Symposium Reclaim : narratives of African Women artists

This symposium intends to bring together researchers from various horizons in order to shed light on the research on African women artists and to bring African perspectives to the foundational narratives of art history. The past few decades have seen concerted drive in Europe and the United States to produce global art histories, with little participation by scholars from other parts of the world, especially Africa.
Among the guiding questions for this symposium are: How have modern and contemporary art history in Africa been written? Which histories, media, identities, genders have been forgotten and which have been overlooked? Which new narratives do we need for the writing of more comprehensive future art histories?
Symposium organised in partnership with l'Ecole du Louvre.

The conference will be held online and live. It will be available in English and French.
 

Participants : 

• Scientific Committee: N’Goné Fall (Senegal), General Commissioner of Africa2020 Season ; Nadira Laggoune (Algeria), Director of the Musée National Public d’Art Moderne et Contemporain of Alger; Peju Layiwola (Nigeria), Artist, Founder of the Women and Youth Art Foundation and Vice President of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association; Nkule Mabaso (South Africa), independent curator; Nontobeko Ntombela (South Africa), Independent Curator and Professor at the Wits School of Arts; Karen Milbourne (USA), Senior Curator, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; Senam Okudzeto (Ghana / USA), Artist and Educator, Founder of the Ghanaian NGO Art in Social Structures; Fatou Sarr Sow (Senegal), Sociologist, Director of the Gender and Family Institute of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar; Rachida Triki (Tunisia), Professor of Art History and Aesthetics, Tunis University ;

• AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions: Camille Morineau, Co-founder and Director of AWARE; Anaïs Roesch, International Program Manager; Matylda Taszycka, Head of Research Programmes

Schedule

- Tuesday, 13 April 2021 -
To follow the webinar, you can register here.

• 2 PM-2:40 PM
General introduction
• 2 pm: Opening by Claire Barbillon (France), Director of the Ecole du Louvre
• 2:10 pm: Introduction by Camille Morineau (France), Director and co-founder of AWARE
• 2:25 pm: Introduction by N’Goné Fall (Senegal), General Commissioner of the Africa2020 Season

• 2:40 PM
Introduction of the Session
Session 1 - Forgotten narratives: Who are the women whose stories we risk forgetting? How can we fill this gap?
Chairwoman: Nkule Mabaso (South Africa)

• 2:45 PM
Sule Ameh James (South Africa), “A Critical Analysis of Artworks by Two Female Modern Nigerian Artists: Afi Ekong and Clara Ugbodaga-Ngu”

• 3:20 PM
Nancy Dantas (USA), “Bertina Lopes: A Modernist (and Panafricanist) in Arms”

• 3:55 PM
Julia Rensing (Suisse), “Contesting the Archive: Namibian Artists' Renegotiations of the Colonial Past”

• 4:30 PM - Break

• 4:40 PM
Keynote speaker : Nontobeko Ntombela (South Africa)

• 5:30 PM - Q&A

- Wednesday, 14 April 2021 -
To follow the webinar, you can register here.

• 2:00 PM
Introduction of the Session
Session 2 – Women’s narratives: What does it mean to be a “female artist”? How do notions of “femininity” and “feminine condition” shape what is accepted, archived, or understood in the formation of art history narratives?
Chairwoman: Nadine Hounkpatin (Benin/France)

• 2:05 PM
Gladys Kalichini (South Africa), “Conflicting Archives: Reimagining and Visualising Socio-Political Narratives of Women Freedom Fighters in Zambia and Zimbabwe”

• 2:40 PM
Martha Kazungu (Uganda), “Njabala: towards activating the pluralities of Ugandan Womanhood as a site of resistance”

• 3:15 PM
Ruth Belinga (Cameroon), “Aesthetic and socio-anthropological analysis of the art of seven Cameroonian women (three generations)”

• 3:50 PM - Break

• 4:00 PM
Keynote speakers : Nadira Laggoune (Algeria) and Rachida Triki (Tunisia)

• 5:00 PM - Q&A

- Thursday, 15 April 2021 -
To follow the webinar, you can register here.

• 2:00 PM
Introduction of the Session
Seance III - Technical narratives: Are there links between gender and techniques used? How has the politics of materials and techniques influenced the formation of discourses about women in the arts? How can these be challenged and deconstructed?
Chairwoman: Gaëlle Beaujean (France)

• 2:05 PM
Maha Tazi (Maroc), “Women's Creative Disobedience and the Continuing (Gender) Revolution in Post-Arab Spring Morocco (2011-2019): Slam Poetry and RAPtivism”

• 2:40 PM
Felicia Nitsche (Germany), “Re-inscribing Antoinette Lubaki into Congolese Art History”

• 3:15 PM
Portia Malatjie (South Africa), “African Sonic and Spiritual Praxes: Strategies for a RevolutionFocus on Black Feminism”

• 3:50 PM - Break

• 4:00 PM
Keynote speakers: Senam Okudzeto (United-Kingdom/Suisse) (tbc)

• 5:00 PM - Q&A

- Friday, 16 April 2021 -
To follow the webinar, you can register here.

• 2:00 PM
Introduction of the Session
Seance IV - Institutional narratives: What role have institutions played in the sustained under-representation of women in the arts? What responsibility do institutions have to assume in the future to create more equitable representation systems? What alternative institutional models would be more inclusive?
Chairwoman: Sonia Recasens (France)

• 2:05 PM
Alice Korkor Ebeheake (Ghana) (representing Alice Ebeheakey, Dorothy Amenuke, Bernard Akoi-Jackson), “Breaking Boundaries and Borders: Undoing Stereotypes with the Stereotypes (The Case of Contemporary Art from Africa)”

• 2:40 PM
Perrin Lathrop (USA) (representing Perrin Lathrop & Ndidi Dike), “Modern Women: Archiving African Modernism”

• 3:15 PM
Amandine Nana (France), “Clara Etso Ugbodaga-Ngu and Miranda Burney-Nicol: Fragments of the trajectories of African women artists between Paris and London during the decolonisation period, through the prism of the Living Museum”

• 3:50 PM - Break

• 4:00 PM
Keynote speaker: Karen Milbourne (USA)

• 4:45 PM - Q&A

About AWARE : Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions

AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions is a French non-profit organization, co-founded in 2014 by Camille Morineau, art historian and specialist in the history of women artists. Its goal is the creation, indexation and distribution of information on women artists of the 20th century, especially through their website, which welcomes more than 25,000 visitors a month. AWARE collaborates with major museum, universities and research centers around the world to organize round tables, symposiums and study days in France and abroad. Its action also relies on donations from private sponsors, foundations, and companies that care for the promotion of professional parity and defend women’s visibility in the workplace and art world : www.awarewomenartists.com

^{Photo credit : Jurie Potgieter}