Ibrahim Mahama
Foundation for Contemporary Art-Ghana, Exit Frame Collective, Blaxtarlines Kumasi and SCCA Tamale will organize a CritLab in Accra.
With 12 participants drawn from various parts of Ghana, the lab would engage critical issues relevant to both local and global contemporary art practice while aiming at building a network of artists, curators and critics.
The 2020 edition of CritLab which will take place from Tuesday, October 20 to Saturday, October 31, will focus on the temperature of Ghanaian contemporary art and reflect on the commitments and responsibilities associated with making art, curating and art criticism.
The lab will equally engross participants in a rigorous schedule of site visits, seminars, curated screenings, thematic roundtable discussions/ presentations that lean into critical studio practice and address processes involved in developing concepts and exhibition proposals.
Topics include pragmatics of professional development, creating infrastructure in conditions of hopelessness, constructive approaches to building relationships with other professionals as well as local and international institutions.
The rest understand the theoretical underpinnings of art history as inherited from imperialist structures and the necessity of emancipating professional practice and incorporating more ways of creative thinking beyond human-centred approaches to the making of art.
Participants will also be introduced to professional profiles relating to portfolio development, graduate study, critical writing, documentation of work, accessing global resources and social networking through a group of facilitators.
These include Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (Germany / Cameroon), Shane Aslan Selzer (USA), Nontobeko Ntombela (South Africa), Chiara Figone (Italy/Senegal) and Renzo Martens (Holland/DR. Congo).
Others are Dr. Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Dr. Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Ibrahim Mahama, Adwoa Amoah, Ato Annan, Kelvin Haizel, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, Fatric Bewong, George Buma Ampratwum, Selom Kudjie and Nana Osei Kwadwo – all from Ghana.
Foundation for Arts Initiatives, Goethe-Institut Ghana, Institut Francais Accra and Tijay Mohammed are supporting the programme