The Nigerian writer Emmanuel Iduma talks about the novel ‘Double Negative’ of the South African writer Ivan Vladislavic. In that way he can analyze the difference between a novel and a photograph. “(…) a novel deals with the world in the form of a creative act of construction. Photographs deal with gaps in the known world. They seek out a balance between what is visible and what is not.”
‘Where are we now?’ is the ambitious, overall question of the fifth Marrakech Biennial. More than 40 artists, who are showing their work in more than 30 locations, had to give an answer. Although there was a lot of good art to be seen, Rob Perrée did not get an overall answer. In this fragmentary essay – like a collage – he talks about the most interesting works within the context of a city were history and modern times meet and sometimes clash.
,Under this strong sign of the ‚Cultural Caravan for Peace’ we want to express our way of non-violent, but effective resistance against intolerance and express solidarity with these people in need – refugees in Mali and neighboring countries’, says Festival in the Desert director Mohamed – Manny – Ansar. ‚We want to show the extremists that they can’t stop music. With the Caravan we can give the artists a change to keep on expressing themselves and motivate others.’ Mamou Daffé, director of Festival on the Niger, adds: ‚We believe that art and culture bring people together and they get inspiration from each other to contribute to the balance of the society.’ Both men, says Jorrit Dijkstra in this article, have a vision to encourage dialogues, cultural exchanges and enhance awareness on environmental issues in the region. With the Caravan they aim to achieve this through music, workshops and art expositions, creating a platform to meet and exchange ideas around the development and perpetuation of cultural heritage.
A text that is intentionally written without punctuation. “Thus”, says Bernard Akoi-Jackson “presenting the reader certain challenges as arise in the issues the text is dealing with. (…) The idea of such text will be that readers be invited to offer their own suggestions as to how it should be punctuated. This brings in the possibility of participatory performance to the online audience.”
“We are a not an African residency, but an Amsterdam residency. We have to be situated in the middle of the city. We’re not interested in offering Africans an African context, which often seems to be the case; organizers suddenly want to eat African food all the time, while the African artists came to learn about Dutch culture. Nevertheless, the free Dutch climate can sometimes shock them. (…)Here, homosexuality is common and not everyone is a Muslim.”
Pauline Burmann, chairperson of Thami Mnyele, interviewed by Yasmijn Jarram.