African Presence in Today’s Art: Through ArtReview Power 100
Together with Miwa san from Taguchi Art Collection and Shiobara san from Art Office Shiobara, on February 27th, I participated in the webinar “African Presence in Today’s Art: Through ArtReview Power 100” as a panelist.
(Report of the lecture is published on the website of Taguchi Art Collection.)
Still, in Japan, when I talk about my specialty, African contemporary art, people often regard it as a very new and uncommon domain. However, African and diaspora people have been working for decades to establish their strong presence in the art world, and we are entering the era in which Africa and Asia are in solidarity, not via the former center of the West, to make new axes of art, which can relativize the domination of the Western modern norm.
In the online lecture, using Power 100, an annual ranking of most influential people in the art world by ArtReview, as teaching material, we talked about important issues like decolonization of art or the restitution of stolen objects, checked essential actors in the African contemporary art scene, and introduced initiatives of radical solidarity.
The aim of the lecture (and all of my public or educational engagement) is to help people to see the globalized world through the viewpoint of Africa, not regarding Africa through the prism of the Western modern. And in my doctoral research, I’m struggling to take another step to find the Japanese position, or where we really are, in the contemporary globalized art world.
After the introduction, I introduced academics ranked in the ArtReveiw Power 100, Achille Mbemebe, Felwine Sarr, and Bénédicte Savoy, together with the issues they represent; decolonization of art and restitution. The second part of the lecture offered the basic information of stars of the contemporary art scene, Zanele Muholi, Koyo Kouoh, and Sammy Baloji. Among their many achievements, we especially focused on the initiatives of construction of art infrastructures and building of art ecosystems; Lubumbashi Biennale by Sammy Baloji, Raw Material Company, and projects in Zeitz MOCAA by Koyo Kouoh…etc. I also referred to other art centers in the continent and leaderships behind the institutions; Fondation Zinsou by Marie-Cécile Zinsou, SCCA by Ibrahim Mahama, and Hakanto Contemporary by Joël Andrianomearisoa. I really respect their contribution to the local art ecosystem building.
The inspiration I got from these initiatives made me start The African Art Book Collection by Taguchi Art Collection, the library project I’m in charge of curation.
After introducing all ranked-in figures from the continent, we reviewed the top 100 list from the top. This year’s Power 100 displays some remarkable trends, including the surge of African-American artists and curators and increased power of academics caused by the declining power of the market. Shiobara-san, one of the panelists, is an art dealer of experience. He explained about persons and exhibitions to know, which played crucial roles in building a foundation of today’s African American art presence.
The webinar's last part was dedicated to learning that non-Western countries, including Korea or Australia, are already finding new ways of solidarity that decolonize the conventional structure of art. Among them is “South South,” a gallery-led online platform unifying Global South. First conceived by Liza Essers, the director of Goodman Gallery, South Africa, It is an online platform consisting of gallery shows and auctions and educational programs or curatorial conferences. One of the panelists of this webinar, Taguchi Miwa san from Taguchi Art Collection, takes part in this project as an ambassador. Beyond the phase of academic discussion, Non-western solidarity that can change the game of the art world has been realized even in the market phase, and African galleries or curators often act as leaders.
