For London Art Fair: Edit, visual artists Pippa Hetherington and Mário Macilau and art historian Dr Julie Bonzon come together to present The Photographic Collective and discuss the phrase ‘African artist’. Free event: THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 4PM – 5PM GMT
Conceived during lockdown (COVID-19) and officially launched in June 2020, The Photographic Collective is a not-for-profit initiative designed to showcase and connect lens-based artists living and working in Africa, especially those not currently represented by a gallery. The Photographic Collective (TPC) exists as a group of individuals, amongst which founder Julie Bonzon (Switzerland), Pippa Hetherington (South Africa) and Mário Macilau (Mozambique), and a digital platform: an Instagram page and a website. Through online and offline exhibitions, conversations and interviews with emerging artists, TPC aspires to become a source of information alternative to, and complementing, mainstream and established institutions. The platform aims to favour exchanges between lens-based artists, curators, academics, students and collectors and contribute to discussions surrounding the medium of photography in an African context.
What does the phrase ‘African artist’ mean today? What does this term imply? What does it omit? In this exchange, Hetherington, Macilau and Bonzon will debate the validity of this term and notions of ‘identity’, representation and decolonisation in contemporary African art. Participants will get the chance discover recent works produced by Hetherington and Macilau and familiarise themselves with contemporary lens-based practices and narratives from Africa. REGISTER
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