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3/5/2012

Superpower

Arnolfini, Bristol

curated by Nav Haq, and Al Cameron

João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Luis Dourado
Mark Aerial Waller
Neïl Beloufa
Neill Blomkamp
Omer Fast
Paweł Althamer
The ARPANET Dialogues
Wanuri Kahiu

Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction surveys the recent tendency for artists and filmmakers to apply the forms and concerns of science fiction to narratives situated in the African continent. It considers the complex undercurrents for this occurrence in art today, and posits other and possible realities existing simultaneously, via careful re-orientations of tense; elevating the need for vigilance towards the present and future over a concern for the past.

Africa has had a rare yet distinct place in popular science-fiction, from the opening scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey, depicting the mysterious appearance of a black monolith in the cradle of civilization, to the recent success of Neill Blomkamp’s debut movie District 9, a multi-layered allegory on South Africa’s recent internal and external tensions. Imagining a new space-time to the typical “third worldist” representations of the African continent, caught in a perpetual state of crisis, the works in Superpower project an alternative landscape of possibilities.

Works include Neïl Beloufa’s compelling video installation Kempinski (2007), a ‘science fiction documentary’. In it, a series of short monologues given by inhabitants across Mali describe their visions of the future - from telepathic communication to teleportation - as if they were present realities. Turning the monuments and mausoleums of a failed communism into spaceships, Kiluanji Kia Henda’s series of photographs Icarus 13 (2006) document the preparations for the first ever expedition to the sun led by the Angolan government. Wanuri Kahiu’s film Pumzi (2010), set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, follows a scientist’s quest to regenerate biological life literally underneath a repressive subterranean Nairobi culture.

Gusmão and Paiva film the world as if for the first time, producing an “alien theory” of moments in 16mm, while Mark Aerial Waller's Superpower – Dakar Chapter (2004), colliding times and video formats, uses TV soap actors from the Senegalese capital as astronomers awaiting a future event. The exhibition also includes garlanded South African movie director Neill Blomkamp's early short films and Omer Fast's three-part installation Nostalgia (2009), which reconfigures document and dramatization, past and future. Superpower will be reflexive of the ever-ubiquitous exhibition format of the regional or national showcase, foregrounding the modes of representation rather than considering the artist as a regional representative.

Whilst holding up a mirror to Eurocentrism in the contemporary world, more significantly here, the model of science fiction offers speculative viewpoints on Africa that supersede the necessity of recourse to essentialisms and history. Also avoiding such genres as Afro-futurism, which located the means of producing the future amongst the African diaspora specifically, Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction presents works by artists based across the European and African continents that raise a number of questions around the position of Africa in the collective conscience – actively participating in the battle to represent the future.

Arnolfini, Spike Island and other Harbourside cultural organisations have joined forces to kick off the May Bank Holiday weekend with an evening of new art. On the evening of Friday 4 May five venues open new exhibitions. Arnolfini, Spike Island, Picture This, Works|Projects and Bristol Diving School have coordinated their opening times and arranged for the Bristol Ferry Boat Company to transport visitors between the venues. (The Bristol Ferry Boat Company runs shuttles between Arnolfini & Spike Island until 9pm).

Discussion Event
SPACE INTO TIME: AFRICA IN SCIENCE FICTION
2pm, Sat 5 May, Free

Exhibition curators Nav Haq and Al Cameron will discuss ideas related to Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction with exhibiting artists including Mark Aerial Waller and Kiluanji Kia Henda. This discussion will consider the different reasons and methodologies employed by artists in the exhibition, and will dissect what it is exactly the science fiction genre offers to the debate about representations of Africa. Reconfigurations of tense, in which past becomes future and vice versa, play a key part in understanding the works in the exhibition as science-fiction narratives, enabling delicate negotiations between documentary and fiction. These constructions of time allow a re-imagining of the “space” of the present and the "outer-space" of classic science fiction, substituting speculative realities in the place of traditional regional representations.

Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction is part of A Parallel Universe, a year long series of exhibitions, film, music, talks, performance and special events, exploring alternative realities and co-existing worlds. A Parallel Universe explores the notion of multi-fold worlds - possible, parallel, fictional, desired worlds - worlds different to the one we live in.

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Harbourside Arts Night
Friday 4 May from 5pm at Arnolfini, Spike Island, Picture This, Works|Projects and Bristol Diving School
Free entry

Arnolfini, Spike Island and other Harbourside cultural organisations have joined forces with the Bristol Ferry Boat Company to kick off the May Bank Holiday weekend with an evening of new art.

On Friday 4 May no fewer than five venues open new exhibitions. Arnolfini, Spike Island, Picture This, Works|Projects and Bristol Diving School have coordinated their opening times and arranged for the Bristol Ferry Boat Company to transport visitors between them.

Visitors can start at Arnolfini’s new exhibition Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction from 5 to 7.30pm. This group show surveys the recent tendency for artists and filmmakers to apply the forms and concerns of science fiction to narratives situated in the African continent.

Spike Island launches its popular annual Open weekend this evening, and from 6 till 9pm visitors can have a first look behind the scenes of this busy building that is home to over 80 artists, plus designers, filmmakers and other creative practitioners. The galleries will also open with exhibitions Crêpe Suzette by French artists Dewar & Gicquel and The Artists’ Postcard Show, featuring work by over 200 artists.

Artists’ film and video agency Picture This, based in the same building as Spike Island with an entrance on Sydney Row, presents consensus rouge noir (Bristol), a newly commissioned 16mm film by French artist Jimmy Robert between 6 and 9pm.

At Works|Projects, a commercial contemporary art gallery based in the same building as Spike Island with an entrance on Sydney Row, Magnus Quaife presents 1968 and Other Myths, a new series of paintings that considers the power of the image in relation to events or moments that have helped shape our cultural myths.

Bristol Diving School, an independent studio and exhibition space run by recent graduates, opens its doors to nine artists’ studios alongside an exhibition of new work in association with the Bristol Festival of Photography.

From 6 to 9pm, the Bristol Ferry Boat Company will run boats continuously between their stop outside of Arnolfini and the SS Great Britain stop, which is just a few minutes’ walk from Spike Island, Picture This, Works|Projects and Bristol Diving School. The journey takes about 10 minutes and costs £2 single or £3 return. 

From 9pm, everyone comes together at Spike Island for a party to celebrate further. The Spike Café is open serving food and drink, and there will be an expanded performance of Mark Aerial Waller's Superpower - Dakar Chapter - LES FOUQUETS at Spike Island Cafe, 9.30pm.

Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction is part of A Parallel Universe, a year long series of exhibitions, film, music, talks, performance and special events, exploring alternative realities and co-existing worlds. A Parallel Universe explores the notion of multi-fold worlds - possible, parallel, fictional, desired worlds - worlds different to the one we live in.

For further exhibition information/images contact:
Rob Webster, Marketing Manager T: 0117 917 2315 E: rob.webster@arnolfini.org.uk or
Suzanne Gaved, Marketing Coordinator T: 0117 917 2316 E: suzanne.gaved@arnolfini.org.uk

Press & Invited Guest Preview: Fri 4 May 5.00pm – 7.30pm

Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol UK BS1 4QA.
open Tues - Sun, 11am - 6pm and Bank Holiday Mondays
Admission free

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