18th of april, 7 pm: "ARTension:Straight forward with Emeka Okereke

 

 

Presentation and open discussion: INVISIBLE BORDERS

Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographic Initiative was founded in 2009, in a bid to contribute through art and photography to the patching of numerous gaps and misconceptions posed by frontiers within the 54 countries of Africa. It is an artists-led initiative which in itself is a product of the Invisible Borders Road Trip Photography Project organised and executed annually by as many as 10 Nigerian photographers. The project is trans-African in its orientation, and sees the participating artists collectively taking road trips across Africa to explore and participate in various photographic events, festival and exhibitions while engaging on a daily basis with the environment and the people encountered. The emphasis is primarily on the collective journey of the participating artists who, during their momentary stops in capital cities, create photographic works that often reflect their individual approach to engaging with local artists, art practitioners and the inhabitants. They also collaborate intensively with colleagues from each of the countries involved. Underpinning the project are several major aims:

• To tell Africa’s stories, by Africans, through photography and inspiring artistic interventions.
• Encourage exposure of upcoming African photographers towards experiencing art and photography as practiced in other parts of the continent.
• Establish a platform of cultural network that encourages and embraces trans-African
artistic relationships within the continent.
• Contribute towards the socio-political discourse shaping Africa of the 21st Century.

Emeka Okereke born in 1980 is a Nigerian photographer who currently lives and works between Nigeria and The Netherlands. He came in contact with photography in 2001.He is a member of Depth of Field (DOF) collective, a group made up of six Nigerian photographers. His works mingles between conceptual photography and documentary. Over the past years, he has worked strictly in black & white, but currently, employs other media (graphics, video, sound, and literature), which makes his artistic practices seem more and more active and dynamic by the day. His works deal mostly with subjects and issues that involve the society and the emotions dissipated through cosmic coexistence of human beings alongside the non-humans. In the past, he has explored versatile ways of communicating his own particular vision - in poetry, in video works, in multi-layered exhibitions in the public space as opposed to the gallery, in power point and video presentations of the various projects he was involved in.

http://www.invisible-borders.blogspot.com/
http://emeka-okereke.blogspot.com/
http://60gp.ovh.net/~emekaoke/

 

 

 

13th of december, 7.30 pm.: "ARTension: Straight forward with raumlaborberlin"

 

In the course of the exhibition Perspectives on in / outside we kindly invite you to a presentation by and discussion with Christof Mayer and Francesco Apuzzo of raumlaborberlin:
Acting in public
Appropriation and activation of public spaces through collective processes are some of the main subjects of raumlaborberlin. Using the example of Chaise Bordelaise and Sedia Veneziana, Francesco Apuzzo and Christof Mayer will explain the concept of construction as a social act and an instrument for the formation of communities.

We warmly invite you to the presentation of Emeka raumlabor´s work, which will be followed by a Q&A session and a buffet.

 

 

28th of novemebr, 8 pm: "ARTension: Straight forward with Emeka Udemba"

Presentation of the artproject ‘Closed space’- (Berlin /Neukölln - Johannesburg/Hillbrow) by Emeka Udemba
The project ‘Close Space’ questions the identity of urban spaces and how they come to be. It traces what produces them as well as what they produce and follows the question of how a space can be creatively accessed, engaged documented and understood. This project alludes to the historical as well as contemporary context of two infamous cites: Neukölln in Berlin and Hillbrow in Johannesburg. Using visual imagery, the aim is to look for affinities, differences and other peculiarities with a view of understanding how these spaces evolve.
Born 1968, Emeka Udemba studied art education at the Lagos state collage of education/University of Lagos, Nigeria. Udemba’s art practice is a process of continuous inquiry where various creative genes interweave. He produces installations, performances, photography, video and drawings. His works explore questions underlining individual as well as collective experiences dealing with issues of socio-cultural influences and politics. He has won various prizes, grants and residencies and is also involved in curatorial art practices in public spaces. He lives and works in Freiburg and in Lagos.

We warmly invite you to the presentation of Emeka Udemba´s work, which will be followed by a Q&A session and a buffet.

Moderation: Andrea Heister
Location: Savvy Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form Ideas
Richardstr. 43/44
Time: 8.00 pm

 

 

27th of October at 8.00 pm: "ARTension: Straight forward with Sarah Vanagt"

Film screening and open talk with the video artist Sarah Vanagt
Sarah Vanagt (*1976) studied History at the universities of Antwerp and Groningen then trained at the London National Film and Television School.
In her works history and its narration play a major role. Her research led her to the war zone between Congo and Rwanda where she found in the harmless play of children, political dimensions and a revelation of the social status quo in these regions. The sensitive connection between history, reality and their intertwinement become visible.
Her work has been shown at several international film festivals and is part of the series of political films shown at Kino Arsenal. She lives and works in Brussels.

Films:

• First Elections (15 min.):
  Goma, Eastern Congo, April 2005: A group of children act out the first democratic elections since independence. Their election game includes a lot of violence and death. The relationship between local politics and the children is embodied by Bébé Rico and Bébé Elégance, two animated babies used in commercials. The Rico advertisements have a political connotation in the collective imagination of Congolese people. Bébé Rico is identified with President Kabila, and Bébé Elégance with Vice-President Bemba.
• Little Figures (15 min.) 
• + a work in progress.

We invite you to an open talk and an open buffet with the artist after the screening.
We would appreciate a donation of 3 € for the whole program.

Location:
Savvy Contemporary – The Laboratory of Form Ideas
Richardstr. 43/44
Time: 8.00 pm

 

 

19th of Juli 2010, 7.pm.: Film screening and discussion with...Tobias Wendl

We warmly invite you to the screening of the documentary Helping Things to Reappear – Conversations with Minnette Vari (Video 43 min) by Thorolf Lipp and Tobias Wendl. It is the first part of a series that portrays three leading South African artists (Minette Vari, Tracey Rose and Johan Tom) who work with their own body, documentin, altering and irrealizing their performanes with video.
Subsequent to the screening, Tobias Wendl will be present for further discussion and an open talk.

Minette Vari, born 1968 in Pretoria, is a South African media artist who obtained her M.A. in fine arts from the University of Pretoria in 1997 and currently lives and works in Johannesburg. She critically engages with digital technologies, focusing on problems of representation within mediated images and mass media. She creates surreal scenarios with alien-like characters and her play with the untrust- and untruthfulness of media leads to the consideration as to what extent this could be the essential feature of media itself. (www.minnettevari.com)

Thorolf Lipp is an anthropologist, filmmaker and the owner of arcadia film production in Berlin. His research focuses on the Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa, portraying the local media and art scenes as well as the topics of religion (myth, ritual) and intangible cultural heritage.
(www.thorolf-lipp.de).

Tobias Wendl is professor for the art of Africa at Free University in Berlin and filmmaker. Over the last two decades he has produced award-winning documentaries on African artists and cultures. Before being appointed as professor at the FU in March 2010, he was the director of the IWALEWA-Haus, Bayreuth, an important research and exhibition center in Germany for African cultures. (www.tobiaswendl.com)

Moderation: Andrea Heister, M.A.
Conzept: Dr. Bonaventure S. B. Ndikung; Art Director and Project Initiator of SAVVY Contemporary

 

 

31st of Mai, 7 pm.: A discussion with... Kader Attia

In the first part of this series we will like to discuss with the artist, Kader Attia, about the extent to which art can serve as an environment or create a condition to come to terms with or process history in the present.
In his installations and photography Kader Attia deals, inter alia, with the economic, political and cultural aspects of architecture in different contexts; be it in state building or in the legacy of the colonial era. The artist gains inspiration from travelling and coupled with researches on art theory and history, he lays a foundation for the development of his works.
Some points of interest in this discussion are:
Which questions does he pursue in the development process of his works related to the heritage of the colonial era?
To what extent is it possible, with the help of artistic positions, to instigate a reflection or even create awareness for historical contexts?

Kader Attia was born in 1970 in Saint-Dennis (France). He lives and works in Berlin and Algiers. Having taken part in many international exhibitions and biennials, Attia’s works have obtained, on an international scale, a wide critical acclaim. Currently, his installation piece with scrapped sheet-roofs, Kasbah, can be seen in the Sydney biennial, as well as other works in the DREAMLANDS exhibition in the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Together with the curator Laurie Ann Farell, he just received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2010 of the Art Dubai for his work History of a Myth: The Small Dome of the Rock. Kader Attia is represented by the Christian Nagel gallery in Berlin.

Conzept: Sophie Eliot

Kader Attia at SAVVY: