In Kinshasa, Daoulas, Paris, Marseille, Tunis, Annecy, Hamburg, Saint-Étienne or Lagos, indoors or outdoors, here are 15 African culture events not to be missed this June. Don’t hesitate to send us your next “must-see” cultural events at [email protected].
From June 2 to 25, the Togolese painter Pierre Segoh exhibits for the first time his vast canvases of imaginary worlds in France. His works are populated by zoomorphic heads, dog-headed giants, gaping-mouthed skulls, cars and planes… Born in Togo in 1980, the artist now lives and works in Lomé. This first personal exhibition in Europe takes place in the space of the 31 Project gallery in Paris.
The Abbey of Daoulas, near Brest, in France, offers from June 3 a trip to discover the religious cultures of the African continent: Africa. The religions of ecstasy. The exhibition seeks to approach religions in Africa, to show the plurality of practices “.
A rare and historical set of little or never shown drawings of Frederic Bruly Bouabre is presented from June 2 by the Parisian gallery Magnin-A under the title We don’t count the stars. Produced by the Ivorian artist between 1983 and the beginning of the 2000s, these works are a nod to the personal exhibition currently dedicated by the MoMA in New York to the inventor of Bété writing, a writing created for save the culture of the Bété people from oblivion.
From June 2, the 193Gallery in Paris offers DicoKama ” discovery of the artistic lexicon of the Cameroonian scene “. A selection of eight young artists from Cameroon: Marcel Tchopwe, Marcel Tchopwe, Aurélie Djiena, Alida Ymelé, Sesse Elangwe Ngeseli, Arnold Fokam, Beya Gille Gacha, Grace Dorothée Tong.
Until June 5, the International Graffiti Festival in the Democratic Republic of Congo invests the popular districts of Kinshasa. Under the sponsorship of Belgian-Moroccan graffiti artist Dema Ouno, the 2022 edition of KinGraff offers murals, conferences, workshops and film screenings under the theme Words on the walls.
With 140 clubs, the Musée du Quai-Branly in Paris is presenting for the first time a major exhibition on the art of Pacific clubs. Power and prestige gives from June 8 “ a unique entry point to the cultures of the Pacific, from Australia to Easter Island », and asks « the many facets of these exceptional ethnographic objects, often misunderstood and underestimated “.
An auction of African Art Masterpieces will take place on June 8 at Sotheby’s in Paris. Title Splendorsit brings together 18 rare pieces from Mali, Gabon, the DRC and the Ivory Coast (including a kneeling statue, sculpted in the 19th or early 20th century by an unknown Senufo artist, 30 cm high, estimated at between 700,000 and 900,000 euros).
From June 8 to 18, the Festival of Scale Dating invites the public to Marseille to discover of artists and authors, often little identified in Europe and conveying multiple cultural identities. Among others, the Congolese visual artist performer Eric Androa Mindre Kolo will present his new creation This is the time. And under the title Shapeshifter #1five young artists from different parts of the world (Hakeem Abdelnaeem, Egypt, Raymond Dikoumé, France/Cameroon, Dima Matta, Lebanon, Arash Parvin, Iran, and René Schneiderson (Haiti), wonder: ” (from) what does my project take form(s)? “. Shadow Survivorsby Zora Snake, stages the first choreography of one of the most promising artists of the current Cameroonian scene which shapes ” the aesthetics of the invisible world and the heritage of its ancestors “.
The Franco-Tunisian Radhouane El Meddeb will inaugurate on June 11 with We’ll all be consumed by fire the Carthage Choreographic Days. Until June 18, Carthage Dance program 24 choreographic performances by 22 choreographers from Tunisia, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Palestine and France, including Hela Fattoumi and Eric Lamoureux from France with Akzak.
the Annecy Festival, the world’s largest event dedicated to animation, will open its doors between June 13 and 18. In the competitive section of feature films “Counterchamps” competes Khamsa – The Well of Oblivion by Algerian filmmaker Khaled Chiheb. Among the “Perspectives” short films in competition are Akplokplobito of the Togolese Ingrid Agbo and Blind spot Tunisian Lotfi Achour.
From June 16 to July 9, the 2022 edition of Marseille Festival appears under the sign of multiple connections between Marseille and the world. Among the many artistic proposals, the Rwandan Dorothée Munyaneza appears on June 18 with Meshesa creation performed by its one hundred percent feminine Ballet National de Marseille Polyphonique with African or Afro-Descendant women to celebrate “ perpetual, daily resistance “. The Nigerian Qudus Onikeku invites there from June 27 to a project entitled 100 % African. The goal is to connect a whole young generation around Afro-dance, live in Marseille and online, with some of the best representatives of Afro-dance. Radouan Mriziga, choreographer and dancer from Brussels, born in Morocco, will present his creation Libya June 29 at the Friche la Belle de Mai. On June 30, at the Mucem, the Marseilles artist of Comorian origin Ahamada Smis will evoke in music, images and dance the 1976 massacre in Majunga, on the island of Madagascar, and the thousands of survivors called. today the “Sabena”, from the name of the airline which repatriated them in an emergency and which gave the name to the show.
The German gallery Melbye-Konan in Hamburg presents from June 18 the first personal exhibition ofAtowla. With My storythe Ivorian artist tells both the individual story of the artist or of people or personalities evoked in his paintings, but also the collective story of Ivorians or Africans through celebrities like Nelson Mandela or Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Everyone knows Cheops and Ramses, hardly anyone remembers Sesostris and Nectanebo. From June 22, the exhibition Pharaohs Superstars at the Mucem in Marseilles, analysis, based on 300 pieces from the greatest French and European collections, how some kings and queens of ancient Egypt became international icons, while others fell into oblivion.
Globalisto, a philosophy in motion awaits you from June 25 at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Étienne (MAMC+), in France. ” Globalisto’s philosophy is a call to radical hospitality, to the idea of a world without borders. Around twenty artists, activists, agents of change, storytellers and poets from different generations and from the African continent or the diaspora are called upon to invent new worlds. Or how to remix negritude, tigritude, great attitude and black speculative theory…
The Company She Keeps is an exhibition bringing together in Lagos five artists from the African continent and its diaspora whose works ” draw attention to intimacy, restorative approaches and valuing work “. Until August 13, the Tiwani Contemporary Lagos gallery presents among the artists two painters based in Nigeria. Temitayo Ogunbiyi pays tribute to the dexterity and work of women. Nengi Omuku explore in candyscape political-cultural representations of the figurative body to better understand the influence of real and imaginary landscapes on the human psyche.