Steve Bandoma au CCF Pointe-Noire

Vernissage le Mercredi 09 Mars à 19h




Artist in Residence at CCF

Beings and things floating on paper, hybrid characters: the latest drawings, collages of Steve Bandoma give the impression of having been executed just after the final explosion or a series of genetic mutations. Big Bang reversed the laws of evolution as reviewed and corrected in a parallel universe.
... The vocabulary of the artist, made up of elements from a mix of eras and places ... seems to enjoy the cultural backgrounds to establish an art deterritorialized as aboveground.
Expressionists, fragile, funny, acidic, these drawings would not they leak beneficial?


Bandoma Steve was born in 1981. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, during the period which he is part of the collective Librisme Synergy, he settled in 2005 in South Africa in Johannesburg first and then to Cape Town. Winner of numerous awards and fellowships residences (Pro Helvetia, Zurich / Visa for creating, Culturesfrance / Buzz Book 2009 Art Collection, USA), he was also a teacher and coordinator of projects initiated by (Visual Arts Network in South Africa / Amani Art Festival)...

By Eric Girard Miclet


FRENCH VERSION

Êtres et choses flottant sur le papier, personnages hybrides : les derniers dessins-collages de Steve Bandoma donnent l’impression d’avoir été exécutés juste après la déflagration finale ou une série de mutations génétiques. Big-bang inversé, lois de l’évolution revues et corrigées comme dans un univers parallèle.
...Le vocabulaire de l’artiste, fait d’éléments provenant d’un mix d’époques et de lieux..., semble s’amuser des contextes culturels pour mettre en place un art déterritorialisé, comme hors sol. Expressionnistes et fragiles, drôles et acides, ces dessins ne seraient-ils pas des fuites salutaires ?




Steve Bandoma est né en 1981. Après des études à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa, période pendant laquelle il fait partie du collectif Librisme Synergie, il s’installe en 2005 en Afrique du Sud, à Johannesburg d’abord, puis à Cape Town. Lauréat de plusieurs prix et bourses de résidences (Pro Helvetia, Zurich / Visa pour la création, Culturesfrance / Art Buzz Book 2009 Collection, USA), il est également enseignant et coordonnateur de projets (Visual Art Network in South Africa / Amani Art Festival).

Par Eric Girard Miclet

Up and Down – Bekkersdal, Gauteng and Masiphumelele, Western Cape

Up and Down aims to create an experience of participation somewhere between sport and artistic site-specific interventions. Bandoma and Mbikayi aim to build two soccer pitches, one in Gauteng and one in the Western Cape. Playing with the metaphor of the ‘level playing field’, they will be traditional soccer fields with a difference: one will be built on a hill and the other in a valley with the fields conforming to the shape of the landscape. The project intends to foster dialogue between foreign nationals living in the town and local residents through soccer matches on these pitches.












UP and Down is one of the diverse projects supported and initiated by the Visual Art Network in South Africa (VANSA). UP and DOWN is runned by Maurice Mbikayi and Myself It's actually still in its research step as we didn't yet get all funding required for its realisation.However for the research funding we got we run two different workshops one in Bekkeersdal-Gauteng(Down)and another one in Masipumelele-Western Cape(DOWN).















In May 2010, VANSA put out a call for proposals for the project "Two Thousand reason to live in a small Town" and Ten Reasons to live in a Small Town, with a deadline for submissions in August. A series of project briefing and proposal writing workshops were held across the during the course of June and July. Please visit http://www.vansa.co.za/2010-reasons-to-live-in-a-small-town-submission-guidelines-1/
to find out more about the brief for the project.





























A large number of exceptional proposals were received, and we would like to thank all who engaged with the project concept. A total of seven projects were finally chosen by the curatorial team VANSA convened for the project, comprised of Nontobeko Ntombela, Rat Western, Rike Sitas, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt and Joseph Gaylard. VANSA has also made available smaller project development commissions against four proposals that were felt to show substantial potential.











In October 2010, we convened a weekend workshop involving all of the commissioned artists and the curatorial team, aimed at sharing ideas, building a ‘community of practice’ and putting in place practical plans for the realization of projects. Kindly hosted by the Nirox Foundation, the weekend was a great success, opening up lots of new possibilities and ideas for all involved.













For ongoing updates, insights and images related to the project posted by the artists and curators, visit: http://www.vansa2010reasons.blogspot.com/

The Menippean uprising

There would be tears and there would be strange laughter. Fierce births and deaths beneath umbrageous ceilings. And dreams, and violence, and disenchantment.
- Mervyn Peake (Titus Groan)

Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
- J.R.R. Tolkien

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.
- Maya Angelou

The Menippean Uprising explores the idea of the imaginary, the unreal and the fantastical. The focus is on artworks that are of an escapist nature; works that intuitively venture toward the irrational, the grotesque, the pleasurable.

The title of the exhibition references Menippean Satire*, and it aims to illustrate the power that fantastical artworks have in framing contemporary issues in new ways, while interrogating some of the traditional reservations of the genre. These reservations include the mutual dependency of realism & the fantastic, the subservience of fantastical art to literature & mythology, and the perilous proximity of the fantastical sublime to its populist counterpart - fantasy**

The following artists will exhibit works in a variety of media and presentation strategies: Steve Bandoma, Belinda Blignaut, Dirk Bell, Anja De Klerk, Adriaan de Villiers, Pierre Fouché, Alice Goldin, Liza Grobler, Walter Oltmann, Mendisa Pantsi, Michael Taylor, Hentie van der Merwe, Dale Washkansky and Niklas Wittenberg.

____________
Footnotes:
* Menippean satire is one of the earliest genres of fantastic literature. Petronius's Satyricon, Varro's Bimarcus & Lucian's Strange Story are examples of writings of this genre which had representative works from ancient Christian-, Byzantine-, Medieval-, Renaissance- and Reformation periods. Jackson, in Fantasy, the literature of subversion (1981 - Methuen) describes the genre:

Steve Bandoma, The players,2010

It was a genre which broke the demands of historical realism or probability. The Menippea moved easily in space between this world, an underworld and an upper world. It conflated past, present and future, and allowed dialogues with the dead. States of hallucination, dream, insanity, eccentric behaviour and speech, personal transformation, extraordinary situations, were the norm. It was a genre which did not claim to be definitive or knowing, Lacking finality, it interrogated authoritive truths and replaced them with something less certain (15-16).

** Populist fantasy refers to the iconography of fantasy paperback illustration, subcultures of amateur practitioners, and its often tired tropes based on medievalist and Celtic mythology.

Open studio

Steve Bandoma

OPEN STUDIO
Facilitated by Contemporary African Art Connect
Friday 30th July 2010
At 18h00
On 18 Roeland street, Cape Town
(Old Ogilvy Building)
Ref: Parliament main entrance
(Parking available also inside)

Focus10

After premiering in 2009 FOCUS is ready to launch its second edition. FOCUS10 is designed to present and connect the vibrant African art scene to the world. Conceived as a complement to Art Basel (June 16-20, 2010), the fair showcases Galerie Peter Herrmann (Berlin) and features emerging and established artists from Africa and the Diaspora in a show curated by Christine Eyene (London) and Lerato Bereng (Johannesburg) and supported by Fondation Blachère (Apt) and Pro Helvetia Cape Town. In a relaxed and intimate atmosphere visitors of FOCUS10 can expect to enjoy a huge variety of artistic production from the diverse scenes of the African continent and from the African Diaspora.

FEATURING Galerie Peter Herrmann (D):

Dalila Dalleas (Alg/D)- Amouzou Glikpa (Togo/D) - Bill Kouélany (RC) - Goddy Leye (Cam) - Malam (Cam/Fr) - George Osodi (Nig/UK) - Chéri Samba (RDC) - Ransome Stanley (D)

Curated Show
Curators: Christine Eyene (UK) - Lerato Bereng (ZA)

Steve Bandoma (DRC/ZA) - Faith47 and Rowan Phybus(ZA) - Justin Fiske (ZA) - Ricky Lee Gordon (ZA) - Bers Grandsinge (DRC/B) - Ibrahim el Hadad (ET/CH) - Victor Mukelekesha (Z/N) - Samuel Olou (RT/N) - Cameron Platter (ZA) - Frauke Stegmann (ZA) - thanksthanksafrica (CDN) - Christian Tundula (DRC/B) - Breeze Yoko (ZA)


Specials:
Chocolate Banana - a video project in a Stern-taxi touring around in Basel by Bill Kouelany and Goddy Leye. Call: 061 691 44 44
Carlo Mombelli and the Prisoners of Strange (European Edition) – Jazz concert on Thursday, June 17, 2010, 8 p.m.

For further details please refer to our homepage: www.focus10.ch.

AFAI Organises a Workshop with African Artists Living in Cape Town

The African Arts Institute organised a workshop with African artists living in Cape Town with the view to establish some of the challenges which they are facing in the country in order to plan on how to assist them to overcome them. This workshop was also an opportunity for the organisation to introduce its three new projects, that is, the AFAI help desk, the African artists showcase and stories of African artists living in the diaspora to the artists. The workshop was attended by artists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC, Congo, Malawi, Mozambique and Kenya. It established that most artists from African countries other than South Africa are facing challenges in accessing South African markets and funding. It was also noted that most artists need training in arts management.

French

African Arts Institute (AFAI) a organisé un atelier avec des artistes africains vivant à Cape Town en vue de mettre en place certains des défis auxquels ils sont confrontés dans le pays afin de planifier sur la façon de les aider à les surmonter. Cet atelier a été aussi une occasion pour l'organisation de présenter ses trois nouveaux projets, qui est, le centre d'assistance AFAI, la vitrine les artistes africains et des histoires d'artistes africains dans la diaspora, aux artistes. L'atelier a réuni des artistes de l'Afrique du Sud, Zimbabwe, RDC, Congo, Malawi, Mozambique et au Kenya. Il a établi que la plupart des artistes de pays africains autres que l'Afrique du Sud sont confrontés à des défis dans l'accès aux marchés d'Afrique du Sud et le financement. Il a également noté que la plupart des artistes ont besoin de formation en gestion des arts.

The African Arts Institute (AFAI), based in Cape Town, launched three projects this month to support, showcase and market the arts of African artists living in South Africa.
In line with its vision to harness South African resources, markets and expertise in the service of Africa’s creative sector, the projects include a Help Desk for artists from behind the Limpopo, a collection of stories about the struggles and achievements of African artists in South Africa and a monthly showcase of work by artists from other African countries.





Steve Bandoma (Democratic Republic of Congo), a visual artist working in South Africa, will manage the Help Desk which will advise and assist African artists to access resources and infrastructure, distribute their work, obtain legal documents and to facilitate travel around the country, on the continent and globally.

“I am excited by this project as I see myself as a successful visual artist working and operating in a foreign country and now I am in a position to engage with the African Diaspora community in the form of AFAI’s help desk,” said Bandoma.

Zimbabwean musician Patricia Matongo will take charge of a regular forum to showcase the works of African artists to facilitate dialogue/collaboration between African artists and their South African counterparts and to educate South African publics about the arts from the continent. In this way, AFAI plans to create new markets for and greater integration of African artists living in South Africa.
Said Matongo: “This is a great opportunity for African artists to showcase their talents and to tell the world that there is more to a ‘refugee’ than meets the eye; they not only bring their expertise but also wonderful talents to South Africa.”

Mwila Mambwe, also from the Democratic Republic of Congo, an enthusiastic poet living in South Africa, will collect and compile valuable stories of African artists and the conditions they encounter in South Africa. This collection of short stories will be compiled in various forms including a book, DVD and internet video clips to be hosted on the Institute’s website.
Bandoma, Matongo and Mambwe will initially run their projects as part of internships that vary between 3 and 6 months.