Italian designer Ettore Sottsass and by Marco Palmieri, a prominent member of Sottsass’s team.