CCA,Lagos presents: prêt-à-partager a transcultural exchange in art, fashion and sports

Exhibtion Dates 3rd - 18th July 2010
Artists’ talk: 3^rd July 2010 at 3 pm
Opening : 3^rd July 2010 at 5 pm
Venue:Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
9 McEwen Street, Sabo, Yaba.

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos has gained worldwide recognition for its dynamic and innovative programming of solo and group exhibition of artists from Nigeria, Africa and from around the world. As we continue our programme in celebration of fifity years of Independence we present the second exhibition in our focus on Art, Fashion and Identity.

We are please to be the Nigerian host of an African wide touring exhibition prêt-à-partager organised by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa) and presented to a Lagos audience in partnership with Yaba College of Art and Technology Fine Art Department, Goethe Institute, Lagos and African Art Foundation.

Following an invitation by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa), seventeen artists from Africa and Europe came to Dakar in November 2008 to engage with fashion, identity, history and movement in a ten-day multimedia and interdisciplinary workshop. The artists brought influences from Berlin, Kinshasa, Dakar, London, Stuttgart, Douala, Hamburg and Johannesburg with them to the Senegalese capital and together developed projects in a wide variety of artistic genres. The artworks created during the workshop – such as photographs, films and video, sound and room installations – will be on display for two years in Africa in the prêt-à-partager exhibition.

After the premiere in Dakar in September 2009, it has been shown in Maputo, Mozambique, before its current in Lagos. The tour will continue to east and south Africa the exhibition will travel to East and South Africa. The prêt-à-partager exhibition is a transnational artistic dialogue on fashion, sport, Africa and its Diaspora.

These collected works take the varied meanings and possibilities of clothing and fashion as determined by society and individuals and explore them in myriad ways that go beyond their function as consumer goods or economic factors. The Dakar metropolitan area serves as the stage for the protagonists of a world in constant flux, where concepts of identity are fluid. The artists have utilised the tapestries of their own history and familiarisation with new cultural practices to develop striking works, hybrid creations which are socially explosive.

The Artists

Cultural transfers inform the work of Zohra Opoku (GH/DE), a fashion designer from Hamburg. The white jump suit she designed and then presented in the streets of Dakar was inspired by Capoeira. Ndiaga Diaw (SN) also incorporates Capoeira movements in his creative work. The convertible outfit he designed can be worn in six different ways. Astrid S. Klein (DE) used Opoku’s and Diaw’s designs in her performances in empty movie theatres, in which she reflected on the economic and social changes transforming the cityscape of Dakar.

The fashion designer Zille Homma Hamid (PK/DE) took as her inspiration the colours of West African fashion and used traditional, hand-woven materials from Senegal in her design for a coat. In her textile designs, Naffisatou Diop (SN) plays with the idea of veiling and concealment. Her lingerie outfits are exciting aesthetic statements on body and gender politics. In her reaction to the work of the other artists in the workshop, the photographer and textile artist Simone Gilges (DE) honed in on those pieces making use of the techniques and traditions of the local weaving trade.

Friedrich M. Ploch (DE) built his installation out of objects found on the beaches of Dakar, creating a reminder of the fragility of every moment. In his performance, Philip Metz (GH/DE) examined the image of the “typical African” from both a German and a Senegalese perspective. The performance and video artist Athi-Patra Ruga (ZA) looks in his work at the danger the rampant homophobia in West Africa poses to the body and soul of homosexuals.

The work of fashion designer Ule Barcélos (GW/PT/DE) take as its object the enhancement and creative redesigning of cheap clothes with the use of logos and decorations, a widespread practice among less privileged children and young people in the urban centres of Africa. The pictures photographer Lolo Veleko (ZA) brought back from her wanderings through the cityscape of Dakar capture street fashion and architecture in different light conditions.

Lambert Mousseka (CD/DE) uses his “work trousers” to make visible indispensable forms of work that do not receive the recognition they deserve in a world of globalised labour. The work of artist Goddy Leye (CM) addresses the loss of childhood innocence caused by human trafficking, prostitution and, especially, forced marriage. The photographs of Mamadou Gomis (SN) reflect the processes in which different works of art came to be and project new stories onto them. Akinbode Akinbiyi (NG)’s black and white photos capture a number of situations and moments during the workshop, giving the visitors a peek behind the scenes.

General Information

Aktion Afrika

ifa is a partner of the Aktion Afrika initiative sponsored by the German Foreign Office. Aktion Afrika was conceived in the wake of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm and redeems part of the German government’s pledge made at the time. The Aktion Afrika programme expands the Foreign Office’s cultural involvement in Africa, stimulates the education sector and creates viable structures of cooperation in the cultural sector. The programme was launched on January 1, 2008.

Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa)

The Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V. (ifa) is the oldest inter- mediary organisation for foreign cultural policy in Germany. It is supported by the German Foreign Office, the state of Baden- and the state capital Stuttgart. As a leading German institution of international artistic exchange, ifa conceives and organises exhibitions of German art on all continents, thereby initiating intercultural dialogue and enriching artistic discourse. The Institute supports exhibition projects and awards grants. The ifa galleries in Stuttgart and Berlin showcase art, architecture and design from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

An exhibition organised by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa)

Exhibition sites:

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos

9, McEwen Street, off Herbert Macaulay, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos

Opening hours : Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm

Gallery of the Yaba College of Art and Technology

P.M.B. 2011, Yaba, Lagos

Opening hours : Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm

African Artists’ Foundation

54 Raymond Njoku Street, off Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos

Opening hours : Monday to Friday, 11 am to 5 pm & Saturday, 12 pm to 5 pm

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos acknowledges the support of Arts Collaboratory in presenting the exhibition in Lagos.