Conversations | Locating the Continent: Representations of/from Africa in Hong Kong
Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, March 24
With a growing presence of African galleries and artists at Art Basel Hong Kong, and increasing interactions between China and the continent more broadly, this conversation invites two African gallerists and the artists they are presenting at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2023, to reflect on the resonances of representing art from the continent, in the city.
‣ Baylon Sandri, Founder/Director, SMAC
‣ Wallen Mapondera, artist, SMAC
‣ Dolly Kola-Balogun, Founder/Director, Retro Africa
‣ Victor Ehikhamenor, artist, Retro Africa
‣ Moderator: Jareh Das, Independent curator, writer, and researcher
‣ Baylon Sandri is from Cape Town, South Africa. In 2007 he founded SMAC Gallery, in Stellenbosch, expanding to Cape Town in 2011 and Johannesburg in 2016. Centering their focus on contemporary Southern African art, SMAC Gallery presents large scale exhibitions by emerging and established artists.
‣ Wallen Mapondera was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he currently lives and works. In 2022, Mapondera represented Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale in 2022 in an exhibition curated by Fadzai Muchemwa that argued for the usefulness of enlivening stories of resistance and survival, and how to centre ourselves at the heart of chaos. Mapondera’s work addresses conversations around grief, growth, home and freedom, especially regarding his relationship with Zimbabwe.
‣ Dolly Kola-Balogun is the Founder and Creative Director of Retro Africa. In 2015 she launched a platform and gallery for contemporary art in Abuja. By 2019, with the opening of their new space, Retro Africa’s expanded its presence as a gallery of international repute and a pioneer in the Nigerian art. Dolly is also a hotelier and a champion of artists from across Africa and its diaspora. Working with those at the forefront of art across the continent, she is a consultant for the Kwara State government, helping to create a new contemporary art institution and museum the ICAAF. Her goal and ethos are rooted in the desire to bridge the curatorial divide between Anglophone and Francophone Africa.
‣ Victor Ehighale Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian-American visual artist, writer, and photographer. His work is strongly influenced by labour of villagers, particularly that of his grandmother who was a cloth weaver. He is also inspired by wall paintings and installation arts, mostly in community shrines. This has been an enduring feature of his work, which is abstract, symbolic and politically motivated; and influenced by the duality of African traditional religion and the interception of Western beliefs, memories and nostalgia.
‣ Dr. Jareh Das is an independent curator, researcher and writer who lives and works between West Africa and the UK. Das’ academic and curatorial practice is informed by an interest in global modern and contemporary art with a specific focus on performance. She has written for publications including Ocula Magazine, Frieze, Hyperallergic, Bomb Magazine, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, and The Art Newspaper.
This talk was conducted in English, with simultaneous interpretation available in Cantonese and Mandarin.
The Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 Conversations program was curated by Stephanie Bailey.
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