“Theo Danjuma’s collection confirms the spirit of a new kind of contemporary compositional art from all corners of the earth; that makes for a more inclusive display of works.”
Rajesh Punj on the collection of the young, London based collector Theo Danjuma.
“If we could combine the autonomy and respect for local talents of the Kampala Biennial with the website and communicative power of KLA ART 14, an ideal contemporary African art festival could be created in the future in Kampala. African contemporary artists are quite able to organise themselves and speak for themselves, provided they can secure enough funding to cover transport, logistics, materials and expenses. The ‘help’ of expatriates should be more or less invisible, and this was not the case at KLA ART 14.”
Helen Hintjens reports from the Kampala Art Festival.
Performance is important to me. I like to insert myself into situations. I like to bring my work to people. I notice that where I work currently, there is a visible struggle with how I look. Women are so accustomed to being sexually available but my dress (as Theodorah) speaks to Black South Africans who understand that I am not available. I am interested in how far I can push limits and eventually provoke people to interact with me.
Yvette Greslé interviews the South African artist Senzeni Marasela.
That Gopal Dagnogo is carrying his personal history with him, I have no doubt. On the other hand, because of the way he does it – generalization, abstraction – he raises the issues to a universal level, allowing a broader interpretation for his work.
Rob Perrée analyzes the work of Gopal Dagnogo, born in Ivory Coast, living and working in Paris.
The kind of material with which he works is not found in art shops or even do-it-yourself stores and builders’ merchants, but in scrapyards and on beaches. In less enlightened times it was common in Curacao to dump household rubbish in the sea, and what doesn’t decompose gets washed up somewhere else eventually.
Chris Morvan portrays the artist Yubi Kirindongo from Curacao.