Talks
©Spigelia marilandia, 2018. Collage, 14.7 x 9.6 cm copyright: Alida Rodrigues
“Contemporary art in Angola”
Atlantica is a book about contemporary art from Angola and its diaspora, conceived and developed by artists in tandem with theorists, curators and scholars to consider the art production of the new millennium in Angola. The book brings together artists born after Independence, with distinct personal histories, perspectives, and artistic visions. Art practices that have emerged in, or engaged with this region, are in themselves tools of resistance and rebellion, and are, as such, central to the decolonisation strategies that artists have used to understand, analyse and resist the socio-economic impact of everyday events and their own personal realities. Atlantica Talks discusses some of the central themes of the book.
Talk 1 – Curating in Angola – May 30th – 6 pm
A talk between André Cunha and Paula Nascimento, moderated by Marissa Moorman.
What are the issues around the recent emergence of curating in Angola, both at home and abroad? From the perspective of two prominent figures among the new generation of Angolan curators, Paula Nascimento and André Cunha, we understand the context of curatorial practices that have emerged in Angola and in the diaspora.
André Cunha (1987) lives and works between Luanda and Lisbon. He has received an MA in Curatorial Studies from Lisbon Fine Arts University and Caloust Gulbenkian Foundation. He has worked for institutions such as Carpe Diem Art and Research in exhibitions presenting the work of ngela Ferreira, Alejandro Somaschini and José Bechara and at CAM-Gulbenkian Foundation in presenting the work of Javier Tellez. His independent curatorial works include Pesquisa de 70 e Novas Superfícies, António Ole at UNAP Luanda, the collectives Além-Margen(s), with Eustáquio Neves, Délio Jasse, Francisco Vidal, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Mauro Pinto and Mónica de Miranda at Plataforma Revólver, Lisboa and Luanda 02_14: Respostas? ao (Des)envolvimento, with Francisco Vidal, Ihosvanny Cisneros and Nelo Teixeira at BAI Centro Cultural, Luanda. He has been a curator, producer and collaborator of Fuckin’ Globo! He has an ongoing project about Laboratório Nacional de Cinema of Televisão Pública de Angola. Currently he is curator of the Carnival Trilogy.
Marissa Moorman is an Associate Professor of African History and of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. She is the author of Intonations: a Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, 1945-Recent Times (Ohio University Press, 2008) and Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002 (Ohio University Press, 2019). Moorman has published on music, fashion, film, radio, and urban space. She is on the editorial board of Africa is a Country, the blog that is not about Bono, famine or Obama, where she is also a regular contributor. Moorman is also an editor of The Journal of African History and on the editorial collective of The Radical History Review.
Paula Nascimento (Director of Beyond Entropy Africa) was born in Luanda in 1981.. She studied at Southbank University and at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. She works for Álvaro Siza Architects and RDA. At the moment, Paula Nascimento lives and works in Luanda and is a consultant for COCA Consultants of Energy and Environment. She is also the director of Beyond Entropy Africa. Since 2013 she has served as a member of the Inter-ministerial committee of the Republic of Angola for the Expo Milano in 2015. Also in 2013, she became curator of the Luanda exhibition Cidade Enciclopédia (City Encyclopedia) with Stefano Rabli Pansera. The project was awarded the Leão de Ouro in Bienal de Veneza.