Opening: Tuesday November 7th
Look at Me! is what each of the people in the selected photographs seems to be telling us. As spectators, we look at the images, but (virtually) they in turn “look” at us. Based on these reflected gazes, which are part of the process of configuration of identities that this curatorial project proposes, we intend to shed light on African diversity.
Within the framework of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) declared by the UN in 2014, whose main objective is to “strengthen actions and measures to ensure the full enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights by people of African descent, and their full and equal participation in all aspects of society”, this exhibition seeks to contribute to the construction of a diverse and plural creative image from the perspective of African artists or those of African descent in the diaspora.
This selection of images by African artists represents an attempt to reveal the rich repertoire resulting from the myriad of cultural exchanges that have taken place in African territories as a result of internal migrations, the actions of colonialism, "modernizing" processes, as well as the cultural interactions that occurred in what has been defined as the "diaspora", which includes the transatlantic traffic of black people for about three centuries.
Following what UNESCO proclaims – “no development can be sustainable without a strong cultural component” –, this exhibition is an invitation to think with a plural repertoire of images in which both convergences and tensions can be seen. This project, conceived within the framework of BIENALSUR to accompany UNESCO's annual cultural meeting, poses certain dimensions oriented to a possible construction of a contemporary humanism.
Based on a perspective rooted in the present, this selection of images brings together aspects related to visual traditions, knowledge, cultural practices, the traces of intangible heritage, and the identities of an expanded Africanness.
Image: Mónica de Miranda
