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3/11/2004

Africa Screams

Kunsthalle Wien, Wien

Evil in film, art and worship

Africa Screams sets out on a foray through the ancient and modern mythologies of Africa, following the tracks of evil and revulsion, ugliness and fear, which the triumphal march of video technology has forged into ever more fantastic images and legends, thereby also casting a dark glance at the shadowy side of modernism: the expansion of occult economies, neo cannibalism, witchcraft and zombies. The image of Africa is currently shaped by two contrasting discourses that are proving astonishingly resistant to one another. One feeds off the media s selective eye, providing us with long familiar catastrophic images of post colonial wars, disintegrating states, poverty, corruption and disease: Africa the crisis continent, the embodiment of the other , the development planner s nightmare. The other puts the spotlight on the creativity of this gigantic landmass, its flexibility and survival strategies, its music, culture and art both its ancient art and, increasingly, its modern and contemporary manifestations. Exhibitions such as Magiciens de la terre (1989) in Paris, the Biennials of Johannesburg and Dakar and, more recently, the Documenta 11 (2002) have made us more aware of Africa s currently vibrant art scene and the exciting developments taking place. Africa Screams attempts to bridge this gap by laying down the initial vertices so that an African art and cultural history of evil and horror can be drafted.

If evil did not exist, it would have probably had to have been invented, for no morality can be established without reference to the contrary of good, regardless of the form it takes. In this respect evil belongs as much to goodness as ugliness to beauty or the foreign to the familiar. Its images are always constituted in opposition to the corresponding other and the way they are staged is a component of the dramaturgy of every culture. Good and evil are as inseparable as they are irreconcilable and their manifestations remain mutually dependent. As a sub genre of the great myths dealing with evil, horror has no clearly definable limits yet horror productions from the most differing cultures and epochs are clearly imbued with enduring characteristics: on the one hand, horror is celebrated as the destruction of taboos and, on the other, it is distrustfully regarded as the cause of the derailment of civilisation. Evil is a theme of gigantic proportions. Over the centuries theologists, philosophers, politicians, writers and artists have subjected it to discussion and interpretation and have tried to come to terms with it in Africa as well as elsewhere in the world. A co production between the Iwalea Haus Bayreuth, the Kunstverein Aalen and the Museum der Weltkulturen Frankfurt am Main, Africa Screams undertakes an art and cultural history of horror in a variety of media and artistic forms: from rituals and masks via horror films to contemporary art s confrontation with evil. At the centre of the exhibition in the KUNSTHALLE wien are contemporary forms of artistic expression that unfurl in the midst of this setting with the aim of confronting these themes.

Participating artists: Jane Alexander (South Africa), Fernando Alvim (Angola/Belgium), Willie Bester (South Africa), Conrad Botes (South Africa), Candice Breitz (South Africa), Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria/UK), Cheri Cherin (Democratic Republic of Congo), Samuel Fosso (Central African Republic), El Loko (Togo/Germany), Abu Bockari Mansaray (Sierra Leone), Kofi Setordji (Ghana), Twins Seven Seven (Nigeria), Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon/Belgium), Dominique Zinkp (Benin), among others.

Curators: Thomas Miegang, Tobias Wendl

Image: Anonym, o.T. Videoposter, Ghana 2000

Exhibition Catalogue:
Coinciding with the exhibition, a 288 page catalogue with a 50 page colour section and numerous black and white photographs will be published by the Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, Germany. Price 25 at the museum shop ( 31 at booksellers). ISBN 3 87294 944 6

Information and photos: Katharina Murschetz, KUNSTHALLE wien, office: Museumsplatz 1, A 1070 Vienna Phone.: +43 1 521 89 1221, Fax: +43 1 521 89 1220

Infoline +43 1 52189 33, daily 10 a.m. 7 p.m., Thu 10 a.m. 10 p.m., Wed closed

Press conference: Thursday, November 4, 2004, 10am

Opening: Thursday, November 4, 2004, 7pm

hall 2 KUNSTHALLE wien Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna

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