FAVT: FUTURE AFRICA VISIONS IN TIME
Kandt House Museum: 15/11/2019 – 31/12/2019
The “FAVT: Future Africa Visions in Time” exhibition explores visions of the future emerging from Africa and its diasporas. It deals with questions such as: Which future concepts are developed in times of uncertainty and disruption? How do social mobility, alternative lifestyles or feelings of identity and belonging shape the challenges and visions of the future today? How does the past sound in the future? How can you imagine the future in troubled times? And how are futures presented and challenged in the form of artistic and cultural practices?
FAVT derived from discursive collaborations between international artists and resident researchers within the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies and Iwalewahaus, both at the University of Bayreuth from 2015 onwards, resulting in an innovative research that traverses aesthetic and academic approaches. Through intensive conversations, artworks and conceptual positions were developed that critically engage with, reflect on, interpret, imagine, intervene into, disturb, translate or anticipate the concepts of the general theme “Future Africa Visions in Time “. A set of keywords as ‘modes of futuring’ had been developed and translated into symbols that serve as mapping tool for the exhibition. For the Kigali edition, “healing/remembering” as well as “optimizing” have been selected. They are particularly relevant in the Rwandan context as they encompass prominent topics such as gender, socioeconomic stratifications, resilience and culture dynamics in the contemporary Rwanda. The thematic focus is thus on raising self-awareness on the past, re-visit the past to perfect ourselves and get ready for a better future.
The exhibition has travelled to many countries – namely Brazil, Cuba, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Uganda, supported by the Goethe-Institute and respective cultural centers on site. In its last stop, FAVT exhibition will be open to the public in Kigali, Rwanda from 15th November through 15th December 2019. The exhibition will be framed by a workshop on “Decentralizing Power” using new economic systems to empower local communities facilitated by the artist and curator Ingrid LaFleur, founder of Afrotopia in Detroit (Michigan, USA), as well as a one-day hands-on workshop on re-thinking alternative curatorial models in the Rwandan art scene, moderated by the curator Gloria Igabe with Dr. Katharina Fink (Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth) and Dr. Nadine Siegert (Goethe Institute Johannesburg). A guided tour through the exhibition and a performance combining dance, music and literature will round up the program and mark the final journey of FAVT exhibition.
The FAVT Kigali project was made possible through a partnership between Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth, the Goethe-Institute Kigali and the Kandt House Museum which will host the exhibition from 15th November until 15th December 2019. Curated by Gloria Igabe (Bayreuth University), the exhibition will feature new works by Rwandan artists along with artworks from former FAVT editions.
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