'Africa Apart ' in Berlin
by Lisa Schmidt
I wrote my first review for Artthrob about an exhibition of German landscape paintings shown in Cape Town.Now it feels as strange being back in my home country and writing about an exhibition of African art.
On show at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK- New Society of the Creative Arts) in the lively Oranienstrasse in Berlin is an exhibition of African art called 'Africa Apart'. Already in its title, 'Africa Apart' shows a tension, a certain diversity. Apart is a word which has different meanings in different languages. In German, it means special, pretty, nice; in English it means divided and when connected to South Africa, one almost directly thinks of apart-heid.
The sub-title of the exhibition is 'Künstler konfrontieren Aids'.(Artists confront Aids) and this is the common focus of the exhibition.Thirteen artists from all over Africa are presenting work in different materials, different styles and with different artistic references. There are neo-primitive wooden sculptures by Zephania Tshuma next to a room-sized installation by Pascal Marthine Tayou of Cameroun and contemporary photographic prints by Sue Williamson.
South Africa's art scene is presented by Jane Alexander with her Bom Boys group, Fanie Jason with documentary black-white photography about life with Aids in a township, Gail Iris Neke, with her installation Killing the (M)other, and Williamson, with her dyptich images of the From the Inside with their combination of political statement and personal biography.
'Africa apart' is the 7th exhibition of a series called 'Unterbrochene Karrieren'- (Interrupted Careers), introduced in 1997 with the aim of showing works by artists, who died of Aids. With each exhibition the interest shifted, from the memory of an short oeuvre to the confrontation with the taboos of death, decency and sex, etc.
In 'Africa Apart' the curatorial team moved their point of interest from the northern world of Europe and North America to the African continent.
In bitterly cold Berlin (-12 Celsius) the exhibition gives a glimpse of artistic positions in Africa, and most importantly provides a starting point to begin a new communication, to awaken the interest and focus on the problem of Aids on the African continent. In this sense, the art functions more or less as an emotional trigger.
There is also an accompanying programme of African movies about Aids shown in the Berliner movie theatre Arsenal. There will be daily showing of the two South African soap operas Yizo Yizo and Heart and Soul, which confront themes such as Aids, gender and sexual abuse. These highly popular series reach a wide television audience in their home country, and provide entertaining and enlightening viewing.
A library and a videothek contain more useful informations about the topic Aids in Africa and there are also computers available, where the visitor can visit the exhibition website, www.africa-apart.de website. On the site (unfortunately only in German) there are discussion forums where visitors can communicate with each other.
In a world confronted with such a disastrous disease, there will be always the question asked about the inefficiency of art. But the answer lies for me already in the question. Of course works of art can�t help the dying or the dead, but they can create a consciousness, awaken the senses, start a communication and change in its best way the course of life of the people seeing it, being emotionally moved.
As well done and as highly motivated as the exhibition is, the precarious political and social situation in parts of Africa still prevented some work being shown.
On the wall is the fax of the wife of Tamsir Dia, which explains that civil war has made the shipping of his paintings to Germany impossible.
These missing pictures are shown at least in the well designed catalogue, which is available for purchase .It gives a short overview on the artists, combined with articles about Aids in general and detailed research. Again, it is available only in German.
The exhibition runs until February 9, 2003.
NGBK, Oranienstrasse 25, Berlin, Germany
More information on www.ngbk.de
Lisa Schmidt is a German art student who spent three months in Cape Town last year as an intern to ArtThrob.
