Date and time:
Tuesday, 29 March 2022
6.30 pm SAST, 5.30 pm GMT
Cost: The series is free and will take place via Zoom. No registration is required.
Click here to access the live link for webinar
Join us for the inaugural session of a 14-part webinar series hosted by Zeitz MOCAA in collaboration with the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Whether residing on the continent or within the African diaspora, Black artists have always been invested in a spectrum of narratives that encompass the experiences of Blackness, intentionally rejecting oppressive tropes of representation.
In this first session, the speakers seek to make connections across a continuum of Black artistic practice, through a timely exploration of figurative painting by artists of African descent – a form that, in the last decade, has risen to new prominence in the contemporary art field.
Hosted by Zeitz MOCAA in collaboration with the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), the When We See Us webinar series precedes a major exhibition of the same name, opening in November 2022. The exhibition, along with its accompanying programming, of which the webinar series is part, will attempt to unveil the deeper historic contexts and networks of a complex and underrepresented genealogy that stems from African and Black modernities and spans several generations from the early 20th century to the present.
Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by GUCCI.
Participant Biographies:
Koyo Kouoh
Executive Director and Chief Curator, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
Appointed the executive director and chief curator at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town in March 2019, the Cameroonian-born Koyo Kouoh has already made a significant impression, launching an ambitious programme of symposia, summits and special commissions as well as overseeing a survey by Nigerian-born Otobong Nkanga’s first exhibition in South Africa and working on the first retrospective of Tracey Rose. Previously, Kouoh was the artistic director of RAW Material Company, an exhibition space, artists’ residency and centre for critical education in Dakar that was founded by her in 2008. As an independent curator, Kouoh has organised exhibitions internationally – including Body Talk: feminism, sexuality and the body in the work of six African women artists; a touring group show, including Rose, that debuted at Wiels, Brussels in 2015; the 37th EVA International in Limerick in 2016; and Dig Where You Stand, a 2018 exploration of colonial histories as represented through objects from the collections of the Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh.
Thelma Golden
Director and Chief Curator, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, United States
Thelma Golden is Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by artists of African descent. Golden began her career as a Studio Museum intern in 1987. In 1988, she joined the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she launched her influential curatorial practice. Over a decade at the Whitney, she organised numerous groundbreaking exhibitions, including Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in American Art in 1994. She was also a member of the curatorial team for the 1993 Biennial. In 2000, Golden returned to the Studio Museum as Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, working closely with Director Lowery Stokes Sims. She succeeded Dr Sims as Director in 2005. Under her leadership, the Studio Museum has gained increased renown as a global leader in the exhibition of contemporary art, a centre for innovative education and a cultural anchor in the Harlem community.
Divine Fuh
Social anthropologist, University of Cape Town (UCT), and Director of the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), UCT
Divine Fuh is a social anthropologist at the University of Cape Town and the Director of the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at UCT. He was Director of Publications and Dissemination Programme at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, from 2017 to 2019. Fuh’s research focuses on the politics of suffering and smiling, particularly on how urban youth seek ways of smiling in the midst of their suffering. He has researched Botswana, Cameroon, Senegal and South Africa. His current work focuses on the political economy of Pan-African knowledge production, as well as on artificial intelligence (AI) and the ethics of care in Africa. He has been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin (ZMO) and a guest at the African Studies Centre Leiden.