In New York, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Lille, Dakar, Cannes, Bordeaux, Tangier, Montreuil, Marseille, Togo… Indoors or outdoors, here are 22 events of Afro or African culture not to be missed in this month of May 2024. Do not hesitate to send us your “unmissable” cultural events to [email protected].
From May 1 to 4, the fair 1-54 New York is back at the Starrett-Lehigh Building. The 2024 edition features more than 30 galleries exhibiting the work of more than 70 artists from Africa and the global diaspora. The Nigerian kó gallery in Lagos exhibits the ghostly figures of Tofo Bardiborn in 2001 in Nigeria, graduated from the University of Benin, but currently living and working in Lagos.
The festival Nollywood Week welcomes moviegoers from May 2 to 5 at the L’Arlequin cinema in Paris. The 11th edition wishes “ expand Nollywood’s audience while also breaking the language barrier and connecting creators from English-speaking Africa to those from French-speaking Africa “. The festival is proud that “ 90% of the films selected at our festival obtain distribution and are found on video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix or Amazon “.
The Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté is currently the guest of honor at the Brussels gallery of Templon. The soul of signs represents an impressive set of eight previously unpublished textile paintings. “ Konaté embroiders mysterious linguistic symbols with fine thread. Gleaned during his travels, on the edges of 16th century Tunisian ceramics or in the heart of Berber art museums, he dissected these signs from the four corners of the continent to integrate them into the surface of his Bazin canvases. »
At the same time, the Templon gallery unveils in Paris magnificent red-nosed portraits on black identity, produced by the African-American artist Michael Ray Charles“ one of the great artistic precursors of African-American issues “.Afrochemistry East ” the personal chronicle of an African-American history between terror and enlightenment, freedom and slavery, racism and humanity, or even between guilt and responsibility “.
From May 2 to 9, the 43rd Jean Rouch International Festival opens its doors at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. It all started in 1954, when Jean Rouch, an ethnologist and filmmaker, Jane, a Franco-American journalist, and Damouré Zika, a young Sorko fisherman, traveled thousands of kilometers from Niamey to Accra… This year, Al Djanat, original paradiseby Chloé Aïcha Boro (Burkina Faso, France), is one of the thirty documentaries in the official selection which are “ revealing the ecological, social, human and cultural crises of yesterday and today. »
“ How did Geneva survive the colonial era? ” In Memoirs. Geneva in the colonial world, the Geneva Museum of Ethnography explores the history of its collections linked to the colonial era. “ Looking to the future, this exhibition is an invitation to reflect together on MEG’s commitment to communities of origin and in the fight against discrimination. » From May 3 to January 5, for the museum, the new route is also an opportunity to question “ its cultural and social responsibility in a society where discrimination and racism echo each other “.
The Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Art and Art Brut (LaM) in Lille invites the Egyptian from May 3 Wael Shawkyone of the most noted contemporary artists in the Middle East, representing his country at the 2024 Venice Biennale, to show his latest film, I Am Hymns of The New Temples.
In Dakar, until May 4, and in the regions, from May 5 to 10, the 6th edition of Africa Women Film Festival screens 70 films to contribute to the fight for equal rights between men and women in Senegal. This year, the event is dedicated to the theme “Climate Emergency & Peace”. On display for the closing ceremony: Jigeen Ñi, the way of womenby Adrien Cotonat, in the presence of the film crew.
May 10 is the deadline for application to the Ellipse price, a contemporary art competition highlighting artistic creation from a different country in France each year. The 2024 edition is dedicated to Benin under the theme “Contemporary Tradition” and open “ to all Beninese artists and/or residents of Benin, aged 18 to 40 years old at the application deadline, whose practice falls within the visual arts “.
From May 14 to 25, the Cannes film festival will be at the heart of world cinema. After a real breakthrough by a new generation of African directors last year, no African film in the running for the Palme d’Or 2024. On the other hand, the Moroccan Nabil Ayouch was selected for the Cannes Première section with Everybody Loves Touda and the Somali Mo Harawe is in the official selection with The Village Next to Paradise. Also in the Un Certain Regard section, Zambian director Rungano Nyoni with On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.
From May 14 to 23, the 5th edition of the Africa pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. In the heart of the International Village, it presents itself as “ sole representative of Africa and its diaspora ”, proposing “ a very dense program which should satisfy African film professionals and appeal to all those who wish to discover Africa, its talents and its territories “.
Without forgetting the 16th session of The Cinema Factory from the French Institute at the Cannes Film Festival. Among other things, it will address the changes in ecosystems and the new stories of the African continent. La Fabrique will also present the winners of the ten selected feature film projects, including Strangera documentary by Joël Akafou (Ivory Coast).
From May 14 to June 2, the African crossings, 34 exhibitions in 30 galleries in Paris, Île-de-France, as well as in Bordeaux, to explore the art of contemporary artists from the African continent, its diaspora and Afro-descendants. Among the proposals: At the end of the man, the trace, by Nasreddine Bennacer at La Galerie Lazarew, Generation Chéri at the Angalia gallery, Two African historical painters, Mwenze Kibwanga and Zacheus Olowonubi Oloruntoba at Françoise Livinec, Julien Singozan, The Breath of Benin, at the Galerie Vallois, Congolese breakby Maurice Pellosh, at Studio Pellosh – Galerie Art et Société…
Between May 14 and 20, William Kentridge, Bronwyn Lace and more than 30 artists from Center for the Less Good Ideas will be in residence at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Created in 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa, this center is one of a kind. The philosophy consists of considering that a “ less good idea, born on the margins or following an error, often opens the way to the most inventive works “.
From May 15, the Cécile Fakhoury gallery in Dakar presents the works of Na Chainkua Reindorf. Born in 1991 in Ghana, the multidisciplinary artist explores in her exhibition Strange Flesh “ the construction of the world and myths through the art of masquerade “. The Ghanaian artist practices a feminist interpretation of masculine traditions practiced in West Africa. His work is part of his series Mawu Nyonunamed after “ the name of an imaginary secret society invented by the artist which means “God is a woman” in the Ewe language in Ghana “.
Despite the cancellation of Dak’Art, the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, the Selebe Yoon gallery has decided to maintain its collective exhibition Export-Import in the Off. On display, from May 15 to July 27, the artists Younes Baba-Ali, Mbaye Diop and Hamedine Kane. The title refers to “ a dynamic of exchanges between two territories, a transcontinental transactional relationship that is sometimes asymmetrical and unbalanced. (…) By observing certain sports, leisure activities or economic sectors, each artist reveals unexpected networks and invisible trajectories which cover mechanisms of subordination and power dynamics. »
From May 15 to 20, the 3rd edition of La Marmite international culinary and gastronomic festival in Lomé, Togo, is displayed with the theme “The challenges of agricultural transformation and the promotion of local products”. At Fesma, professionals and the general public invest together in African flavors and traditions, thus creating the capital of African gastronomy.
From May 16 to June 16, the photographs of the new winner of the Carmignac photojournalism prize will be exhibited on the Quai Anatole France in Paris. The 13th edition is dedicated to Ghana and the ecological and human challenges linked to cross-border flows of electronic waste. E-waste in Ghana, on the electronic waste route is the result of a team composed of anti-corruption investigative journalist and activist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and photojournalists Muntaka Chasant and Bénédicte Kurzen (NOOR).
From May 22 to 26, the Magic Barbès festival returns to the Goutte d’Or in Paris. The 2024 edition is under the sign of unity and living well together in Barbès, “a true laboratory of living together where a multitude of ways of being united are developed and invented.” Among the many proposals, a “large format” photographic retrospective of the theatrical creations and company actions of Gaby Sourire in the Goutte d’Or district, Chapelle Église in the 18th, and at the Cité du Nord in Drancy.
From May 24 to June 1, the 21st edition of Tarifa Tangier African Cinema Festival (FCAT) will once again be held on both continental shores and will offer films by female directors and reflections on Afrofeminism. Twelve African female directors will compete in the two competitive sections of the African Cinema Festival-FCAT. “ Directors from Morocco, Algeria-France, Cameroon and Rwanda will be present on the screens of the African Cinema Festival, the largest and most influential in Spanish-speaking countries. »
On May 29, the concert of the winners of the 2023 edition of the Les Grandes Voix Lyriques d’Afrique competition will take place at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris. Every year, Africa Lyric’s Opera organizes a major concert tour in many opera houses in France to support the careers of opera artists of African origin. Among the winners on the Auditorium stage: Mariamelle Lamagat (soprano), 1st Opera Prize, Aaron-Casey Gould (tenor), 2nd Opera Prize, Monika Mazanka (soprano): 3rd Opera Prize.
From May 31 to June 6, the Festival of the Imagination brings us together with meetings, music and dances in Paris, Montreuil, Aubervilliers and Marseille to celebrate the diversity of forms of artistic expression from around the world. Among the cultural traditions to discover: the art of the mouth bow of Burkina Faso.