How would you describe the AAF to those unfamiliar?
Goddy Leye at AAF. "prêt-à-partager" An exhibition organised by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa)
Tell us about the artist residency program you’ve established at the Foundation
"I think design is like the meta-sculpture that connects all of the various contemporary art forms"
You’ve begun to work more and more with African designers. Can you speak to the ‘blurred line’ between ‘artist’ and ‘designer’ that’s been a focus of some of your projects at the AAF?
I think this is a very timely concept at the moment. We are at a point where contemporary art has sort of come full circle, and the ‘object’ is what’s important now. And I think design is like the meta-sculpture that connects all of the various contemporary art forms. Having a good conceptual idea is important, but there needs to be a level of skill and craftsmanship involved in the object or the artistic experience. Design and photography prop up contemporary art today.
Akintunde Akinleye, Lagos Sand Merchants
And how did Art Base Africa come about? What makes a platform like this so important for the artists you work with?
One of the things we’ve found is that there is a sort of gap in the dialogue when we talk about contemporary art that relates to Africa. A lot of people know that there great artists in Kenya, in Mozambique, in Zimbabwe. But there’s no commentary on it. And if you can’t really engage a dialogue, then it’s not really important. It’s happening, but it’s almost happening in a vacuum, with no theoretical context.
"If you can’t really engage a dialogue, then it’s [art] not really important. It’s happening, but it’s almost happening in a vacuum, with no theoretical context"
And this culture of looking at art from an aesthetic point of view, it all becomes driven by purely bourgeois interests - like middle class people trying to buy art. It becomes decorative, and that’s not what art is about. Art needs to be pushing the boundaries of society and doing all of the wonderful things we know art can do. So we decided to create a space for contemporary artists, writers, curators to engage and meet. And since everything is happening online today, we created a platform to get curators from Italy, France, Africa, everywhere, to engage in this big evolution that’s going on. Africa needs to play a bigger part in Western civilization. So we’re going to be launching the next edition of the journal - a design edition - in Milan. We’ll have a design space where we’ll invite people from all over the world to come and engage in what we’re doing to broaden the discourse. We need to be thought of as relevant. Africa is here to stay!
We’ve been known to promote vernacular photography, documentary work, art photography. But I also think it’s important for us to support the work of photojournalism. And Akintunde is absolutely iconic. Lots and lots of young people are trying to get into photojournalism, and we thought it would be interesting to celebrate and show the work of an icon of the industry so he can offer shared experiences to the next generation.
http://www.africanartists.org
http://www.artbaseafrica.org