Where will the most important meetings in African culture take place in June in digital form or face to face? Here are 21 suggestions. Do not hesitate to send us your “essentials” to fipageculture@yahoo.fr.
From 1 to 6 June, the second edition of Wekré, the market for contemporary art in Ouagadougou, will be held under the theme Cross-country skiing. Among the invited countries: Togo, Benin, France, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The event was created in 2020 and aims to be the first major meeting with visual artists from Burkina Faso.
The novelist David Diop, 55, who grew up in Senegal and whose great-grandfather fought during the First World War, is the first French author to win the Booker Prize. The prestigious literary prize was awarded on June 2 to him and his British translator Anna Moschovakis. Brotherhood of Soul tells the story of a Senegalese rifle, Alfa Ndiaye, and can be interpreted as a tribute to the 200,000 Africans who fought in the French army.
Imaginaires Emancipés is the name of the event presented until July 16 by AKAA & Manifesta Lyon at the suggestion of Armelle Dakouo. Among the thirteen artists from the African continent and the diaspora are a majority of women, including South African Zanele Muholi (Galerie Carole Kvasnevski) or Kresiah Mukwazhi (Village Unhu), born in Harare, Zimbabwe.
At the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris, Africa will be in the spotlight from 3 June. Thirty-five meetings with 120 guest artists from twelve countries on the African continent will take place in all theater rooms, but also on the new outdoor stages. On the program, a photo exhibition by Bill Akwa Betote, a performance by Sandra Heunga, a great vigil: lost nights with Wil Bedi and Abegan, but also concerts, cabaret, cinema, theater, youth forum, gastronomy, workshops, installations, meetings …
The Parisian gallery Bernard Dulon has just inaugurated its new exhibition dedicated to the Congo. Until July 31, some twenty “magical” objects testify to the incredible wealth of this vast empire in southwestern Africa, which once stretched along the banks of the Congo River and stretched from Angola to the Republic of Congo.
The man who sold his skin by Kaouther Ben Hania was released on Wednesday, June 2, on screens in France. The director had offered Tunisia the first nomination for the Oscar final in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Actor Yahya Mahayni won the award for best male performance at the Venice Film Festival for this story, which begins in horror in Syria and ends in the madness of contemporary art.
On June 3, the official selection for the Cannes 2021 Film Festival, scheduled for July 6 – 17), will be announced, for which the jury will be led by African-American filmmaker Spike Lee. In 2020, the documentary On the Road to the Million, by Congolese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi, was one of three African films (and the first film from the Democratic Republic of Congo officially selected in the festival’s history) to proudly carry “Cannes 2020 Awarded 56 films. Since 1975 and the Chronicle of the Years of Braising by Algerian Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, we are still waiting for the second Palme d’Or won by an African filmmaker.In 2019, with Atlantic, the French-Senegalese Mati Diopest became the first female filmmaker of African origin who won the Grand Prix in Cannes.
Soly Cissé and Wole Lagunju will present Metamorphoses from 3 to 24 June, at Galerie Chauvy, on the occasion of Paris Gallery Weekend. Works on paper and collage create these metamorphoses born of ink and carbon. Soly Cissé shares with us her “monsters”, both wonderful and gripping, Lagunju manages to “translate, into a visual dictionary, symbols, philosophy and morals” in Yoruba’s proverb.
On June 3, the Beninese Season begins at the Galerie Vallois in Paris, with exhibitions by Julien Vignikin, Marius Dansou and Stéphane Pencréac’h. The very rich program highlights the contemporary Beninese scene, but also the artists who have lived in the Cotonou Center, a place for interdisciplinary creation created by Dominique Zinkpè.
As part of London Gallery Weekend June 3-6, Goodman Gallery Kapwani is hosting Kiwanga’s first solo exhibition in the UK. With “Cache” we can discover new works by the artist, winner of the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize 2020 for his sculpture series Flowers for Africa. Born in Canada and living in Paris, she is connected to Tanzania by her family origins.
Art Museum in Basel honors Kara Walker, an internationally renowned African-American artist, with the first major solo exhibition in Switzerland enriched by new works. With the title A Black Hole Is Everything A Star Longs To Be, Kupferstichkabinett presents from June 5 to September 26 more than 600 drawings made in the last 28 years. Born in 1969, the artist caused for the first time in 1994 with his paper carvings on the walls. It’s about slavery, racism, the relationship between black and white, sexuality and violence – without regard to political correctness.
The first museum in France entirely dedicated to Egyptology opens its doors on June 5 in Vif, in the department of Isère. The 300 works and 1,100 works in the Champollion Museum are dedicated to the discipline of Egyptology that the Champollion brothers helped found.
The Paris Open Theater presents Transe-maître (s), the new production of Togolese Elemawusi Agbedjidji, between 9 and 12 June. The play addresses the issue of the heritage of the language, more specifically the French language that Paris imposed on the rest of France, but also the colonial empire.
Sammy Baloji is an important figure in contemporary art and the African art scene and inaugurates his first personal exhibition in a Parisian institution. From June 10 to July 18, the Congolese artist at the Beaux-Arts de Paris distributes his latest research on the Congo Empire and on the political, religious and commercial exchanges that have taken place between the Congo, Portugal and the Vatican since the XVIth century.
From 12 June to 2 October, Hotel Sahara’s cultural season recreates the experiences of ten young artists from seven countries that are partly crossed by the Sahara, in the form of an imaginary exhibition. A very special festival at General Stores, dedicated to dance, music, performance and speech.
The Annecy Festival will be the first major international cultural event to welcome the public in France. From 14 to 19 June, the international animated film festival celebrates its 60th anniversary with feature films in competition, unseen short films and a tribute to African animation.
From 17 to 22 June, the Paris Tribal celebrates excellence by bringing together 25 galleries specializing in art in Africa, the Americas, the Himalayas, Indonesia and Oceania. For example, the Charles-Wesley Hourdé Gallery collects a selection of ancient sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa with a series of new photographs by Maya-Inès Touam, an interdisciplinary artist of Algerian origin.
On 17 and 18 June, the Center des Cultures d’Afrique at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris will present, as part of the “Africa 2020” season, the sixth edition of MOCA dedicated to the theme of Africa for the future. Moca brings together creators, cultural and digital entrepreneurs, political and economic decision-makers, around the challenges that this activity sector offers.
From 18 to 26 June, Gabés Cinéma Fen will focus on Arabic and independent creation in film, visual arts and virtual reality. Gabès, a city in southeastern Tunisia, is facing ecological problems linked to the phosphate processing industry. The festival, in collaboration with the cultural and environmental associations in the region, wants to create new synergies to think about the city and its challenges through art.
The Paul Eluard Art and History Museum in Saint-Denis offers the exhibition Un.e Air.e de famille from 25 June to 8 November. An invitation to think with aphrodisiac art to discover works that between culture of origin and globalization offer a different interpretation of modernity. The surrealist’s anticolonial commitment is in dialogue with 13 contemporary artists from Africa and its diasporas.
Seven movements Congo, by Michael Disanka, will be shown at the Marseille Festival on June 30 and July 1 at the Théâtre Joliette, at the Friche la Belle de Mai. A chronicle of five young cinemas who express their anger, their anxiety and who dream of surviving.
►Thanks to all the artists and professionals for their suggestions. You can also send us your “not allowed»Of African Culture 2021 at the addressrfipageculture@yahoo.fr.
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