Logótipo Próximo Futuro

“Art isn’t just made by white people in Europe with great patrons. Sorry,” afirmou Okwui Enwezor

Publicado20 Mai 2015

Etiquetas 56ª Bienal de Veneza Okwui Enwezor

Okwui Enwezor. PHOTO: ACTION PRESS/ZUMA PRESS

O nigeriano Okwui Enwezor, o primeiro africano à frente da Bienal de Veneza, em entrevista ao The Wall Street Journal, explica as suas opções para a 56ª edição, sob o mote “All the World’s Futures".

Mr. Enwezor titled this year’s exhibition “All the World’s Futures,” reflecting his interest in a wide range of media—from a nonstop reading of all three volumes of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” by a group of actors to a copper dome that Congolese artist Sammy Baloji built to criticize Belgium’s exploitation of Congolese copper mines.

With a budget of roughly $15 million supported by private funding, Mr. Enwezor has also created a section called Arena, designed to showcase performance works dealing with difficult themes that he hopes will make their way into mainstream art. “I have the freedom to make proposals that might ultimately fail on a commercial level,” he says.

One such initiative is the Invisible Borders Trans-African Project. These little-known African artists have road-tripped together across Africa since 2009, making the type of cultural exchanges taken for granted at U.S. and European art schools.

O texto completo em New Venice Biennale Chief Beckons Artists on the Margins

Délio Jasse em entrevista

Publicado20 Mai 2015

Etiquetas délio jasse 56ª Bienal de Veneza

Délio Jasse, artista angolano nascido em 1980, que teve obra exposta no âmbito do Próximo Futuro em 2011,  e que integra em 2015 o Pavilhão de Angola da 56ª Bienal de Veneza, deu uma entrevista agora publicada no site Art South Africa.

What led you to photography?

I fell in love with photography after working in a screen- printing atelier. There was a photography studio within the atelier, where we created photoliths by separating the colours. I’ve been a fan ever since.

So would you say that your work is photographically inspired?

I am inspired by the notion of experimenting with photography, but as you can see, my interaction with photography is not conventional. By layering and superimposing my images, I lessen the depth of field that is commonly associated with photography. So yes, to answer your question I would say that I am photographically inspired, even though I would not label my work as purely photographic. Although it is essential to my work — being the starting point of my experimentation — it is not the cornerstone of my speech.

Are there any African photographers that inspire you?

I don’t really have an “African” inspiration, even though there are many African artists whom I admire and respect. I admire artists who are unafraid of experimenting with the different options offered by the photographic medium.

How do you feel about the statement "Everybody is a photographer?"

I believe that as long as we have the ability to see, we have the ability to reproduce it as an artform.

Snapped in Conversation with Délio Jasse

Vik Muniz e a representação da tragédia dos naufrágios de emigrantes

Publicado24 Abr 2015

Etiquetas 56ª Bienal de Veneza Vik Muniz Lampedusa

A instalação do artista Vik Muniz ao largo de Veneza, prevista para a Bienal deste Verão, um barco forrado de notícias sobre as mortes dos emigrantes que tentam alcançar a Europa pelo Mediterrâneo, é objecto de análise pelo jornal britânico The Guardian.

The drowned victims of modern barbarity will not be forgotten at this summer’s event. Artist Vik Muniz is to unveil a floating installation called Lampedusa, a giant paper boat. A seaworthy wooden substructure constructed by Venetian craftsmen will be covered with a scaled-up newspaper article about the deaths of migrants off the Italian island Lampedusa.

Will it be a powerful or in any way adequate artistic response to this vile betrayal of common humanity? An interview with Muniz onlinesuggests not. This may be the fault of the interviewer, who uses the kind of inane artspeak that gets contemporary art a bad name. The article blandly describes migration as “a very hot topic”.

But unless Muniz made some severe criticisms of the art journalist’s tone that are not published in the piece, his own words are equally lacking in the kind of fury this subject might seem to demand. Here he is, waffling on: “The project is a metaphor for a vessel, something that saves you, takes you from one place to another. It’s not a criticism; it’s a platform. Once you’ve seen it and you’ve thought about it, you might have the need to discuss it … "

O texto completo, em A giant paper boat? Art’s response to migrant drownings should be way more aggressive