africanah.org

“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.

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“It started out basically when I was wondering around 42^nd street. There was this famous place on 42^nd Street and 8^th Avenue called ‘Show World’. It was a peepshow place. On the first floor were real women. You could go in a booth, pay your money and they danced and took their clothes off or whatever. On the ground floor it was basically booths with dirty movies. Downstairs, in the basement, were the femme-queens. I went downstairs one day and that was the beginning. I wanted to take pictures of them. So my early images are these portraits of femme- queens. That’s how I started.”

Rob Perrée meets Gerard Gaskin.

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“Becoming an adult I had different experiences and encounters that made me start opening up for my ancestry. It was the beginning of what probably will be a life long research into my ancestry and African Diasporic culture. I read many books, essays, and articles, listened to music, went to performances, lectures and met with different people that became short and long term mentors, a continuous learning curve. Finding Palo and its community felt like I came home, it made sense to me, it gave me freedom.  Palo fills me with a positive energy and empowers me to be who I am.”

Sasha Dees interviews the New York based artist Leonardo Benzant.

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“I think that’s one of the most important things about the collection and now the institution. It’s from Africa, about Africa, by Africa. At least we get to write some of the history of our continent. As we know with colonialism and even now in a post colonial period, to a large extend the communication of our continent has been left in the hand of outsiders. And it would be nice that some of it is influenced by us!”

Says Mark Coetzee, director and chief curator of the future Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in his interview with Manon Braat.

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Zijn Surinaamse kunstenaars na ‘Twintig Jaar Beeldende Kunst in Suriname. 1975-1995’, de overzichtstentoonstelling in 1996 in het Amsterdamse Stedelijk Museum zichtbaarder geworden? Waar verschijnt hun kunst? Binnen welke (etnische?) context? Hoe belangrijk is deze context voor de profilering, zichtbaarheid en receptie van de Surinaamse kunst, voor de beeldvorming erover en voor de manier waarop het werk wordt begrepen? Hoe is het nu gesteld met de positie van Surinaamse kunst(enaars) binnen de Nederlandse kunstwereld?

Ingrid Braam waagt zich aan een antwoord.

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