African summer of art... Part II
Insight from my July trips - exploring of South African arts in London and Bristol - and reflections on these August events
Dear readers,
I hope this finds you well.
First, for the latest episode of my RFI podcast Spotlight on Africa, I spoke with artist Gavin Jantjes to chat about his To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970-2023.
South African artist Gavin Jantjes on his major retrospective
Link to audio: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20240809-south-african-artist-gavin-jantjes-on-his-major-retrospective
In this episode we hear from the artist and from Hoor Al-Qasimi, director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and the president of the Africa Institute, Sharjah, UAE, who helped organise the London retrospective.
Link to audio: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20240809-south-african-artist-gavin-jantjes-on-his-major-retrospective
Jantjes's formative years in Cape Town coincided with the early years of South African apartheid, and his journey has since embodied a quest for artistic emancipation, with a freedom not bound by the Eurocentric gaze or expectations of black creativity.
For Jantjes, this quest has meant a life of itinerant exile manifesting in multiple careers.
Link to audio: https://www.rfi.fr/en/podcasts/spotlight-on-africa/20240809-south-african-artist-gavin-jantjes-on-his-major-retrospective
These interviews were recorded as I spent the summer between Paris, London, Bristol (and later Galway).
It was a delight to be able to see so much African and world art while remaining in Europe and travelling mostly by train and by bus only.
London also had two wonderful exhibitions of the work by South African photographer Ernest Cole, that can still be seen at the Photographers’ Gallery, and at Autograph, in Shoreditch.
Ernest Cole - between Johannesburg and Harlem
https://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2024/07/ernest-cole-celebrated-in-london.html
For my insight into Arnolfini’s African art exhibition, you can read my previous post from this link:
African summer of art... in England!
Part I - Bristol's Arnolfini
Jul 29, 2024
England: A racist nightmare?
Meanwhile, a few days after I left London with this ever-exciting feeling of enjoying a worldly city, the racist violence exploded…
What happened all over England was thus shocking to me...
Even if many people of colour say they were not surprised because racism always existed, it is obvious that the level of aggressiveness was unprecedented, and the modus operandi, fed by hatred on social networks, worrying.
I have been lived in England for over 7 years (in Bristol and London mostly), and always felt it was less dangerous for minorities than the rest of Europe.
What a horrible evolution...
My blog post here:
https://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2024/08/england-racist-nightmare.html
I still need to process everything I read about it.
I’m surprised to see quite a few people blaming the victims… ‘Muslims’ don’t really integrate seems to be the core narrative, with the ‘poor white people have the right to be angry.’
Angry… maybe, but they all vote and they have other alternatives than attacking people on the basis of lies.
After what happened in France the past thirteen months, and the rise of the far right all over Europe, I’m starting to despair. Can the West really learn the lessons on racism? Can people really educate themselves on how immigration began, how their Empires’ leaders went to colonise and forcibly brought back slaves and quasi-slaves? Can they understand too that European economies need migrants… to do the jobs the locals won’t do?
For now, I despair and want to look away. But answers will be needed.
I’m still working on a book project that I think could help, but publishers keep replying that ‘racism is not new’ enough… or that solutions to it don’t sell.
The world we live in…
Thanks for reading as always.
Do get in touch if you have comments or remarks.
I’m still trying to use social media less and less, especially the Meta tribe (Facebook, Instagram and Threads), and of course Twitter…
But it would be wonderful to have more conversations, of course, in any other way.
You can also always check my blog from here, and email me:
https://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/
My fastest growing platform has now become my YouTube Channel, all my video content here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXE4ofFjz0lsRzemjdmFf7w
Thanks, best,
melissa
Melissa Chemam
Journalist & Writer
@ RFI English, New Arab, ART UK, the i paper, Byline Times...
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/melissachemam
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXE4ofFjz0lsRzemjdmFf7w