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International conference on art, public space and the culture of memory. Alle School of Fine Arts & Design, Addis Ababa, 16-18 Sept. 2014.
Sep 2014Future Memories is an international conference on art, public space and the culture of memory that will take place at Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa from September 16–18, 2014. Future Memories will engage an extraordinary range of expertise from artists, academics, curators, historians, and architects coming from all parts of Africa. Future Memories is initiated by ifa – Institute for International Cultural Relations and developed and organized in cooperation with the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, Addis Ababa University. Future Memories is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.
The conference will debate art engaging with cultures of memory in African urban spaces, its potential to contribute to the development of realizations of collective cultural memory, and its various forms in contemporary urban realities. The three-day event aims at enabling a dialogue from different perspectives among experts, an interested public and local art institutions in Addis Ababa, the city where the African Union is based. Some of the fields of inquiry addressed by Future Memories will be: Revisiting Forms of Memory Culture: Memory under Construction (with Abebaw Ayalew, art historian, Addis Ababa, Khwezi Gule, curator and writer, Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, Soweto, and Patrick Mudekereza, writer and cultural producer, PICHA, Lubumbashi) Trojan Horse: The Becoming-Technical of the Human (a keynote by Premesh Lalu, historian, Cape Town), or Art Measuring Public Space (with N´Goné Fall, art historian, curator, and consultant, Dakar, Marilyn Douala Bell, socio-economist, president of Doual’Art, Douala, Jimmy Ogonga, curator, founder Nairobi Arts Trust / Centre for Contemporary Art East Africa, Alya Sebti, curator and writer, artistic director of Marrakech Biennale V, Marrakech) and many more.
The main trajectory of the conference is to discuss the potential of artistic and critical discourse as a way to respond to the rapidly changing urban landscapes, i.e. the architectural, social, and urban changes in Addis Ababa. The potential of visual culture to create a meaning in contemporary society – be it art, architecture, film, or other media – is reflected in multifarious initiatives and artistic interventions and positions. To mirror the multiple ways in which creative and critical thinking is informing the production of knowledge in these fields of operation, Future Memories presents excursions into the city, keynote and performance lectures, panels with artists and curators, and a film program.
Future Memories is designed to lay the groundwork for the jury procedure to choose a new artwork for the African Union Peace and Security Building, which will open in 2015. The Peace and Security Building and the commissioned work of art are a donation from the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany to the African Union. They are realized with local expertise and craftsmanship in the compound of the African Union campus in Addis Ababa. The processes of selecting and producing the artwork by an African artist will be planned and organized by ifa – Institute for International Cultural Relations. A jury of art and culture experts working in different countries in Africa will convene directly after the conference and announce the winning artist to the public shortly there after.
>> Full program
Organization / Partners:
Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
ifa (Institute for International Cultural Relations), Stuttgart/ Berlin, Germany
Team ifa
Elke aus dem Moore
Inka Gressel
Marie-Hélène Gutberlet
Sophie Rau
Christina Werner
Team Alle School
Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew
Mihret Kebede
Bekele Mekonnen
Fasil Giorghis
About ifa
The ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen – Institute for International Cultural Relations) promotes art and cultural exchange in exhibitions, dialogue and conference programs. As a competence centre for foreign cultural diplomacy, it facilitates links among civil societies, cultural practice, art, media and research. It initiates, moderates, and documents discussions on international cultural relations.
Further information:
Carola Wichert
Head of Communications
Charlottenplatz 17
70173 Stuttgart
Germany
Tel +49.711.2225.105
Fax +49.711.2264.346
E-Mail: presse(at)ifa.de
www.ifa.de
Future Memories
International conference on art, public space and the culture of memory
16-18 September 2014
Alle School of Fine Arts and Design
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Initiated by ifa – Institute for International Cultural Relations and developed and organized in cooperation with the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, Addis Ababa University. Future Memories is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.