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Group Show

Multiple Transmissions : Art in the Afropolitan Age

25 05 18 08 2019

The exhibition Multiple Transmissions: Art in the Afropolitan Age, takes as its starting point the group of African artists who completed residences at WIELS between 2015 and 2019. Today an integral component of the art world landscape, residencies put artists in motion around the globe, while simultaneously immersing them in one place for a definite period of time.

With : Nelson Makengo, Jean Katambayi, Georges Senga, Sinzo Aanza, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Emeka Ogboh, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum and Pélagie Gbaguidi

Nelson Makengo contemporary art contemporain hedendaagse kunst Brussel Bruxelles exposition exhibition
Exhibition view 'Multiple Transmissions: Art in the Afropolitan Age', work by Nelson Makengo, 2019, WIELS. Photo: Hugard & Vanoverschelde Photography

Artists, and African artists in particular, have become successive locals of multiple places and cities: they have become “Afropolitan” artists. Mainly developed by the thinker Achille Mbembe, the concept refers to the transnational cultures and aesthetic of 21st century African-identified urbanites. Both on and off the continent, these artists’ mental and physical itinerancies have made their mental geographies radically plural. Created between Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Johannesburg and Brussels, the residents’ productions are presented alongside a range of other art practices enmeshed in these global flows.

Look Who's Talking: Sandrine Colard

The merit of Afropolitanism is to force us to reckon with the multiplicity of transversal and global influences and legacies that inform African artists today. At a time when political regimes in the world demonstrate an alarming rise of xenophobia, when borders are everywhere closing and migrants left to die on the shores of Europe, Afropolitanism offers a formidable example of transcendence of geographies, nationalities, languages and time zones

Multiple Transmissions : Art in the Afropolitan Age
25.05 - 18.08.2019
Vernissage : 24.05.2019, 20:00-22:00
Curator : Sandrine Colard

With the support of :
Africalia
Imane Farès Gallery, Paris
Tiwani Gallery, London
Nelson Makengo’s latest creation was made with the support of Argos, Centre for Audiovisual Arts.

In collaboration with :
The Biennale of Lubumbashi
Picha

In the framework of :
Brussels Art Summit