51³Ô¹ÏÍø

For more than two decades, African and African diaspora artists have reshaped the contours of contemporary art on one of the world's most storied stages. This panel brings together curators and artists behind two consequential efforts at the Venice Biennale to mediate African presence, inviting them to reflect on a generation of creative transformation, critical inquiry, and hard-won visibility.

Panelists:

• Kader Attia — Curator, 7th edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and participating artist, Fault Lines
• ²Ñ²¹°ùí²¹ Magdalena Campos-Pons — Professor of Art, Cornelius 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Chair of Fine Arts and Founder, Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, and participating artist, Authentic/Ex-centric
• Olu Oguibe — Artist, scholar, and co-curator, Authentic/Ex-centric
• Gilane Tawadros — Director, Whitechapel Gallery, London, and curator, Fault Lines

Moderator:

• Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi — Steve and Lisa Tanabaum Curator in Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Introduction:

• Grace Aneiza Ali — Curator, Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø

In 2001, Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa In and Out of Africa, co-curated by Olu Oguibe and Salah Hassan for the 49th Biennale, introduced international audiences to the rigorous conceptual practices of leading African and diaspora artists, focusing on representation, memory, exile, and the African experience in all its complexity. In 2003, Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes, curated by Gilane Tawadros for the 50th Biennale, extended this conversation, using the geological metaphor of fault lines to map the fractures, pressures, and emergent possibilities that define African and diasporic artistic practices.

Convened under the auspices of the 61st Venice Biennale, helmed by the late Koyo Kouoh, the first Black woman and the second African-born curator to lead this august global presentation, this panel honors the enduring legacies of both exhibitions while pressing forward with urgent new questions:

• What does visibility on the world stage on your own terms cost and confer? 
• How have the conceptual and political frameworks forged in these exhibitions rippled forward through generations of artists and curators? 
• And what obligations does that legacy carry into the present?

This panel is presented as part of Resonance, an invitation to gather, engage, and listen deeply across time and place, bringing together artists, curators, poets, performers, and scholars whose work reverberates across geographies and generations. Resonance is an initiative of the Engine for Art, Democracy, and Justice at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø in Nashville, Tennessee.