Wednesday, 12 February 2014

7:30 p.m.

Language: English

Location: SMBA, Amsterdam

Free admittance, reservations through mail@smba.nl

Magazine launch of ECHOES-DiARTgonale #2 with presentations by Pauline Burmann, Bassam El Baroni and Annette Schemmel, moderated by Lucy Cotter.

ECHOES-DiARTgonale Special Edition #2 consists of contributions mainly of visual artists. Their visual and textual proposals travelled back and forth between Cameroon and Belgium, France and Germany, as well to Morocco, Senegal, Benin and Nigeria, slightly changing by every trajectory. Reverberations of historical and recent events were interrogated and reformulated, often amongst collaborators from Europe and Cameroon.

At the occasion of the launch of the magazine, a panel discussion will be held in collaboration with Enough Room for Space, the initiators of the project.

In a context like Cameroon, access to relevant archives, books and education is not a given. Annette Schemmel has inquired into the history of informal artist training in Douala, Cameroon, for her Ph.D. project. She will draw on this research in conjunction with experiences gained from the above curatorial project in her presentation in order to raise the following questions: how to engage in projects of artistic research together that touch, for instance, upon our shared history? Should we extend the notion of archive to bodies of knowledge that lay far beyond the reach of modern archival premises? Are we ready to relate to this peculiar knowledge from the universalist perspective that is proper to Contemporary Art?

The Alexandria-based curator Bassam El Baroni will contribue a brief sketch of his theory of contemporary art to this reflection, while Pauline Burmann (Amsterdam) will share her experiences from teaching the history of Contemporary African Art in various African countries. Lucy Cotter, a curator and writer specialized on the discourses on Artistic Research, Globalisation and the Postcolonial will moderate the discussion and the Q&A.

Pauline Burmann is an independent researcher, advisor, facilitator and curator in Contemporary African Art and Theory, based in Amsterdam.

Lucy Cotter trained as an artist and exhibited internationally before turning to writing and curatorial practice. Currently, she is head of the Master Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.

Bassam El Baroni is a curator and writer based in Alexandria, Egypt. He co-curated Manifesta 8, Murcia in 2010. He was the former director of Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum and he is currently a tutor at DAI (Dutch Art Institute).

Annette Schemmel is a cultural producer from Berlin. Since 2009 she is an associate curator of Enough Room for Space. Her art historical Ph.D project “Sharing Artistic Knowledge. A perspective on Contemporary Art’s genealogies in Cameroon” at Free University Berlin is to be concluded in 2014.

About the DiARTgonale Special Editions #1 and #2:

Editors: Marjolijn Dijkman and Annette Schemmel

Assistant Editors: Amélie Bouvier and Bathilde Maestracci

Contributors: Anschaire Aveved, Matthias de Groof, Stefaan Dheedene, Marjolijn Dijkman, Beate Engl, Nicolas & Rose Eyidi, Em'kal Eyongakpa, Meschac Gaba, Justine Gaga, Andrew Gilbert, Christian Hanussek, Nav Haq, Paul Hendrikse, Dunja Herzog, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (DE, 1880 - 1938), Achilleka Komguen, Koyo Kouoh, Salifou Lindou, Lionel Manga, Vincent Meessen, Michaela Oberhofer, Joachim Oelsner-Adam, Nyemb Popoli, Louis-Marie Pouka-M’Bague (CM, 1910 – 1992), Garba Tanko, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Didier Schaub, Annette Schemmel, Bisi Silva, Patrick Wokmeni, Hervé Yamguen, Maarten Vanden Eynde.

Enough Room for Space is a non-profit organization, founded by Maarten Vanden Eynde and Marjolijn Dijkman in 2005, that initiates and coordinates events, residencies and research projects. ERforS tries to act as freely as possible, always putting the context and the idea before the medium, challenging the barriers between different disciplines, be they artistic, scientific or activist.

Support:

Arts Collaboratory, IFA