16.12.2021Looking Forward Looking Back. Artistic Itineraries across African and German-Speaking Countries, 1950-1980

The symposium aims to launch international research about itinerant artists

who travelled between various African and German-speaking countries from

the 1950s to the 1970s. It seeks to collate and analyse multiple transcultural

exchanges between artists, institutions and other agents in the field of visual arts

during the period of decolonisation and the Cold War. Looking forward/Looking

back will address research and findings in the format of specific case studies.

It will also discuss the broader theoretical frameworks of archives in a transmodern

global world from art historical, artistic and curatorial perspectives.

 

We will continue to be alert to changing conditions and government guidance with respect to Covid-19 and as a result, our event may be moved fully online in the unfortunate circumstance we are unable to hold a hybrid event. Please check our website for regular updates and consult the international and national guidelines regarding travel restrictions and conditions of events.

 

Thursday 16th December—Part 1

Case Studies of Itinerant Transcontinental Encounters

9.00 am                   Coffee and Welcome

9.30 am                   Introduction Bärbel Küster (Zurich)

10.00 – 10.40 am    Lea Nienhoff (Geneva) Cultural Diplomacy and the Arts.

                                Alliances and Affective Relations between Mozambique and

                                East Germany at the End of the 1970s

10.40 – 11.20 am    Iheanyi Onwuegbucha (Princeton/Lagos) The Nsukka

                                Printmaking Workshops

11.20 – 11.30 am    Short Break

11.30 – 12.10 am    Dominicus Makukula (Dar es Salaam) Jean Pruitt’s Nyumba

                                Ya Sanaa Project (NYS-House of Arts)

12.10 – 12.30 am    Open Discussion

12.30 – 2.00 pm      Lunch

2.00 – 2.40 pm        Frank Ugiomoh (Port Harcourt) Ulli Beier and Intersectionality

                                in the Mbari-Club, the Ibadan, Ile-Ife Workshops and the Black

                                Orpheus Journal (via zoom)

2.40 – 3.20 pm        Bea Gassmann de Sousa (London) Dreaming the 2nd

                                ‘African Renaissance’. Kofi Antubam at the Deutsche Afrika

                                Gesellschaft 1960–61

3.20 – 3.30 pm        Short Break

3.30 – 4.10 pm        Aino Moongo (Windhoek/Bayreuth)—Thorsten Schütte

                                (Ludwigsburg) Short intro to ‘Stolen Moments – Namibian

                                Music History Untold’

4.10 – 4.30 pm        Open Discussion

4.30 – 5.00 pm        Refreshments

5.00 pm                   Conversation Christian Kravagna (Vienna)—Berhanu Ashagrie

                                (Vienna/Addis Ababa) Herbert Seiler. Modernism and Art

                                Education in Ethiopia

 

Friday 17th December—Part 2

Looking/Archives: Matter/Substances

10 – 10.40 am         Conversation Marie-Hélène Gutberlet (Frankfurt/M)—Filipa

                                Cesar (Berlin/Stuttgart) Le Passeur: Cinema as Crossing and

                                the Passages of Cine-Kinship (presence/online)

10.40 – 11.00 am    Coffee

11.00 – 11.40 am    Samuel Okoro (Port Harcourt) Post-Custodial Archives and

                                Inclusivity in History Making. A Case of the UTC in Nigeria

11.40 – 12.20 am    Romuald Tchibozo (Abomey-Calavi) Modern and Contemporary

                                African Art in the Leipzig Museum. Analysis of a Collection

12.20 – 12.45 am   Open Discussion

12.45 – 2.00 pm     Lunch

2.00 – 2.40 pm      Conversation Doreen Mende (Geneva) and Adjoa Armah

                              (London) Resonances from The Black Star. A Film Realised in

                              Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana of 1964 by Joachim Hellwig/DEFA

2.40 – 3.20 pm      Astrid Mania (Hamburg/Berlin) Narratives on Gavin Jantjes.

                              His DAAD Years at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste

                              Hamburg 1970 – 72

3.20 – 4.00 pm      Open Discussion

4.00 – 4.15 pm      Short Break

4.15 – 4.45 pm      Association of Black Art_ists e.V.: ASBA Installation Project

                              as a Matter of Black Archiving (Princela Biyaa, Marny Garcia

                              Mommertz and Fayo Said)

4.45 – 5.00 pm      Refreshments

5.00 – 6.30 pm      Roundtable The Productive Archive. New Epistemic Readings

                              Annette Bhagwati, Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, Doreen Mende,

                              Aino Moongo Moderator Bea Gassmann de Souza

                              Final discussion with all participants

 

Participation free of charge — hybrid event in presence and/or Zoom

Registration for presence/Zoom is requested by 14th of December 21

Registration: For online attendance click here

                     For attendance in presence contact mam@khist.uzh.ch

Locations:   16th December: UZH Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, KO2-F 152

                     17th December: UZH Häldeliweg 2, HAH-E 11

 

The attandence in presence at the University is subject to the applicable Covid regulations.

Imprint: MAM – Multiple Artistic Mobilities. Travelling Artists from/to African Countries and European German-Speaking Countries; Institute of Art History, UZH