Paris hosts hundreds of art events each year, and it can be tough for participants to stand out on a crowded cultural calendar, or even to survive amid the competition. But one of the most interesting art and design fairs is celebrating its 10th anniversary this autumn, presenting a remarkable range of works by artists from Africa and the African diaspora.
AKAA – Also
Known As Africa – brings together some 44 galleries and more than 80 artists,
exhibiting Oct. 24-to-26, “under the glass roof” of the Carreau du Temple, a
striking 19th-century building that once served as a covered market,
in the (now trendy) 3rd arrondissement of the French capital.
The fair’s themes
this year include inter-regional creative fusion and cooperation, according to new
artistic director Sitor Senghor, a long-time collector, former investment
banking expert, and current independent curator.
Calling AKAA
2025 a “journey”, Senghor said visitors would “walk in the footsteps of
visionary artists, those who understood art as an act of freedom, a resistance
through beauty, a celebration of life”.
But the robbery
at France’s famed art museum earlier this month has not dampened the mood of
art enthusiasts, who have been flocking to various exhibitions (Art Basel Paris
is also taking place this week).
AKAA, however,
attracts a special group of visitors, who include African art connoisseurs and
fans of the cutting-edge work for which many of those featured are recognized.
As the fair states, its objective since launching in 2015 has been to offer an
“exceptional platform for the artists and galleries shaping the contemporary
art landscape”.
This year, the
aim is not only to celebrate the 10-year milestone, but also to “reaffirm its
commitment to the future of African and Afro-descendant art scenes,” according
to the organizers. As such, there is an expanded scope, comprising a wider programme
of talks, screenings, and performances alongside the gallery exhibitions
(More on AKAA’s background: https://southernworldartsnews.blogspot.com/2017/12/galleries-fairs-offer-african-art-feast.html)
The 2025 display
of artwork begins outside the Carreau du Temple, with a sculpture by the illustrious
Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow (1935 - 2016). Titled “Sitting Bull en prière”,
the effect is to make visitors stop and wonder at this majestic personage, who
paradoxically appears to be entreating the heavens. Represented in vibrant hues
of umber and ochre, the figure has his face turned to the sky, with his hands
held up in supplication. Its impact is one for which Sow is known, having
created acclaimed (and sometimes controversial) “larger-than-life” public
sculptures in France and other countries.
In the first
part of the installation (which overall is titled “The Third Aesthetic”), a
meandering row of female figures appears to be heading out on a journey,
dressed in traditional “kimonos”, their hair in buns with kanzashi, or
“hair chopsticks” as decoration. But even as their “faces” appear Japanese, one
can see on closer inspection that these are African masks, and the clothing is
made from African textiles that recall Japanese indigo dyeing.
“This is called
Seven Sisters, and it’s a procession of fourteen women walking towards
Mount Fuji,” explained Mouangue, who lived in Japan for five years and
maintains close links with the country. He told SWAN during the
exhibition preview that he acquired the masks from Gabon, used original kanzashi
from Japan, and chose fabric for the intercultural resemblance – deliberately
creating a fusion of elements with the structures.
“I want people
to question what they’re seeing,” Mouangue said. “I want them to think about
cultural reflections and links because living and working in Japan brought me
closer to Africa.”
He has collaborated with a group
called Nawawaseya, for instance, to provide “sacred rope” (used at shrines) for
a second sculpture in the installation. In this, kendo masks are decorated with
African beads from the west Cameroon region where Mouangue grew up, again
combining African and Asian aesthetics.
A third section
of the installation features fertility figures, constructed from a transparent
resin in varying shades of scarlet, with Japanese Noh masks as the foetuses.
The statues are mounted on a stand containing water that reflects their colour.
“This is about
fertility and giving birth,” Mouangue told SWAN. “It took me seven years
all together to make this because there is lots of complexity in the material,
which is a specific resin, and in the shaping for the mould.”
In addition to Mouangue’s spectacular sculptures (represented by “space Un” gallery of Tokyo), the fair offers a wide array of memorable works through the participation of European galleries as well as those based across the Atlantic.
Rivera Herrera creates surrealist ceramic forms, while Nyakaura produces bold pieces using leather. The latter told SWAN that his aim with the AKAA exhibition was to recall and highlight Négritude, the movement formed by black intellectuals and artists during the 1930s to raise black consciousness.
He said he wanted to relaunch this philosophy through his work – a fitting aim perhaps for the 10th anniversary of an innovative fair in Paris, which played such a key role in the movement. - SWAN
Photos (by AM / SWAN, top to bottom): Sitting Bull en prière by Ousmane Sow; Seven Sisters (The Third Aesthetic) by Serge Mouangue; the artist with his work; Victo' Nyakaura at the REM Project stand.
