Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World (2001)

ISSN: 1525-447X

“Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa” A Co-Production of Arts in Action Society, Canada and Sud Prod Senvision, Senegal, 2000; Cheike Tidiane N’diaye, Executive Producer, Claudine Pommier, Director.

Julie L. McGee

“Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa” is a 48-minute introduction to practicing artists and current philosophies about the production of art in contemporary Africa.1 Filmed during Dak’Art 1998, the video gives primacy of voice to selected artists and a few critics, such as Okwui Enwezor (Artistic Director of 1997 Johannesburg Biennale) and Iba Diadji N’diaye, and a few Biennale board members, Rémi Sagna, General Secretary of the Biennale and Ousmane Huchard, Chairman of the Board of Dak’Art 1998. The Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Art provides a platform for the video and much of the footage pertains to the exhibits, but it would be a mistake to suggest that this video is about this seminal Biennale, the third pan-African biennial to be held in Dakar.2 It is rather, as Enwezor remarks, an exploration of what one considers to be contemporary African art and a testament to the diversity of Africa’s contemporary arts.

The video commences with a bold statement: “What Africans are producing in Africa today is not ‘African art.’” Enwezor, Huchard, N’diaye then elucidate the problems inherent in trying to identify what constitutes contemporary African art. Africa is not a monolithic place yet the histories that do bind its diverse countries together cannot be ignored. How does one construct but not constrict identity? In terms of contemporary African art, Huchard expected Dak’Art 1998 to make clear that African art is evolving, developing, changing, “built on tradition yet entering modernity with force.” This critical and theoretical introduction is followed by a series of artists’ interviews, conducted by Cheikh Tidiane N’diaye and Nina Ferretti and some concluding remarks by Enwezor.

“Recalling the Future” will reach two audiences best, the most introductory of student learners and the most advanced. For the introductory student, the voices of the artists, discussions about their own work, the state of the arts in their own country or what it does or does not mean to be an artist from Africa help suggest the polyvocal nature of contemporary African art. The footage of the artists at work, in their studio, creating collaboratively at “Café du Village,” speaking both for and before their work, provides a rich and powerful introduction to contemporary African art. Introductory students, drawn into the lives and work of these individual artists, will thirst for more. Artists’ media and materials are varied -- including painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and re-cycled materials (horseshoes for N’dary Lo). Editing and camera work are exquisite, at times even luscious, and the sound track includes the work of musicians and performers at the Biennale. Although the focus is clearly the visual arts, the desire here is to align them with music, dance and performance. Artists who appear in the video include Viyé Diba, Ousmane Sow, N’dary Lo, and Tanguy of Senegal, Youssouf Bath and Lydie Etien Okpoby of the Cote d’Ivoire, Claudie Poinsard of the Cameroon (yet active in France), and Kevin Brand of South Africa.

The introductory level of the material will frustrate those already familiar with Dak’Art 1998 and some of these artists. There is not enough substance for the intermediate student and the range too narrow for it to be a comprehensive introduction to the art of a continent. To increase the geographic range of artists whose works are included there are some quick pan shots of works identified by country (and not by artist), such as Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Zimbabwe. This works against the more personal, engaged encounters we have with the individual artists. With the exception of Kevin Brand, the artists interviewed are largely West African and predominantly from Senegal.

The artist who principally appears on screen is Viyé Diba, who received the Dak’Art 1998 Biennale jury prize. Diba’s own remarks resonate throughout the video and we are able to form a relationship with him and his work. Our encounters with the other artists are brief and Diba thus provides a necessary anchor to this swift survey. He resists being labeled an African artist: “I don’t identify myself as African artist.I am a contemporary artist who lives in Africa.” Diba rejects simplistic notions of Africanity which, he proposes, are too often defined “elsewhere” (outside Africa/Africans). My identity, he suggests, is expressed in my work and is the substance of my work; what one may wish to term “African” is found therein. “Africanity is not on the surface, it is in the substance.”

The voices that speak for contemporary African art here are largely male. The women who are included, such as Claudie Poinsard, Lydie Etien Okpoby, and three photographers from the Cote d’Ivoire (Edith Taho, Rachele Babehi, Mcline Hein) bear witness to the significant difficulties women artists face, which include disparagement of their choice of profession and/or media, decreased educational opportunities, lack of societal acceptance, and as we find here, too little space for the critical voice of African women in the arts.

The strengths of the video include its emphasis upon diversity and complexity, its willingness to allow issues of gender, sexism, paternalism, socioeconomic status and religion to surface, even if we are left wanting more. Attempts to summarize or categorize the artistic productivity of the arts in contemporary Africa (note the full video title) are elided, but at the same time, “Recalling the Future” does make some basic assertions about contemporary African art. Here the best and the beast meet. As Enwezor remarks towards the end, contemporary art from Africa evidences a willingness to explore and extend boundaries and yet the range of work by the artists we are introduced to remains largely within internationally accepted boundaries of “high art.” Salient moments in the video juxtapose splendid textiles modeled by women with a conversation about painting by Claudie Poinsard; in another the camera lingers over the labor involved in the intricate and meticulous process of weaving nets prior to a visit with Tanguy and views of a painting with an elaborate interlock pattern. Yet aesthetic objects of utilitarian nature are not truly explored here; established hierarchies are not dismantled.

Enwezor conveys the difficulties curators face in the selection process when considering contemporary African art and problems encountered in “making meaning out of multiplicity.” More importantly he reminds us to question the limits of our own practice (as critics and historians). But “Recalling the Future” is perhaps overly ambitious in speaking for the art of contemporary Africa while simultaneously deconstructing notions of unity and Africanity. Besides, the range explored here is too narrow even if the desire is to both problematize and fracture notions of unity. To this extent, “Recalling the Future” is indeed valuable for advanced students of contemporary arts of Africa, for it raises serious methodological questions about labels, selection and voice. At the same time though, it provides a necessary space for artists and critics to speak individually within the collective context of art from contemporary Africa. If there is disappointment here it stems not so much from the “Recalling the Future” but from the paucity of material available that does likewise. The resonating voices in the video remain those of the artists, and Viyé Diba in particular: “I am more an artist than an African.”

Copyright 2001 Africa Resource Center

Citation Format

McGee, Julie L. (2001). “Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa” . Ijele: Art eJournal of the African World: 2, 1.