DE
EN
press release
In Body Talk, six artists, all from Africa, and all marked by the shared history of the continent, by its wounds and its commitments, take a look at feminism, sexuality, and the body. Body Talk is the rising voice of a generation!
This is not the first time that 49 Nord 6 Est reflects on women’s status and identity. The plurality of feminisms around the world and their protean struggle has always been at the heart of its concerns. It is therefore only natural that its interest has turned toward the African art scene. Koyo Kouoh, director of the Raw Material Company in Dakar and a key figure in the new artistic and critical landscape in Africa, has been invited to develop an exhibition: Body Talk. Body Talk opens our eyes to contemporary ways of looking at the world informed by the “other”—i.e. African—feminism, such as reappropriation of the body by subverting the idea of woman as sex object; embodiment of historical figures, like the “Black Venus” or the Nigerian woman activist Funmilayo Kuti; performative transformation that bridges tradition and modernity…
In order to counteract the invisibility of black women in France, even while they struggle for recognition with increasing vigor, and to restore to the black body its rightful place, we have designed a committed program of performances, talks, and meetings that accompany this exhibition.
ARTISTS : Zoulikha Bouabdellah (born in 1977 in Moscou, Russia. Lives in Casablanca) Marcia Kure (born in 1970 in Kano, Nigeria. Lives in Princeton, NJ) Miriam Syowia Kyambi (born in 1979 in Nairobi, Kenya, where she lives) Valérie Oka (born in 1967 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where she lives) Tracey Rose (born in 1974 in Durban, South Africa, where she lives) Billie Zangewa (born in 1973 in Blantyre, Malawi. Lives in Johannesburg)
CURATOR : Koyo Kouoh, assisted by Eva Barois De Caevel (RAW Material Company, Dakar)
Exhibition initated by WIELS, Brussels (BE) in coproduction with 49 Nord 6 Est, Metz (FR) and Lunds konsthall, Lund (SE)