African Photo Magazine Issue #6

Produced with permission
S
ince its inception,
Performa has been a
leader in commissioning
artists whose work has
collectively shaped
a new chapter in the
multi-century legacy of visual artists
working in live performance. Founded
by art historian and curator RoseLee
Goldberg in 2004, the organization
is dedicated to exploring the critical
role of live performance in the history
of twentieth-century art, as well
as its enormous significance in the
international world of contemporary
art.
This year, the Biennial examines how
artists in several cities on the African
continent consider performance
as an extension of their creativity in
multiple disciplines—music, dance,
film, image making—and how each
artist takes us into distinct histories
and sensibilities. The themes focus
on a cross cultural dialogue between
Africa and the West, and examine
immediate and critical concerns
confronting our urban centers, the
shifting political and cultural currents
of our turbulent world today, and
ultimately the role of the arts and
of artists in supporting afflicted
communities.
The November 1–19, 2017 Biennial
will be showcased at locations
throughout New York City and
commissions Include:
Yto Barrada (Morocco)
Barrada’s work focuses on Tangier, illuminating the city in ways often unexpected by Western perspectives. Using
photography, sculpture, and film, she explores the ways in which physical, political, and psychological barriers frame
the lives of the city’s inhabitants. Barrada has an eye for showing everyday details that open up a mass of issues. That
classic symbol of all things exotic, the palm tree, is the star of her works - Because of its protected status, a slender
mop-haired tree is the only thing standing in the way of a Tangier landowner developing a scrappy patch of ground.
Zanele Muholi
(South Africa)
A South African artist and visual
activist, Zanele has documented
black lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex people’s
lives in various townships in South
Africa for over a decade. Responding
to the continuing discrimination
and violence faced by the LGBTI
community, in 2006 Muholi embarked
on an ongoing project, Faces and
Phases, in which she depicts black
lesbian and transgender individuals.
These arresting portraits are part of
Muholi’s contribution towards a more
democratic and representative South
African homosexual history. Through
this positive imagery, Muholi hopes
to offset the stigma and negativity
attached to queer identity in African
society.
Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia)
A key African artist of her generation with growing international exposure, Ethiopian-born Julie Mehretu’s large-scale
paintings draw inspiration from aerial mapping and architecture. With an underlying calligraphic complexity, Mehretu’s
energetic pieces represent accelerated urban growth, densely-populated city environments, and contemporary social
networks. Mehretu creates each painting by adding consecutive, thin layers of acrylic paint on canvas, finalizing her
work with delicate, superimposed marks and patterns using pencil, pen, ink, and streams of paint. Mehretu’s work
compresses time, space, and place. From Constructivism to geometric abstractions and Futurism, Mehretu describes
her paintings as “story maps of no location.”
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