To those who aspire to performance in Africa, I would like to tell them that it’s not new. Performance has been our ancient practice for a longer time. Just do it because it’s in our DNA. For those who are not Africans, they need to accept that it’s the purest artistic form. It has no divine methods, rules and regulations. Everything depends on you and you decide how you want the audience to see you. If you choose to use your body as a material, believe that it’s meaningful and very important.
Medard Bizimana is considered one of the most important Rwandan sculptors, who exhibited widely. His sculptures are part of permanent Museum collections in Rwanda, Nepal, Gabon and in public spaces in China’s cities. Article presents his progress from his early works during the challenging times in Rwanda up to now when the Rwanda Art Museum in Kigali hosted his solo exhibition curated by Vivaldi Ngenzi and Ilija Gubic.
What does it mean to live a full life? What does it mean to have beauty in the world? What does it mean to live in a society that in many ways can be quite repressive as well? But we don’t have avenues to address that and art is one of those few places we do, although sometimes we have to self-censor and not be so obvious, but it’s an outlet. On an individual level, people being able to deal with their mental health, their emotions, all of these things, that’s one thing.
Being in post-colonial society there is a narrative of identity that was placed upon you. It’s as though you’re expected to play a role – you’ve been given a script and you’re doing your best to play into this idea and deliver this character. As a woman you are striving to live up to the standard of Eurocentric women, a standard that’s difficult for even some European women.
In 2015 the artist Hamid El Kanbouhi became the so called ‘City Drawer’ (Stadstekenaar) of Amsterdam. A great honor and a nice amount. In return was expected of him to make a series of drawings that characterize the city. He asked Rob Perrée to add short texts.
Here a selection from this Intimate Street Art project.