Installation from Brightly Colored Thread for First U.S

“Conceptually, the installation takes inspiration from the contrasting city plan geometries of the African village and the American city. Overlaying the organic+plan of Gando with the rigid grid of Philadelphia, Kéré shows that despite the two cities’ obvious differences, underneath you can find many similarities in how the societies use architecture to provide a gradient of social spaces ranging from the individual and private to the collective and public” Patrick Lynch

The Feast of Trimalchio: Arrival of Golden Boat

Del Satyricon di Petronio, spiritoso e lirico malinconico dell’epoca dell’imperatore Nerone, ci pervenne quasi intatto solo il capitolo dedicato alla cena di Trimalcione. La fantasia di Petronio fece del nome di Trimalcione il simbolo della ricezza e del lusso, del vizio della gola e della lussuria in barba alla fugacità della vita umana.
Abbiamo cercato di presentare qualcosa di simile nelle realta` del Terzo Millennio. Così, abbiamo visto Trimalchione, ex servo, liberto, nuovo ricco che dà conviti di molti giorni nel suo palazzo, invece che una persona, come un’immagine generalizzata di un hotel di lusso, una sorta di paradiso terrestre, il soggiorno in cui è prepagato.
Gli ospiti dell’hotel – i ‘padroni’, esponenti del “miliardo dorato”, cercano di dedicare parte del loro tempo, in qualsiasi stagione, al soggiorno presso Trimalcione odierno che ha arredato il proprio palazzo – hotel con il massimo esoticismo e lusso. L’architettura del Palazzo Hotel rappresenta un’assurda sintesi della spiaggia tropicale con la stazione sciistica. I ‘padroni’ indossano abiti bianchi che sembrano, da una parte, l’uniforme dei giusti dell’Eden temporaneo, dall’altra, la tradizionale uniforme coloniale, e, al contempo, una collezione estiva alla moda. I ‘padroni’ impersonano tutte le caratteristiche dell’umanità: ci sono, tra di loro, personaggi dai bambini ai vecchioni, hanno certi segni psicologici e sociali: un pofessore è dissimile da un broker, una donna di mondo da una intellettuale. I ‘servi’ di Trimalcione, giovani e carini esponenti di vari continenti (asiatici, africani, latinoamericani), il personale dell’industria alberghiera, dalle cameriere ai cuochi, ai giardinieri, alle guardie e ai massaggiatori. Sono tutti giovani e belli e indossano uniformi tradizionali di vario colore a seconda dell’etnia. Sono una specie di ‘angeli’ “di colore” del paradiso al quale i ‘padroni’ possono accedere per un certo tempo.

Flowers for Africa
Flowers For Africa the artist mined archives related to African de-colonization to compile a list of flowers associated with individuals, nations and/or resistance movements; an image library that became the basis for meticulous sculptural recreations of individual flowers, or entire bouquets. As Kapwani described of the series, in a statement that reads as apt in relation to her overall approach: “What I’m trying to do is to acquaint myself with these various historic times, and questions, and more generally an interest I have in power dynamics. With this project I have chosen to look from the African continent at these global questions of power dynamics. This project is a way for me to acquaint myself with different archives, consulting documents and simply pondering on those moments. In this process, this was the most natural gesture which emerged”

TechnoShamanism
I reclaim spaces for underrepresented communities with the use of technology, ritual and the speculative. Whether it be a citizen “sousveillance” suit to monitor police activity, a Techno-Shamanistic religion that virtually renders ritual, or archeological artifacts from future African cultures, I find it imperative to work collaboratively with other artists and local communities.
Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (ayo) is a Nigerian-American artist, designer, and time-traveler living and working in New York. He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey where he earned his B.A.

ジョシュア・ハーカー
Quixotic Divinity Headdress
Explorando los limites de la moda, arte y la tecnología; Joshua Harker diseñó una pieza especial llamada “Quixotic Divinity”. Con ayuda de una impresora 3D realizó un tocado en color blanco inspirado en diversas culturas: asiática, latinoamericana y africana. 200 horas fueron invertidas para hacer posible esta obra.

The Studio of Vanities

Oumy Ndour – Journalist, TV Anchor, Movie Director

The result is a collection of individual portraits, striking and captivating in their charm. Diop carefully chooses backgrounds and patterns to strengthen the subject’s personality and cultural references. Therefore, the colour of kenté fabric flawlessly matches the outfit of casually posing fashion designer, Selly Raby Kane. The clothes of artist Mame-Diarra Niang and model Aminata Faye fuse with an African background pattern. Using this particular approach, Diop becomes part of a tradition of African studio photography epitomized by the likes of Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta. He honours their pioneering work in his own creations, making use of contemporary techniques. Instead of merely creating striking images of an attractive young generation, Diop defines the images during the portraiture process, ensuring that decisions regarding pose, background and props are taken together with the subject. This makes it possible for Diop to come closer to the essence of the portrayed individual, and therefore do justice to the multiplicity and energy of Dakar’s contemporary cultural scene.

Bliz-aard Ball Sale
David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois. An African-American, he is a conceptual installation artist using his found-object media as a platform for Dadaist social commentary, primarily on racial themes. Hammons places himself as an artist between Arte Povera and Marcel Duchamp. He has risen to prominence while at the same time consciously avoiding the attention of critics, galleries, and museums, preferring to do things in the street.

Endangered Species
Best-known for her videos and animated films combining drawn art, music and occasionally scratched or reworked cinematic images, Camille Henrot’s work blurs the traditionally hierarchical categories of art history. Her recent work, adapted into the diverse media of sculpture, drawing, photography and, as always, film, considers the fascination with the “other” and “elsewhere” in terms of both geography and sexuality. This fascination is reflected in popular modern myths that have inspired her, such as King Kong and Frankenstein. The artist’s impure, hybrid objects cast doubt upon the linear and partitioned transcription of Western history and highlight its borrowings and grey areas. In the series of sculptures Endangered Species, for example, the artist has created objects inspired by African art by using pieces from car engines; placed on tall pedestals, these slender silhouettes with zoomorphic allure make reference to the migration of symbols and forms as well as to the economic circulation of objects. This survival of the past, full of misunderstandings, shifts and projections (as shown in the slideshow Egyptomania, the film Cynopolis, drawings of the Sphinx, and even in the photographs of prehistoric flints) troubles cultural codes and conventions. In this way, Camille Henrot’s work questions mental resistances and the past’s resonance, whether it be drawn from myth or from reality.

African Adventure