Ars Electronica Projects:
African ArtScreen Presentations during Ars Electronica Festival "Unlplugged - Art as the Scene of Global Conflicts"
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Davis Oladeji Nejo (Nigeria/Austria)
At the "Ars Electronica Festival 2002" artists from Africa had the chance to participate for the first time in the history of the festival. The African part was curated by Davis O. Nejo who could show that there is also media art and technology supported art on the African continent. BETWEEN THE LARGE TREE AND THE SMALL ONE, was an installation by Davis O. Nejo. Films fro African Artists were projected on a water shield on teh river Danube in front of the Ars Electronica Center by night. The installation was part of the project "@rtScreen - Art and Culture in the Public Space", where art is presented on unusual screens on highly frequented places.The projecttion on water referred to the transience of the new media creation in today's rapidly changing times, since the water is flowing. HSC - HIGHLY SOCIAL CINEMA, another project by Davis O. Nejo, was an overview of the Nigerian Nollywood film productions. It refelcted the explosive development of the video market in Nigeria and its cultural and economic background. Emeka Udemba (Nigeria/Germany) WORLD WHITE WALLS, an installation by the Nigeria artist Emeka Udemba, was presented at the entrance of the Ars Electronica Festival Center. He created two transparent corridors that refer to the public world of airports and customs. The left corridor is wide and lavishly decorated with roses, and it is meant for US and EU citizens. The right corridor, reserved for 'others', is narrow and paved with shattered glass. This installation thematicizes the onesided apportionment of privileges, access possibilities and freedom of movement. Moataz Nasr (Egypt) WATER Time is tied closely to identity in this study of self and circumstance. Concerned by the hardships of his fellow Egyptians under the government of Hosni Mubarak in the years leading up to the Arab Spring, Moataz Nasr spent six months filming the reflections of his compatriots in street puddles. The hold of these men, women, and children on time appears tenuous: they materialize only briefly before a boot relentlessly stomps into the water. The distorting, fragmenting, and transforming images suggest we are all in flux, and that our circumstances might outweigh our individual capacities to create stability. Nasr’s images seem to ask viewers if the fragility of human time is trampled and trodden by the forces of political time, or if the quivering, shimmering faces are a looking glass that mediates and transcends time? Soujabou Kandji (Senegal) LA VALISE UN-PLUGGED This suitcase is a composition of electronic waste, found on the beaches of Africa. The art works reminds us of the short life of the goods of today's consumers society. Souyabou Kandji is a Senegalese painter and installation artist who lives and works on the famous island of Gorée. Recycling Art "Recycling Art" (Workshop) A group of young artists in Dakar are facing the problem of the ever growing waste of today's society in a very creative form: They create art works out of used tin cans. @rtScreen helps the youth to come to a sustainable development. |
   
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