Venice: What took so long?
by Sue Williamson
Across a head and shoulders portrait of artist/writer Olu Oguibe on the cover of the June issue of Modern Painters, the headline reads: 'Africa in Venice: What took so long?'
What indeed? This is the first year that a major African show has been included in the main body of the church, as it were, with an 'African pavilion' located in the long reaches of the Arsenale, traditionally the building with the most cutting edge shows. When the 52nd Biennale opens officially on June 10 this will be one of the shows anticipated to draw major attention.
The arrival of the Africans in Venice has not been without controversy. After a protracted open call for appropriate submissions by this year's Biennale director, Robert Storr, the nod was given to the director of the Luanda Trienal, Fernando Alvim and 'Africa Remix' curator Simon Njami, with their proposal to present selections from the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art. Eyebrows were raised at the decision to privilege a collector by showcasing his collection, and stories surfaced on the 'net about the way in which Congolese born Dokolo amassed his fortune.
In Modern Painters, Storr addresses this question, 'The proposals were judged on the art, the artists and the curators... In any case, (the allegations) are about his family, not him'. In the same article, Oguibe calls the allegations hypocritical, pointing out that the Tate was established as a result of an inheritance which came from the work of slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean.
Entitled 'Check List Luanda Pop', the exhibition will feature less than a 20th of the work in the Dokolo collection. It includes work such as Tracey Rose's The Wailers 2004, in which players dressed in Hasidic clothing play an underwater basketball game next to a respresentation of Jersusalem's wailing wall, as well as Ruth Sacks' video of her skywriting project, in which 'DON'T PANIC' was scrawled across the sky of Cape Town. The full list of participating artists is:
1 Ghada Amer, Egypt
2 OladéléBamgboyé, Nigeria
3 Miquel Barcelo, Spain
4 Jean Michel Basquiat, USA
5 Mario Benjamin, Haiti
6 Bili Bidjocka, Cameroon
7 Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Algeria
8 Loulou Cherinet, Ethiopia
9 Marlène Dumas, South Africa
10 Mounir Fatmi, Marocco
11 Kendell Geers, South Africa
12 Ihosvanny, Angola
13 Alfredo Jaar, Chile
14 Paulo Kapela, Angola
15 Amal Kenawy, Egypt
16 Kiluanji Kia Henda, Angola
17 Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, USA
18 Santu Mofokeng, South Africa
19 Nastio Mosquito, Angola
20 Ndilo Mutima, Angola
21 Ingrid Mwangi, Kenya
22 Chris Ofili, UK/Nigeria
23 Olu Oguibe, Nigeria
24 Tracey Rose, South Africa
25 Ruth Sacks, South Africa
26 Yinka Shonibare, MBE, UK/ Nigeria
27 Minnette Vári, South Africa
28 Viteix, Angola
29 Andy Warhol, USA
30 Yonamine, Angola
Also in the Arsenale is Storr's keynote exhibition with his take on the contemporary art world 'Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Sense', which includes seven artists based in Africa and five from the African diaspora. Elsewhere in Venice, South African artist Angela Ferreira, now living in Portugal, is the featured artist in the Portuguese pavilion. It should be a vintage year.
