Out of Africa

“Afro-futurism is proposed here as a prism of looking at Sub-Saharan Africa."

By JESSICA VRAZILEK
Pieter Hugo, from the series The Hyena and Other Men, ‘Mallam Galadima Ahmadu with Jamis,’ Nigeria, 2005 (photo credit: TEL AVIV MUSEUM OF ART)
Pieter Hugo, from the series The Hyena and Other Men, ‘Mallam Galadima Ahmadu with Jamis,’ Nigeria, 2005
(photo credit: TEL AVIV MUSEUM OF ART)
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s new flagship exhibition “Regarding Africa: Contemporary Art and Afro-Futurism,” on display through April 2017, incorporates the painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video works of 28 artists from countries in sub-Saharan Africa and from the African diaspora, as well as artists living in Israel whose work is connected to Africa.
“This comprehensive group exhibition presents works that were made in or about Africa and focuses on an Afro-futurist aspect,” said curator Ruth Direktor.
“The works reflect the vitality and effervescence that motivate Africa today, as well as the chaotic, brutal and at times tragic African reality and its never-ending changes.” Artists include David Adika, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Okhai Ojeikere and Malick Sidibé.
As an abstract idea, Africa has attracted the attention of the art world in recent decades, with various international exhibitions focusing on the countless themes present in African art, as well as the multiplicity of African perspectives. It is the intent of this exhibition not to generalize or survey African art, but instead to exhibit works that feature current artistic practices with African connections, specifically those with links to sub-Saharan Africa.
“Afro-futurism is proposed here as a prism of looking at Sub-Saharan Africa, which is powerfully present, with all its complexity and tributaries, in the artistic work and discourse of the past few decades” said Direktor.
Afro-futurism has been described as both a movement and a philosophy. Initially, the term referred to music that evolved during the 1960s among Afro- Americans, as well as to the poetry, comics, cinema and art that followed. Today, the word applies to a wide range of art that reflects an African version of futurism, which endeavors to shatter the conventional distinctions between truth and fiction, myth and science, and between technology and spiritualism.
“Whether it is a worldview or an aesthetic, Afro-futurism is a means for stepping over the tortured past of Africa and the African diaspora and adopt the future through a black cultural lens,” said Direktor.
“The exhibition not only denotes the futurist African direction, but also moves along the axis between an optimistic and a pessimistic perception of the continent decades after its gradual liberation from colonialism.”
All of the works presented were created during the post-colonial period, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s with Africa’s ‘Decade of Independence’ through to present day.
“[The works] should be viewed as individual cases, as well as expressions of colonialism and its ramifications, through a redefinition of the African body, landscape and culture,” said Direktor.
The earliest works shown in the exhibition are blackand- white photographs by Malick Sidibé of Mali (1935- 2016), who captured the optimistic atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s, and the new independent identity of youth culture in post-colonial Mali. Sidibé’s body of work has been acclaimed for its historical importance and rare, powerful scope. He is also the first photographer and first African to receive the Golden Lion Award (in 2007) at the Venice Biennale.
“Art from this period reflects the optimism of the first years of independence, the tough reality with its plethora of hardships typical of many countries, and the futurist trend that seems to be a way of inventing a new African identity,” said Suzanne Landau, director and chief curator.
“The gazes on Africa from within and without accumulate to a set of artistic trends and a set of perceptions about the sub-Saharan continent.”
Also on display are works that have been created in Israel that refer to “Little Africa” – a growing community of African migrants and asylum seekers in south Tel Aviv.
The exhibition includes photographs by Jerusalem- born David Adika, 46, who is credited with establishing the link in Israeli art between “the African black and the relative blackness of oriental Israelis,” thus prompting a dialogue about local, ethnic identities.
A selection of Africa-related paintings from the five-member New Barbizon group, which was founded in 2011 by painters born in the former USSR who immigrated to Israel, sympathetically conveys the sense of alienation observed with the country’s African community.
“These works express various aspects of the Africa- Israel connection, and of the way Africa has assimilated into the Israeli imagination, fantasy and reality,” said Direktor.