Bonaventure Ndikung
Circum-Atlantic Conference: The Future of the African Diaspora
“Afrofuturism, arguably the most famous concept of speculative futures of the African diaspora, originated primarily in the USA, and is associated with artists such as Sun Ra, George Clinton and Octavia Butler. Envisaging a future and presenting this impulse was considered a symbol of liberation. How do contemporary artists and intellectuals of the African diaspora in North and South America, as well as Europe, envision their future today?”
Listen to this talk on PASS. 30/10/2015. 19hoo-21h00
The circum-atlantic conference will bring together speakers in Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and New York, to discuss these issues via live video conference. Speakers include Kodwo Eshun of the prolific Otolith Group, based in London, Cameroonian Bonaventure Ndikung, founder and curator of the Berlin based SAVVY Contemporary art space, Adrienne Edwards, curator, scholar, and writer with a focus on artists of the African diaspora and the global South and Kenyan born, award-winning artist Wangechi Mutu who lives in New York. They will be joined by Viny Rodriguez, Sociologist and member of Sistema Negro, and Leda Martins, poet and essayist, both from Sao Paulo.
Recommended Reading: In the film, In the Year of the Quiet Sun, produced by The Otolith Group postage stamps produced in Ghana between 1957 and 1966 are assembled into a political calendar of pan Africanist images. At “After Year Zero”, Eshun discussed the film, philatelic time travel, pan African pop art, moments of resistance and excavating the past. Watch this discussion here.