Dates
ifa gallery Berlin
24.10.2008 – 11.01.2009
ifa gallery Stuttgart
30.01. – 21.03.2009

Funded by the Federal Foreign Office

Further information

Bamako

Curator Akinbode Akinbiyi
talking to Sarah Wendle

"Africa Pulsates!"

Akinbode Akinbiyi, you often oppose the characterisation of Africa as a "decaying continent which needs help from the outside". To which degree can a biennial such as “Bamako 2007” confront these clichés?

It was and up to this date indeed still is a serious problem that Africa has for the last 100 years been depicted in images, in photographs practically exclusively by non-African photographers, and mostly in a negative fashion. An exhibition like Bamako may accentuate a contrasting model to this received image. This is my aim. It seems to me that non-African photographers are often not aware of our history and the history of African countries – be it because of naivety or because they consciously want to enforce their agenda – but in doing so, they neglect the history of slavery, of oppression, of colonialism. The context is lacking in their pictures; they pick out single issues, and mostly negative ones: wars, famines, for instance in Ethiopia, and in the past 20 years above all the Aids crisis. Africa is depicted in this negative way, and in this respect one must also criticise the Western media, who are very much focused on this negative coverage, rarely showing anything positive, constructive.

The motto chosen for the Bamako biennial 2007 was "Dans la ville et au-dela (In the City and Beyond)", which allowed for the depiction of the modern, urban portions of Africa. Is this an aspect that too many people, but also the media outside of Africa are not aware of?

The photographers are certainly aware of these sides. They fly from New York, London or Paris to Lagos, Cairo, Nairobi or Johannesburg. These are vibrant, modern cities! Even though they see this, too rarely do they photograph it or choose it as their topic. There are exceptions, but in general Africa’s image is still much too strongly determined by subjects like landscape, nature, wildlife, the motif of the so-called "noble savage". This is very, very deeply rooted in many people’s minds, and they want to see this satisfied. In this exhibition, Bamako, however, it is not being satisfied at all. We are Africans and we experience our daily lives entirely differently.

We see a broad spectrum of contemporary African photography in the exhibition. What were the criteria for your curatorial choices?

My approach to selecting the artists was a very subjective one. I was wandering through the various exhibitions in Bamako, lingering on all the art for almost a week. From the beginning, it was clear to me that I would only choose works from the international exhibition – international, that is in this case: the exhibition in which all African countries were represented – on the subject of the 2007 Bamako biennial, namely "city and periphery". I did not primarily think about the future audience in Europe, but rather chose works that appealed to me personally. Furthermore, I wanted to display a similar number of male and female artists. And finally, I attempted to present Africa as a whole. There are artists from North Africa, from the Arabic region, from West Africa, East Africa and from South Africa. Such was my concept. However, the selection turned out to be very difficult for me. All the work was of outstanding quality, at a very high level. From the 32 artists presented in the international exhibition in Bamako I finally chose nine artists, additionally to two video artists. The selection should be representative for Africa, but also representative for the 2007 biennial.

So the many individual perceptions of Africa are what is special about this exhibition?

Every artist always has a different perspective. And what I noticed at this biennial was the intensity, often also the intimateness of the perspectives. I hope that the exhibition will reflect these many facets. Take for example Lolo Veleko from South Africa with her pictures of fashion conscious young people in Johannesburg. These are works that show the modern, urban Africa. She is herself a young artist, and she approaches her work with an intensity and an enthusiasm that have made a very strong impression on me. Others do this, too, on different subjects. Everybody has their preferences. But in general, there is a will to live and an enthusiasm in Africa – of course, you can find this everywhere in the world, but in Africa I tend to notice it a bit more. The working conditions for the artists are very difficult. This begins with the photo material, batteries for the digital equipment, analogue films, all of this is very hard to obtain. Not to mention the power blackouts, which occur frequently in Nigeria, then making work with the computer impossible. In the face of these working conditions, the artists are almost possessed by the desire to move forward and also to connect to people in Africa as well as internationally.

Which road did the African photography scene had to take over the last years to finally reach international recognition?

The starting point for today’s young African photography scene was in Bamako in 1994. Here, the first “Rencontres” took place, at first a small exhibition initiated by two French photographers, which were enthused by the quality of the pictures. For the fourth edition of Bamako in 2001, Simon Njami joined as a new curator. With the appointment of Simon Njami, who was born in Cameroon and lives in France, Bamako became a bigger and more international exhibition with numerous African countries participating. This has finally encouraged especially younger photographers throughout Africa to exhibit – in particular on a more international scale, in Europe, the USA, in Asia. Up to that time only a few African photographers had already been connected with the international scene, among others for instance the South African David Goldblatt or several photographers who were living in the diaspora in England or the US and had already made a name for themselves in those days, in the 1970s and 1980s.

You were speaking of the daily lives. The curator of the Bamako biennial, Simon Njami, once characterised African cities as undergoing a constant process of transformation. The city is what its inhabitants make of it, its "soul" is the interplay of the people living in it. How do the photographs on display depict this process?

The photographers achieve this by choosing a subject and dedicating themselves to this subject for a certain period of time. Take for example Aida Muluneh from Ethiopia. She has to returned to Addis Abeba, a huge city with eight or nine million inhabitants, and photographs the daily life, from up close. Or Mouna Karray from Tunisia. She has photographed the ruins of a former phosphate factory in her home town Sfax. These artists take their time, choose a subject for themselves, go into the depth. This is their specific point of view. In contrast to this, many non-African photographers come to Africa with prejudices, which they consequently confirm in their pictures. This is not to say that African photographers don’t have prejudices! We have them too! But we are simply closer to it. And if African artists approach issues like Aids, crime or poverty, more often than not they will do so with a higher degree of empathy.

Your colleague Santu Mofokeng once said that if a photographer in South Africa had called himself an "artist" only a couple of years ago, he would have practically been declared insane. Did anything in this respect change due to the growing attention the African biennials receive nowadays?

In some areas very much so. In Mali, for example, this has changed a lot because of Bamako; people are suddenly aware that photographers do accomplish something – and that they also execute good work. But generally photographers are still considered more as craftspeople today, like a carpenter or plumber, if you will. In many African countries an artist is reckoned to be a painter, a musician, a poet … but this is changing a lot at the moment. In South Africa for example, there is a very strong art scene. I think the average citizen in many countries is lacking time or interest for so-called modern art, they have completely different problems. There is much enthusiasm for sporting events like football, but I hardly believe that anybody from the townships would visit an exhibition of Santus’ or my pictures. Also, it would cost too much of an effort to enter, since the art scene oftentimes still radiates a sense of elitism. But an awareness for what art is and what it can achieve is growing very gradually also in Africa.

And what about you yourself? You were born in Oxford, have studied in Ibadan (Nigeria) and Heidelberg, and have been living in Germany for more than 30 years. Is there something specific in your works that distinguishes you as an artist in Europe from artists living in Africa today?

It is difficult for me to answer this myself. I observe a certain change of my own perspective, but this depends less on the place I stay at, whether I’m here in Berlin or in the past in Heidelberg, whether in Lagos or in Dakar. I am more concerned with inner developments, movements. I still regard myself as an African, a Nigerian living abroad. There are these notions of the "nomad", of "diaspora", the "wanderer"… maybe this last concept of wandering and constant change corresponds the most with my views. I see myself as a human being who is fortunate enough to wander through the whole world – and I like doing this – and to take photographs. Everywhere I am, I always try to photograph in a way that corresponds to me; my core always remains the same, Akinbode Akinbiyi. Maybe specific because of my origin, Yoruba, but regardless whether I am in Brasilia or in Paris, I always try to be myself, to observe my environment and to do justice to it.

After many years in Germany you know the practices of reception in this country. What do you give the viewers of the ifa exhibition "Spot on: Bamako 2007" to take along?

To be open-minded. Be open-minded and look at the images profoundly and carefully. For instance Sammy Baloji’s pictures of the "postcolonial Congo" mingled with the "precolonial Congo" in the form of a collage. Or the video works by Berry Bickle and Amal Kenawy, which show a completely different aspect of urban absurdities and even pain. That’s what I wanted to convey. Africa is much bigger than we all are, bigger than we, the artists, but also bigger than we, the viewers, and if you succeed in abandoning your own prejudices, you will see more, and you will notice that what you see, experience or hear is much deeper than that what you had been aware of before.

The conversation between Akinbode Akinbiyi and Sarah Wendle took place in Berlin on 10 September 2008. Sarah Wendle, born in 1983 in Lahr/Schwarzwald; since 2004 Latin American studies in Cologne and Buenos Aires. She currently works as an intern at the art department of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) in Berlin.

Akinbode Akinbiyi was born of Nigerian parents in Oxford, England in 1946. Today he lives in Berlin, working almost worldwide from there.His school and university experiences reach from Nigeria to England and Germany. He took his B.A. degree in English at Ibadan University, Nigeria. Akinbode Akinbiyi has been working as a freelance photographer since 1977. He got a STERN reportage grant to work in the cities of Lagos, Kano and Dakar in 1987 and was co-founder of UMZANZSI, a cultural center in Clermont Township in Durban, South Africa, in 1993.Akinbode Akinbiyi’s main photographic interest focuses on large, sprawling megacities. He is working on the four biggest cities on the African continent - Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa and Johannesburg -, aiming at spreading these topics through serious art books and exhibitions.
Akinbode Akinbiyi has taken part in many international exhibitions and his publications have been printed worldwide. He also works as a curator and leader of photographic workshops.