By Abdi Ali
Published December 7, 2015
Sixty-eight of Africa’s ‘most provocative, innovative and socially-engaged artists‘ have been shortlisted for Artists In Residency (AIR) programme.
Africa Centre, the organisers of the Cape Town (South Africa)-based AIR, says it “received 423 complete applications from 40 countries across the continent” from which it picked and shortlisted 68. “The quality of submissions and the calibre of artists that applied was exceptional.”
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Africa Centre say AIR has since 2011 been providing African artists “across disciplines–visual arts; literary arts; performing arts; music and film–with the opportunity to participate in residency programmes throughout the world. This is a direct response to the challenges many African artists confront related to both getting accepted and funding residency costs.”
Those shortlisted, according to discipline, are:
Film:
Francois Verster (South Africa)
Philippa Ndisi- Herrmann (Kenya)
Yared Zeleke (Ethiopia)
Literature/Creative Writing:
Doreen Baingana (Uganda)
Gabeba Baderoon (South Africa)
John Sibi Okumu (Kenya)
Kerry Hammerton (South Africa)
Lauren Beukes (South Africa)
Liam Kruger (South Africa)
Masande Ntshanga (South Africa)
Nana Oforiatta Ayim (Ghana)
Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana (South Africa)
Sindiwe Magona (South Africa)
Susan Kiguli (Uganda)
Titilope Sonuga (Nigeria)
Togara Muzanenhamo (Zimbabwe)
Tsitsi Dangeremba (Zimbabwe)
Music:
Atemi Oyungu (Kenya)
Fathy Adly Salama ( Egypt)
Girma Yifrashewa Gebretsadik ( Ethiopia)
Kato Change (Kenya)
Performing Arts:
Anthea Moys (South Africa)
Antonio Bukhar (Uganda)
Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa)
Nawel Skandrani (Tunisia)
Siyamukelwa Nkululeko Ngcobo (South Africa)
Yuhl Nala Headman (South Africa)
Visual Arts:
Andrew Esiebo (Nigeria)
Aza Masongi (DRC)
Bernard Akoi-Jackson (Ghana)
Candice Breitz (South Africa)
Chibuike Uzoma (Nigeria)
Collin Sekajugo (Uganda)
Elize Vossgatter (South Africa)
Euridice Getúlio Kala (Mozambique)
Francois Knoetze (South Africa)
George Atta Kwami (Ghana)
Georgia Papageorge (South Africa)
Helen Sebidi ( South Africa)
Houda Ghorbel ( Tunisia)
Ibrahim Mohammed Mahama (Ghana)
Jacqueline Karuti (Kenya)
Jeremy Sean Waffer (South Africa)
Jodi Leigh Beiber (South Africa)
Joel Mpah-Dooh (Cameroon)
Leslie Lumeh (Liberia)
Lionel Davis (South Africa)
Liza Grobler (South Africa)
Marcia Kure (Nigeria)
Maya Ben Chikh El Fegoun (Algeria)
Meskerem Assegued Bantiwalu (Ethiopia)
Mina Nasr Tadros (Egypt)
Moataz Nasreldin Attia (Egypt)
Modisa Motsomi (Botswana)
Nicene Kossentini (Tunisia)
Olu Amoda (Nigeria)
Richard Mudariki (South Africa)
Rowan Steward Smith (South Africa)
Sarah Peace (Nigeria)
Taiye Stephanie Idahor (Nigeria)
Tamrat Gezahagne (Ethiopia)
Thakorbhai Kishorbhai Patel (Zimbabwe)
Victor Ehighale Ehikhamenor (Nigeria)
Vincent Bezuidenhout (South Africa)
Wallen Mapondera (Zimbabwe)
Wanja Kimani (Kenya)
Yasser Booley (South Africa)
Zayd Minty (South Africa)
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The 2015 edition of AIR, Africa Centre says, is held in partnership with eight residencies across the globe. They include Bundanon Trust (Australia); Fountainhead (USA); Instituto Sacatar (Brazil); JIWAR Creation & Society (Spain); Khoj International Artists’ Association (India); Kuona Trust Arts Centre (Kenya); Nafasi Arts Space (Tanzania); and The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy).
The final AIR award laureates will be announced in early 2016.
Meanwhile, an a project that uses art and self-expression to create spaces and conversations for personal reflection on the themes of citizenry, civic responsibility, race, belonging, ‘ethnicism’ and nationalism, has opened at Nairobi National Museum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Titled ‘Who I Am, Who We Are’, the exhibition is open 8:30 AM-5:30 PM daily, December 7, 2015-February 27, 2016.
Between 2013 and 2015, this project has collected archival material in various part of Kenya comprising 80 life-size paintings called Body Maps; 1500 voices recorded in a public installation called ˜In a Silent Room; nine documentaries; 80 interviews and 2000 photographs.
This first major exhibition of Who I Am, Who We Are showcases a selection of these paintings, stories, recorded interviews and films, creating a mosaic of voices and impressions on what it means to be a Kenyan today.