Spatial Stories addresses evolution of the figurative and literal landscape of Africa, played out through social, political and physical change. Contemporary, photo-based work that is atypical of the photojournalistic images often seen in the West, provides glimpses of how the reality of transformation unfolds through the lens of those that “make the journey.” The exhibition explores the notion of place and uncovers transformation triggered by various factors such as technology, globalization, and changing perspectives, for better or worse.
The title, Spatial Stories, comes from the writing of Michel de Certeau. In his book, The Practice of Everyday Life De Certeau discusses the concepts of strategies and tactics. De Certeau asserts that corporations, governments, cartographers and those in power practice strategies when they create cities; abstract ideas that do not correspond to the practices of those who walk the cities. The walkers make selections, actualizing the possibilities and the interdictions of cities. Walkers appropriate the topographical system.
For this exhibition, we utilized both the notion of strategies in relationship to the continent of Africa, a continent which has been created by corporations, governments, and colonized via maps; and the artists as narrators that subvert this abstract, totalizing image of Africa. With artists hailing from Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tunisia, each of these artists represents a different narrative of Africa, one that is uniquely their own and free of strategies.
Spatial Stories does not attempt to provide a conclusive or comprehensive statement about the state of change on the continent, but rather dives deep with these artists to explore through their individual experience. Curated by Leila Armstrong, MSU Denver visiting faculty in Art History, Theory and Criticism; Cecily Cullen, CVA creative director; and Susanne Mitchell, Visiting Artist in Residence at Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa.
Participating artists include: Ismail Bahri, Sammy Baloji, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Bruno Hadjih, Pieter Hugo, Mario Macilau, Santu Mofokeng, Mikhael Subotzky, Mwangi Hutter, Wangechi Mutu, Guy Tillim
FESTIVAL
As part of Denver’s Month of Photography
Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa
February 6 – April 4, 2015
Center of Visual Art
965 Santa Fe Drive
Denver
Colorado 80204
