In his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, artist Moshekwa Langa (1975, South Africa) turns his eyes towards the county of his birth, and especially to his hometown of Bakenberg in Limpopo province, which did not appear on official maps during the apartheid era. Langa makes drawings, collages, photographs, paintings, videos and installations. His personal history is a common thread in all his work. He grew up in South Africa in the era of apartheid – the system of racial separation that...
In his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, artist Moshekwa Langa (1975, South Africa) turns his eyes towards the county of his birth, and...
As a collaboration between Afrovibes & ZAM, the upcoming Afrovibes Festival will host an exhibition with the works of artist and designer Sindiso Nyoni. Nyoni is a self-taught Zimbabwean artist who also works as a contemporary illustrator, activist, street artist, and multidisciplinary graphic designer. He has collaborated on projects that have won two Cannes Lions Awards. His work has been exhibited in the Guggenheim Bilbao, The Vitra Design Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City and...
As a collaboration between Afrovibes & ZAM, the upcoming Afrovibes Festival will host an exhibition with the works of artist and designer Sindiso Nyoni....
Thanks to the growing economies and population of Africa, the needs of the continent's built environment are offering architects a unique opportunity to influence how the cities of the future look and feel. Here are some examples of a new wave of inspiring African architects and architecture. When Diébédo Francis Kéré was handed the Pritzker Prize on May 27, the moment was of far more significance than an African-born architect winning the world's most prestigious architecture prize for the first...
Thanks to the growing economies and population of Africa, the needs of the continent's built environment are offering architects a unique opportunity to...
Inspired by Fela Kuti, 31 artists from 11 countries explore the power of art as a transmitter for social change. ‘Our histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.’ These words, by African-American activist and academic Angela Davis, accompany a statement by Princess Ayoola and Jana Terblanche, the curators of a new group exhibition...
Inspired by Fela Kuti, 31 artists from 11 countries explore the power of art as a transmitter for social change. ‘Our histories never unfold in...
While institutions continue to drag their feet over returning looted heritage to Africa, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are bringing art home, one digital scan at a time. Standing in front of the Benin bronzes in the British Museum room, Chidi Nwaubani uses a LIDAR scanner to scan the artefacts one by one. The scanner is an advanced scanning technology used to generate high resolution three-dimensional digital models, but Chidi is neither an archaeologist nor a restorer from the museum. Instead, the...
While institutions continue to drag their feet over returning looted heritage to Africa, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are bringing art home, one digital...
In recent decades North Korean-made monuments have been unveiled in many African countries, honouring independence leaders and celebrating an African Renaissance. The South Korean photographer and filmmaker Che Onejoon has been documenting the monuments and the histories around them, their cultural significance and the relationships that they symbolize between two continents. The outcomes of his long-term exploration were recently published in a book titled International Friendship. The Gifts from...
In recent decades North Korean-made monuments have been unveiled in many African countries, honouring independence leaders and celebrating an African...
The new South African director of the Prince Claus Fund wants to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of the arts. Coming from a musical family of 21 and growing up with his mother at his granny’s place in Mamelodi, Pretoria, Marcus Tebogo Desando was not encouraged to be a quiet child. “The quieter you are, the more they forget you’re there.” So, you have to fight for your own space, which is what he did. Enter the school choir, then the church choir. Desando would eventually become a professional...
The new South African director of the Prince Claus Fund wants to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of the arts. Coming from a musical family of 21 and...
For most outsiders, modern Ethiopian cinema means Haile Gerima and Salem Mekuria. But others, in addition to these, made its rich cinema history. In December 2019, film connoisseurs in Ethiopia received a rare treat when the Addis Ababa Cinema Houses Administration Enterprise arranged a festival to showcase some of the classic Ethiopian movies made between 1964 and 1992. These films had been largely inaccessible to filmgoers, filmmakers, instructors, and students, for decades. The last time any of...
For most outsiders, modern Ethiopian cinema means Haile Gerima and Salem Mekuria. But others, in addition to these, made its rich cinema history. In...
Ketikoti, which in the Surinamese language Sranantongo means “the chain is broken”, is officially called the Day of Freedom (Dag der Vrijheden). It commemorates the abolition of slavery in Surinam and the Dutch Antilles in 1863. July 1st is celebrated as a national commemoration day in the Netherlands. If you are in or near Amsterdam and would like to join the Ketikoti celebrations, here are some of the activities that ZAM recommends: Returning the Gaze Sites of Memory: Based on a drawing of...
Ketikoti, which in the Surinamese language Sranantongo means “the chain is broken”, is officially called the Day of Freedom (Dag der Vrijheden). It...
Studio ZAM hosted Marcus Tebogo Desando, the newly appointed director of the Prince Claus Fund, on June 30th 2022. The programme was moderated by Augustina Austin aka Ms. Aba. You can watch the conversation again here :
Studio ZAM hosted Marcus Tebogo Desando, the newly appointed director of the Prince Claus Fund, on June 30th 2022. The programme was moderated by...
If you’re lucky enough to find yourself on the sunny streets of Amsterdam this summer, there are some treats in store! Two new exhibitions featuring work by African photographers await you, each exploring radically different visions of the world. Huis Marseille plays host to The Beauty of the World so Heavy, a group exhibition in which four photographers with very diverse practices explore the sharpness and softness of earthly existence. This show marks the European debut of South African...
If you’re lucky enough to find yourself on the sunny streets of Amsterdam this summer, there are some treats in store! Two new exhibitions featuring work...
The South African artist and winner of the 2021 ABN AMRO Kunstprijs is actively participating in this process of re-shaping a world away from capitalist spaces where Afro-pessimism rules. In today’s climate, and with the recent research outcomes around this bank’s colonial past, Neo’s work is a timely response. A response in which his work provides an image of Blackness which is reflected in itself rather than in the gaze of whiteness. Let us therefore, in Neo’s words, thank God and the gods that...
The South African artist and winner of the 2021 ABN AMRO Kunstprijs is actively participating in this process of re-shaping a world away from capitalist...
Op een vroege ochtend in Lagos ziet Femke van Zeijl een waterreservoir rakelings langs haar raam naar beneden storten. Dit incident en vooral de nasleep ervan brengen direct aan het licht hoezeer het dagelijks leven in deze miljoenenstad verschilt van leven in de Nederlandse maatschappij. Terwijl van Zeijl nog zit te bedenken welke gemeentelijke dienst ze moet bellen, hebben haar buren al minstens twee oplossingen bedacht en zijn ze aan de uitvoering ervan begonnen. De doe-het-zelf maatschappij...
Op een vroege ochtend in Lagos ziet Femke van Zeijl een waterreservoir rakelings langs haar raam naar beneden storten. Dit incident en vooral de nasleep...
A South African arts administrator and artist has taken over the reins at the Dutch Prince Claus Fund. As a “driving force in the development of young South African artists and aspiring artistic entrepreneurs," the new director of the Prince Claus Fund is, in the words of chairman Ila Kasim, "the embodiment of the spirit" of her organisation. It is up to Desando to lead the fund into the future. Central to this is the development of individual artists in different phases of their professional...
A South African arts administrator and artist has taken over the reins at the Dutch Prince Claus Fund. As a “driving force in the development of young...
This year marks my fourth time serving as a member of the panel judging the annual Contemporary African Photography (CAP) Prize. Every year it offers my fellow jurors and I a unique opportunity to engage with a dazzling array of photography from and about the continent, spanning all styles and disciplines. But the judging structure is designed in such a way - we submit our ratings privately and they are totalled up - that even the judges do not know the final winners until they are announced. This...
This year marks my fourth time serving as a member of the panel judging the annual Contemporary African Photography (CAP) Prize. Every year it offers my...
After a two-year hiatus, the Amsterdam Cinedans Festival returns with a very special edition. Opening on June 22, 2022, the state-of-the-art international dance film presents a wide range of productions, and on Saturday 25 June the works of black choreographers, companies and dancers will be celebrated at an event titled ‘Black Dance Matters’. The programme brings you reflection of diversity in dance and society and features relevant documentaries and a shorts programme, followed by a discussion...
After a two-year hiatus, the Amsterdam Cinedans Festival returns with a very special edition. Opening on June 22, 2022, the state-of-the-art...
Two exhibitions, one in Cape Town and the other 8000 kilometres away in Amsterdam, showcase the works of South African artist Neo Matloga, winner of the 2021 ABN AMRO Art Award. Déjà Vu, Neo Matloga’s first solo exhibition in Cape Town, opened earlier this month at Stevenson Gallery. In this exhibition, Matloga moves away from the cinematic, interconnected narratives that characterised his previ-ous bodies of work. Instead, the artist’s new works are individual scenes that herald a new chapter of...
Two exhibitions, one in Cape Town and the other 8000 kilometres away in Amsterdam, showcase the works of South African artist Neo Matloga, winner of the...
This year's celebration of Africa Day brings you five days of music, talks, club nights, films and networking both online and in real life In a unique collaboration between Omek, Amsterdam’s home for the global bicultural community, and Africadelic, celebraters of all things Afrodisaporic, this event will centre around Africa Day, which marks the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity. Though Africa Day has been celebrated every year since May 25th 1963, its recognition varies...
This year's celebration of Africa Day brings you five days of music, talks, club nights, films and networking both online and in real life In a unique...
African photography is rarely exhibited in Japan. For the past ten years Kyotographie , the largest international photography festival in the archipelago, has been doing its best to reverse this underrepresentation and reveal the continent’s talents in Japan. For a month, until last weekend, Prince Gyasi’s pictures flew over the heads of shoppers in an old-school shopping arcade in the centre of Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan. The young Ghanaian artist took the pictures at his local...
African photography is rarely exhibited in Japan. For the past ten years Kyotographie , the largest international photography festival in the...
Colonial legacies, fundraising difficulties as well as a structural lack of interest from many African governments towards contemporary art and culture still complicate the march towards equal representation of countries in the Venice Biennale. These are the words of Anna Kućma, ZAM's new photo and web editor. In this magazine she guides you through the African share in what is probably the world's leading explosion of contemporary art. The good news: in the upcoming edition, opening on April 23,...
Colonial legacies, fundraising difficulties as well as a structural lack of interest from many African governments towards contemporary art and culture...
The Venice Biennial, officially opening on April 23, is perhaps Europe’s most glamorous international forum for contemporary art. During the opening week of the exhibition there are more artists, curators, collectors, and art critics gathered in one place at one time than seem to exist anywhere else in the world. The biennale format has inherited many characteristics from its forebears, the World Fairs. The event is organised around a format of international competition, with national exhibitions...
The Venice Biennial, officially opening on April 23, is perhaps Europe’s most glamorous international forum for contemporary art. During the opening week...
