Entrevista a Athi Patra-Ruga

Athi Patra-Ruga deu uma entrevista ao site Art South Africa, sobre o conceito de arte africana, as noções norte/sul, este/oeste, as novas gerações e identidades.

Is a new trans national «African art dialogue needed to foreground the various conversations, challenges and sucesses from other African centers of culture and thinking?It is imperative to have a continual dialogue about what 'African Art' is. Is it the stuff of my imagination that this is necessary? I am always eternally grateful to see African art in European museums, but is it rational for the content of African art stories to have to always revolve around us giving identity 101 clases to the so-called West? Is it not time to start having te conversation about technical execution and dissemination of such important art making from Africa to the West? To we have to fly overseas to see and be taught about this African art techniques in European museums?If Africa can leave behind this idea of Africa as a geography, or as a post colonial reaction, or being defined by blackness, can it the be defined as a new dynamic energy?The beauty of 'African Art', its objects and its history, is that it is a constant reminder of our collective history; from remebering and engaging with the pillaging of art by the West to the reductive terms that are used decades later to create a convenient place for Art from Africa. What if Africa took it upon itself to leave behind or negate the fact that art needs a place?