Isuama Ibo. Isu Tribe. ‘Okorosie’ Masquerade. Masks Called ‘Nwanyioma’ And ‘Akatakpuru’ 1931

Wangechi Mutu and Her Post Human Kenyan Mutants by Edgar Arceneaux

Edgar Arceneaux: I did have a third category of how I see you using materials, which is synthetics, be it hair, mylar, sheets of vinyls that look like wood. These are things that have the qualities of being natural but are actually made with machines. Blurring the lines between organic and synthetic imbues your backgrounds with additional associations to concepts of science fiction. When we talked about particles, bleeds, and strains of interactions in your art materials, these are also the same fear-inducing qualities of the antagonist in much of science fiction, fantasy and horror genres films today. Dispersions of airborne viruses producing zombies or wiping out of society with an incurable disease, or on the genetic level, dealing with bio-technology, genetic manipulation, mutation, genetically altered foods and the cloning of human beings. All cause radical restructuring and conflict within both the human body, as well as the societal body. In most Hollywood films, disfigurement is treated as something to be suppressed, pushed back into the shadows, but in your work, you use it as a means to dispel illusions. In spite of that, your work is very seductive to so many people, could you talk about why you think that is?

Wangechi Mutu: I don't even know what people are actually seeing, I can only see through my eyes, or how it feels to be making it, or what if feels like to see these characters created in their environments. I do know that I have a deep fascination in what is considered to be "not-normal," what is considered to be the quintessential look where an ethnicity is considered to be normal. Who came up with and why? What is the purpose of coming up with those delineations and categories? In many ways I see it as a thread running through my work. I see it in pinups, in female insects to cyborgs, everything has this question of beauty, appearance, perception, our claim to understand a person's history and their intentions is based on appearance. That is why I play with this notion of what draws you in, what gives you a sense of comfort, gives you a set of codes that allows you to judge this person. "Oh, I know this person, they're morally in the right place," and I can therefore allow them in. As a non-American, as someone bureaucratically and officially alien, that term itself raises questions about what that means anyway. If you see any depictions of alien in Hollywood or mass media and apply it to yourself, there is inevitably going to be this disconnect or questioning. That's where some of those things come from.

James Baldwin - No Name In The Street

viα chaosophia218: Old Ideas of what the Earth was like, 1900.

Future Sound of Mzansi - Documentary Trailer Johannesburg, ville mélomane, productrice de la première musique électronique du continent, le Kwaito, héritière revendiquée de l'Afrofuturisme avec Spoek Mathambo en figure de proue, scène de théâtre du ballet pantomime de musiciens dégingandés à l'instar d'un dj spoko. Tout cela méritait bien un film. Nthato Mokgata (aka Spoek Mathambo) s'y est attelé et on attend avec impatience de le voir en France.

Monday July 20th marks the 46th anniversary of the first moon walk. Meet the Apollo 11 astronauts: Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin; Command Module pilot Michael Collins; Mission Commander Neil Armstrong. (Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #thisweekinLIFE #NASA

Weekend Lagos night vibes. #lagos #nigeria #shrine #everydayafrica #personalshots #yagazieemezi (at THE NEW AFRIKA SHRINE)

Interview of Kenyan film writer/director Wanuri Kahiu, about “Africa and science fiction”, in reference to the sci-fi movie she wrote and directed: Pumzi, 2009 

This interview was part of the exhibition “Si ce monde vous déplaît” at the FRAC Lorraine, Metz (France), 2013.

Oulimata Gueye 

Moi, Albert Ibokwe Khoza

Johannesburg 31 octobre 2015. Alors que les manifestations étudiantes pour un accès égalitaire à l'enseignement imprègnent encore littéralement l'atmosphère et que #FeesMustFall est devenu le slogan de ralliement de la jeunesse sud-africaine, Albert Ibokwe Khoza incarne un autre combat, étroitement lié en réalité : celui de la place du corps. Acteur, danseur, performer, chanteur et praticien traditionnel (sangoma en Afrique du Sud), Au cœur de Soweto, Albert Ibokwe Khoza nous invite à suivre le trajet qu’il a parcouru des bancs de l’Université du Witwatersrand, à la scène internationale. C’est au cours de ce trajet qu’il réussit à faire de son corps, l’instrument de son émancipation. En rejetant à la fois l’académisme universitaire qui emprisonne son corps dans une discipline qui lui est fondamentalement étrangère et en imposant son homosexualité qui pour beaucoup encore, reste incompatible avec les pratiques traditionnelles. 

A closet Chant, Albert Ibokwe Khoza

A noter également une remarquable collaboration car la performance se déroulait dans la galerie de Soweto, Mashumi Art Projects créée par Zanele Mashumi, elle même invitée par l’artiste Thenjiwe Nkosi. Thenjiwe Nkosi qui s’appuit sur le concept de “radical sharing” avait répondu à l’invitation du Goethe pour le festival African futures en invitant quatre autres projets développés par des femmes. Multiplier, le titre de cette collaboration est présenté sur le site du festival. Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi 

Oulimata Gueye 

NGUVA by WANGECHI MUTU (2014)

For her new exhibition Nguva na Nyoka (Sirens and Serpents)at London’s Victoria Miro gallery, Mutu looked to mythologies from Africa and the Arab world, exploring the troubling spirit of mermaids and the abyssal mystery of the sea, where sailors are seduced and annihilated. The accompanying film Nguva, previewed here, opens with an unsettling scream, moving to ghostly images of veiled women on a sandy shore. The artist appears as a hysterical beast whose menacing force slowly dissipates. Through this magical metamorphosis, Mutu creates a surreal landscape between life and death, reality and dreams, the female body transforming into site of geo-political and sexual violence.”

Watch the film in full 

Video de 1975 de la Tout Pouissant O.K. Jazz en un canal de televisión local de la época. Una de las formaciones musicales con mayor influencia en la música africana y con grandes intérpretes y creadores en sus filas.