Abu Bakarr Mansaray (1970 Sierra Leone/Harlingen) is one of the artists in the Taipei Biennial 2014.
Till January 4, 2015 in Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Evil Detector, 2005.
About:
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in West Africa. After leaving school in 1987, Abu Bakarr Mansaray (1970) settled in Freetown where he became a voracious autodidact, studying all aspects of practical science and engineering. In choosing a career as an artist, Mansaray laboured to stem the collapse of a nation drained by civil war. He revived a technique especially popular in Central Africa of manufacturing decorative objects and toys out of wire and iron. Increasingly, he became more and more adept in building futuristic machines for extravagant purposes, forming contraptions that could produce fire, light, air, water, cold, motion and sound. Mansaray once proclaimed, ‘I am an artist making creations without limitation.’
The economic, political and social situation in Sierra Leone — a country where war has left behind nothing but ruins and charred bodies — has irrevocably shaped Mansaray’s imagination. In 1998, he managed to escape his country under extremely difficult circumstances; however, his work continues to bear witness to the horrors of war.
He lives and works in Harlingen, The Netherlands.
Nucliair Mosquito from Hell.
‘Abu Bakarr Mansaray, born in West Africa in 1970, unspools horrifying narratives of personal or political betrayal in fine drawings made with pencils, pens and spare but vivid touches of color. In one, a wronged lover’s vengeance is reaped by ferocious Assyrian lions in a manner that garners sympathy for the supposed wrongdoers. In another, the deadly warfare on the streets of Sierra Leone is reflected in the aviator glasses of a hidden witness. Mr. Mansaray’s words and images have a remorseless toxicity; each work could almost be the hellish opening scene of some apocalyptic nightmare.’
Quote from review in NYT, August 20, 2010, written by Roberta Smith.
Terrific Poisonous and Hostile, 2011.
About the Biennial:
With exhibition, live performance, talks, reading, conferences, and publications, Taipei Fine Arts Museum is pleased to announce the launch of Taipei Biennial 2014 from 13 September 2014 through 4 January 2015. Titled The Great Acceleration, Taipei biennial 2014 refers to the idea of the Anthropocene, our geological era, marked by the effects of human activities on our biosphere, and shows how contemporary art expresses a new contract among human beings, animals, plants, machines, products and objects.
Masterpiece, 2000.
This exhibition is organized around the cohabitation of human consciousness with swarming animals, data processing, the rapid growth of plants and the slow movements of matter. It presents a world before human consciousness and its landscape of minerals, alongside vegetable transplants or couplings between humans, machines and animals. At the center is this reality: human beings are only one element among others in a wide-area network, which is why we need to rethink our relational universe and reconsider the role of art in this new mental landscape.
Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, The Great Acceleration proposes bold conjectures and challenges both the “human scale” and the world of objects, releasing a signal referencing politics, religion, economics, ethics and philosophy.
52 artists and collectives will appear on the scene: Harold Ancart (Belgium), Charles Avery (UK), Gilles Barbier (France), Alisa Baremboym (USA), Neïl Beloufa (Algeria/France), Peter Buggenhout (Belgium), Roberto Cabot (Brazil), Patrick Van Caeckenbergh (Belgium), En-Man Chang (Taiwan), Ian Cheng (USA), Ching-Hui Chou (Taiwan), Chun-Teng Chu (Taiwan), Shezad Dawood (UK), David Douard (France), Camille Henrot (France), Roger Hiorns (UK), Xiao-Yuan Hu (China), Po-Chih Huang (Taiwan), Joan Jonas (USA), Hudinilson Jr. (Brazil), Tetsumi Kudo (Japan), Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand), An-My Lê (Vietnam/USA), Kuo-Wei Lin (Taiwan), Maria Loboda (Germany/Poland), Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe (USA), Jr-Shih Luo (Taiwan), Tala Madani (Iran/USA), Abu-Bakarr Mansaray (Sierra Leone & Netherlands), Josephine Meckseper (Germany), Nathaniel Mellors (UK), Marlie Mul (Netherlands), Henrik Olesen (Denmark), OPAVIVARÁ! (Brazil), Ola Pehrson (Sweden), Hung-Chih Peng (Taiwan), Laure Prouvost (France/UK), Matheus Rocha Pitta (Brazil), Rachel Rose (USA), Pamela Rosenkranz (Switzerland), Mika Rottenberg (Argentina), Sterling Ruby (USA), Timur Si-Qin (Germany), Shimabuku (Japan), Peter Stämpfli (Switzerland), Nicolás Uriburu (Argentina), Chien-Ying Wu (Taiwan), Chuan-Lun Wu (Taiwan), Inga Svala Thórsdóttir & Wu Shanzhuan (China/Iceland), Yu-Chen Wang (Taiwan/UK), Haegue Yang (Korea), Anicka Yi (USA)
The Museum has organized a roundtable discussion on the topic of “Artists, Machines and Nature” on the opening day, 13 September. Panellists include Nicolas Bourriaud, Director Hai-Ming Huang, and the participating artists Neïl Beloufa, Po-Chih Huang, Kuo-Wei Lin, Maria Loboda, Nathaniel Mellors, Shimabuku, Haegue Yang and Anicka Yi. The following day on 14 September, Bourriaud and Professor Xiao Zhen-bang, well-known scholar of eastern philosophy, will hold a talk on the topic of “About Relationship.”
Return of the Xynomoph, 2013.
In corresponding to The Great Acceleration, Aesthetics Jam with Andre Alves, Tiong Ang, Lonnie van Brummelen & Siebren de Haan, Chang Nai-Wen, Clodagh Emoe, Fang Yen-Hsiang, James T. Hong, Huang Chien-Hung, Kai Huang Chen, Irene Kopelman, Alejandro Ramirez, Su Meng-hung, Gwen Wang, Wang Sheng-Hung, Mick Wilson, Wu Shu-ann curated by Hongjohn Lin and Henk Slager is to be presented in the city during the Taipei Biennial period.