Africa Initiative

African Realms of Knowledge, Memory, and Contestation

On February 29-March 1, 2008, the African Realms of Knowledge, Memory and Contestation working group hosted a conference entitled "New Geographies in Contemporary African Art." Invitees included scholars, artists, and critics from various locales in Africa, Europe, Canada and the U.S. who participated in a provocative interdisciplinary engagement of thinkers and practitioners. The symposium’s title suggests something about the themes that participants explored. Among these are issues of translocality, transgression, and notions of place both within the continent and vis-à-vis Africa and the rest of the world.

The conference on “New Geographies in Contemporary African Art” focused on evolving issues at play in African visual discourse today and addressed issues of physical place and the discursive space of memory and affiliation.

The African Realms of Knowledge, Memory and Contestation working group also sponsored a round table discussion in April 2008 with Ntone Edjabe, activist art critic and editor of Chimurenga, and the Congolese performance artist Thierry Nlundu of Le Groupe Amos.