African art at Documenta 13.

I took time off from my blog and put Africa on the back burner for a few weeks while I finished a renovation and moved my home. I packed and unpacked like a wild woman with no other thought then to get it done with. Buried under boxes the only thing I could think of was to get my life in order again. Then I went off to Europe for some R & R, art gazing and family time.

My first art destination was the big art event Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, which takes place every five years and tends to be heavily conceptual. A sprawling exhibition set up throughout the industrial city of Kassel, this year’s Documenta, which is curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, is “more about creativity in general than about art” to use the words of Roberta Smith.  I did feel at times that I was spending more time reading text whether it was the text included in the work or the text explaining the work and walking, looking for the installations through out the city. Jerry Salz described my feeling perfectly when he shared his own experience of Documeta13: he felt like he was on “a combination of truffle hunt, forced march, and wild goose chase.”  On the other hand, come to think of it, not a bad way to discover a city.

Out of 300 artists only four were from Africa: Issa Samb, Zanele Muholi, William Kentridge, and Kudzanai Chiurai and I will add also Kader Attia who is of Algerian descent, which makes five! My favorite installation was Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases,which consists of black and white portraits of black queers and trans people from different places and professions in Africa. They were tightly stacked into three rows on three connecting walls. Standing in the midst of these women looking down at me I felt the intensity of their gaze, the sheer power of their personality, and sensed at a visceral level the courage and pride of their stance. It was clear I needed to pay attention to their message, which was explicitly conveyed in Muholi’s video that tells the story of her coming out and includes testimonies of gay women who were raped and beaten because of their homosexuality. It felt profoundly genuine, and while very much conceptual layers of meaning hard to decipher did not dilute its underlying message.

I discovered the work of Zimbabwean multi-media artist and political activist Kudzanai Chiurai. One of the “born frees” (Zimbabweans born after Zimbabwe achieved independence) he has been living in exile in South Africa after his satiric portrayal of Mugabe made him persona non-grate in Zimbabwe.  I liked the sculpture of his face embedded in a log with 5 pangas (big knives) piercing the wood. Resting on a small fur pelt on the floor it was a compelling piece conveying man’s violent relationship with nature. “It’s about the tree of life,” says Chiurai, “we’ve severed our ancient connection with nature.”  Part of a larger installation called “Conflict Resolution” which includes drawings, paintings, photography and video Chiurai aims to reach and engage a new generation of young Africans that he says no one is talking to.  While Kentridge’s and Attia’s installations were ambitious, complex and more layered in meaning I found the immediacy of Muholi and Chiurai’s work appealing.

Though Kader Attia is French I am including his installation The Repair from Occident to Extra-Occidental cultures because his work is deeply rooted in his connection to Africa. Born in 1970 in Paris to Algerian parents, he grew up between Algeria and the Parisian banlieue and spend time in Brazzaville and Kinshasa. He completed his art studies in France but his first solo exhibition took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The installation speaks of the damages of war and the subsequent effort at repair, at integration of past and present, of hybridity or “ metissage.”  Serge Gruzinski in his article “From Holy Land to open your eyes”, which was included in the exhibition, highlights Kadia Atter’s concerns when he writes: “ The REPAIRED is opposed to the INTACT just as the HYBRID is opposed to the AUTHENTIC. Consequently, neither the repair nor the hybrid have their place in traditional museums.” Set up like a cabinet de curiosities, large wood-carved contemporary busts made by Senegalese artisans of damaged faces of WWI veterans are displayed with vintage colonialist books on medicine, African art and Ethnography.

Kattia Atter includes his personal collection of African artifacts which he put together while living in Africa such as crosses, necklaces and frames made out of recycled old bullets and coins from WWI.  Gruzinski says: “Kader Attia turns into a historian, an archeologist, an anthropologist and ethnologist in search of objects that can show us how societies rebuild themselves, face one another, intertwine and respond to one another.”

I was mesmerized by the slide show of photographs of the repaired faces of war injured Europeans soldiers juxtaposed with mended African masks. Immersed as I was at that time in reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved where the main character is struggling to come to terms with a personal and collective traumatic past and embrace some sort of life the theme of repair struck a chord.  Not lost on me either was the relevance of this theme with the history of Germany, World War II, and its aftermath. I liked the acceptance of reality, of the good, the bad and the ugly combined with a focus on resolution and rebuilding.

Attia’s installation is an act of repair on one hand but also a challenge to the status quo. It also fits into a greater discourse that aims to highlight the challenges faced by ever expanding contemporary multicultural societies, which are the result of processes of migration, colonialism, exile, and expulsion.  This theme is further explored in Paris by Kader Attia at the Musee de L’Art Moderne in the exhibition Construire, deconstruire, reconstruire: le corps utopique. In his slide show describing the private life of Algerian transsexuals in Paris the body becomes architecture and goes through a process of transformation, re-appropriation and repair. “Strangers in their own body as well as in a different culture, they build their identity by re-appropriating both fields.” “What a tough life,” I thought “and yet what courage and determination”.

Collages of urban landscapes juxtaposing Corbusier utopian modern architecture, which was the model for the project housing in the banlieues with images of a local population mostly from African descent were particularly fascinating.

Why do I find this theme so fascinating, you might ask. Born to a Bulgarian father who left after the arrival of the Soviets in Bulgaria and an American mother, I was raised in France and am now living in New York. I relate to some of the issues. I am a hybrid myself as is my heritage.

In Paris I was pleasantly surprised to see that Africa was getting plenty of attention. The periodical “ Le Point” had dedicated a large portion of its August issue to Africa highlighting its record growth, successes, and hopes and for once not its tragedies. It was a nice change because we know that what you give attention to, grows.  There is lots of interests in the continent these days: In July, Hillary Clinton traversed the African continent emphasizing America’s new found interest in its development. It did seem a bit motivated by a competitive spirit with China though!

Furthermore, African artists or from the Diaspora were very well represented at the Contemporary art Triennial at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. I was in Paris to spend some time with my mother who has Alzheimer’s. I had some trepidation about being in Paris beginning of August with all French people gone on vacation and local shops closed! Well, it turned out there was no time for intellectual apathy, the Trienniale kept me plenty busy! That will be the subject of my next post.