Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica OPENING EVENT

A conversation between Antawan I. Byrd, Adom Getachew, Matthew S. Witkovsky and Elvira Dyangani Ose. To mark the opening of Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, the curatorial team will delve into the exhibition’s main themes with the aim of exploring some of its most relevant aspects and sharing their research processes with the public.

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica takes the first Pan-African Congress (1919) as a starting point to explore the concept of Pan-Africanism as a cultural and political movement capable of offering an alternative vision of the world. This exhibition champions the artistic expressions of the African diaspora as the core of an ongoing dialogue with the continent, and delves into topics such as the origins of Pan-Africanism, the study of Blackness, symbolic and political representation, and the significance of religious and animist beliefs, as well as forms of public protest, anti-racism movements and civil rights struggles.

Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of MACBA and co-curator of the exhibition, will engage in conversation with Antawan I. Byrd, Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago; Adom Getachew, Professor of Political Science, Race, Diaspora and Indigenous Studies at the University of Chicago; and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator of Photography and Media. All three are co-curators of the exhibition.

Read more here.

Bertina Lopes, Mussunda (dedicated to Agostinho Neto), 1961. © Estate of Bertina Lopes. Tia Collection. Image courtesy the Estate of Bertina Lopes and Richard Saltoun, London, United Kingdom. 

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