A New Region of the World
The exhibition “A New Region of the World”, showing in Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art (8 Sept. – 12 Nov. 2017), will be a part of this year’s Conrad Festival (23 Oct. – 29 Oct. 2017).
The exhibition takes as its starting point Joseph Conrad’s voyage down the Congo River, a voyage encapsulating a colonial mindset rooted in the notion that humanity is an aggregate of strictly defined, fundamentally different groups, each belonging to a rung on the hierarchical ladder of development. Despite advances made in history, this paradigm, in various guises, is coming to the fore once again in today’s world. Once founded upon the idea of alleged “biological” differences, the paradigm is now predicated upon the conviction that there exist incompatible cultural differences.
“Europe” and “Africa”, i.e. “white” and “black”, constitute the most symbolic binary opposition in the colonial scheme of things, deeply rooted in Polish culture as well. However, it’s not difficult to discern in it yet another metaphor concerning hierarchies of segregation, another helpful model to understand various systems of domination and exploitation, one that not only relates to the past, but also the present – from modern-day capitalism to power schemes in which privilege clashes with exclusion, and nostalgia for hegemony contends with recollections of grievances.
How do we face a traumatic past head-on? Is it by uncovering the genealogy of violence, or rehabilitating the memory of those pushed out of the mainstream narrative, or digging up the marginalized narratives of resistance? How do we address past wrongs? The artists taking part in this exhibition address similar questions; they come from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and North and South America – geographic regions associated with the diaspora history of the “Black Atlantic”.
Coming to terms with the past – the basis of our exhibition – provides a necessary starting point for reflecting on the present. How can we dismantle those structures of division and classification, behind which hide certain relations of power?
Works shown in the second half of the exhibition construct alternative narratives and show the constant deviations and shifts which defy binary oppositions. They examine the process of creolisation and the appropriation of cultural forms. They speak on mass migrations from the time of post-war Europe and its period of reconstruction, as well as on diasporas and transnational experiences, which engender wholly new points of reference, both private and collective, and signal a shift in traditional axes of global exchange. Making use of all sorts of mediums, from the elegy to the grotesque, from melancholy irony to the candid recording of the most intimate emotions, they undermine the seemingly impermeable dichotomies like “sameness” vs “difference”, “ours” vs “theirs”, “here” vs. “there” or “authenticity” vs “inauthenticity”.
The third part of the exhibition looks to the future, examining the possibility of utopias created upon entirely new principles. Less than a decade ago Martinican writer and philosopher Édouard Glissant described the beginning of an epoch in which the entire globe becomes “a new region of the world”. Everything which hasn’t come into contact with each other, converges and enters in a relationship, oriented towards a new pattern of connections involving people and nature based on reciprocity and not hegemony. The title of our exhibition indeed takes its cue from Glissant.
Today, nightmares from the distant past seem to be hounding us more and more frequently with obsessions about divisions and barriers. There’s been an upsurge in xenophobic, nationalistic and racist reactions. The kind of reality that Joseph Conrad describes in the Congo – the extreme exploitation of both people and nature – seems to have been resuscitated on a global scale, albeit in new ways. Could Glissant’s message of hope safeguard our raison d’être in these dark times?
The presented works, rooted in specific experiences, shed light on the wider mechanisms of exclusion both in Poland and the world. At the same time, they open up a space to consider ways of forging complex and non-exclusionary identities while strengthening human ties.
The exhibition draws its inspiration from the intellectual tradition of such thinkers as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, James Baldwin, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Paul Gilroy and Achille Mbembe. Stripped of any delusions, contemporary analysis roots itself in this tradition with the conviction that it’s possible to build an ethical future based on recognizing in others their subjecthood and a profound awareness of our common human fate.
The exhibition will close with a poem by American poet Claudia Rankine, concluding with the words: “we are travelling as a family”.
EXHIBITION FOLDER – CLICK TO READ
PHOTOGRAPHS: Studio FilmLOVE
- View of the exhibition
- View of the exhibition
- From the left: Hank Willis Thomas, “A Common Misunderstanding”, 2011, animated film, 1’30”. Christine Meisner, “Disquieting Nature”, 2012, video, 28’
- Christine Meisner, “Disquieting Nature”, 2012, video, 28’
- View of the exhibition
- Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Tea Céline”, 1996, white porcelain with handpainted blue overglaze.
- Joscelyn Gardner, “Creole Portraits III: «bringing down the flowers…»”, 2009–2011, series of litographs.
- Nomusa Makhubu, “Self-portrait Project”, 2006, photography series.
- View of the exhibition
- Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Full Independence Speech (Rendered as a Manuscript) Delivered by the Prime Minister (Patrice Lumumba) of the New Nation of Congo on 30 June 1960”, 2015, print on vellum with collaging, signed and embossed
- Janek Simon, “Reactions of an Artist to the Covers of Morze; an Analysis Using a Self-built Galvanometer”, 2010, covers of Morze magazine (selected), analysis results
- Kader Attia, “Réflechir la mémoire / Reflecting Memory”, 2016, video, 45’
- View of the exhibition
- Kader Attia, “Modern Genealogy”, 2012, collage series
- From the left: Jan Dziaczkowski, “Boys from Málaga Posing on the Beach with Their Girlfriends”, from “The Holiday Greetings” series, 2003–2007, collage; Marie-Hélène Cauvin, “Bullet Proof Vest”, 2007, mixed technique; Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Negerhosen2000”, 2004, a multi-phase project including performances, documentation, photography/video, installations, and objects
- Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Negerhosen2000”, 2004, a multi-phase project including performances, documentation, photography/video, installations, and objects
- From the left: Brendan Fernandes, “Foe”, 2008, video, 4’ 26”; Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Toiles de Jouy”, 2004, ink on vellum; Sammy Baloji, “Link #7, Shituru Factory”, from the ”Kolwezi” series, 2012, archival inkjet print on Baryta paper
- Zina Saro-Wiwa, “Sarogua Mourning”, 2011, video, 11’ 37”
- Rachelle Mozman Solano, “Casa de Mujeres [The House of Women]”, 2011, photography series
- Christine Meisner, “The Present”, 2007, twin-channel video installation. Video, 38’ and 75’
- Jean-Ulrick Désert, “Terra Nova Afrikæ 新非洲”, 2016, ink, wax on vellum
- View of the exhibition
- From the left: Jean-Ulrick Désert, Toiles de Jouy, 2004, ink on vellum; Sammy Baloji, Link #7, Shituru Factory, from the Kolwezi series, 2012, archival inkjet print on Baryta paper
- View of the exhibition
- Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographers Project, Photographic documentation, 2009–2017. All images by Emeka Okereke, courtesy of Invisible Borders Trans-African Project, except for Such A City by Lilian Novo Isioro, 2012
- Yinka Elujoba, Borders Within: The Trans-Nigeria Road Trip, 2016. Courtesy of Invisible Borders Trans-African Project
- Gilles Elie-Dit-Cosaque, Twinkle3, 2008, video, 8’
- Invisible Borders Trans-African Photographers Project. From the left: Emeka Okereke, Be The Me; Lilian Novo Isioro, Such a City, 2012
- Ewan Atkinson The Neighbourhood Report, 2007–2017, video, 15’; Only in Our Imagination, 2015, poster series
- Yedda Morrison, Darkness, 2012, book (published by make now press)
- Fiona Banner, Heart of Darkness, 2015, magazine, 320 pages
- Fiona Banner, Heart of Darkness, 2015, magazine, 320 pages
- Fiona Banner, Breathing Bag, 2016, plastic bag, microcontroller
- Claudia Rankine & John Lucas, Situation 7, video, 5’54”
- View of the exhibition
- Wilhelm Sasnal, Gypsies 1, 2010, oil on canvas