1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair is one of the leading international art fairs dedicated to contemporary African art. It takes place at Somerset House, in London, until this Sunday October 8th, 2017.
This year, for its fifth edition, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair presents several great photography exhibitions. Ahead of the first Marrakech edition of the fair in February 2018, 1:54 showcases Marrakech-based creative platforms in London. Experimental artist-run space Mint Works presents a performance by Hana Tefrati, in which she will transform a corridor in the West Wing of Somerset House into “desire path”, to call attention to the marginal spaces that the queer community occupies in Morocco. More importantly, it features Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane, the first UK solo exhibition of the British-Moroccan artist in seven years, showcasing new and celebrated works. Hajjaj’s multi-layered works fuse traditional and contemporary North African culture with familiar Western imagery and iconography. He is best known for his photographic portraits, including the Kesh Angels series, from which there will be several new works in the exhibition. Blending the glossy aesthetic of a fashion shoot with Moroccan street culture, these images challenge Western perceptions of the hijab and female disempowerment. Another new body of work in the exhibition is My Rock Stars: Volume 2, a video installation of nine screens, each occupied by a distinctively dressed musician.
