At Accra Cultural Week, Artists Respond to Notions of Time
For five days, the grounds of the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City are enlivened with crowds of art lovers worldwide. Collectors, curators, writers and artists participate in the varied activities that are part of Accra Cultural Week. Organized annually by Gallery 1957, Accra Cultural Week invites an inquiry into Ghana’s fast-evolving art ecosystem. There are visits to Ghana’s most vital cultural institutions (this year included visits to Dikan Center and La Foundation), guided tours of the works of artists-in-residence at Gallery 1957, thrilling live performances from Ghanaian artists and a grand opening of the primary exhibition around which the event is organized.
Photo by Nii Odzenma.
The guiding theme for this year’s Accra Cultural Week is “Keeping Time,” an extension of last year’s ‘In and Out of Time,’ according to curator Ekow Eshun.
This year’s guiding theme, “Keeping Time,” is curated by multidisciplinary artist Ekow Eshunand curator Karon Hepburn. Keeping Time, is an extension of last year’s theme, “In and Out of Time,”also curated by Eshun. With works from African and Caribbean artists, Keeping Time invites artists of varying disciplines to interrogate our sense of time and of the world through speculative, ethereal and perception-shifting works.
For Eshun, the thrill of returning as a curator to Accra Cultural Week is seeing how the event allows for ambitious projects such as this. “The thing that I've been watching develop with admiration is the cultural richness that is taking place in Ghana right now,” Eshun tells OkayAfrica. “Cultural Week is a good time to see all of those, but the main thing is that those exist. And I suppose the two things are the proliferation of artist-run spaces and the growth, specifically during Cultural Week, of an international audience for those.”New fronts to previous subjects
Eshun chose to return to the themes of time because he felt there was more to say. “I could see continuities taking place in the work of a range of artists that made me want to explore this topic further. I want to keep exploring how artists from across the African diaspora are thinking and interrogating, exploring, resisting, suggesting alternative ways of being in, living with, living against time as a linear notion.”
In the works on display, those notions are taken from subversive angles. In Julinknxx’s short film Temple Run, the Sierra Leonean poet and filmmaker presents a poignant reflection on movement and migration. “The film reflects on what movement looks like, but not movement outward, but movement within,” he says. “What does it mean to make space in our cities and develop our sort of culture and our language, our forms and enjoy them?”
Temple Run is a work that evolved from a film he produced in partnership with Labrum, which was “inspired by the countless forms of communication used by migrants to stay in touch with loved ones in the motherland” — a work whose themes he explores even more intensely in Temple Run.Photo courtesy of Junlianknxx and Gallery 1957.
“The film reflects on what movement looks like, but not movement outward, but movement within.” - Julianknxx
Meanwhile, the idea of extracting various sides from a singular viewpoint drives Rita Mawuena Benissan’s work. Abidjan-born and Ghana-based, Benissan’s work seeks to reimagine the royal umbrella — an important part of Ghana’s royal history. By reframing archival photos, and interpreting them into threaded paint-like works, Benissan preserves and revives long-forgotten pieces of history. It’s a practice that’s constantly in touch with time, wrestling disabused history from extinction and framing it in recency.
For Benissan, it starts with a photograph. “When it comes to Ghana, we don't have access to a lot of our old photos from the early 1900s or even the 1950s from post or pre-independence. I feel like institutions outside have access to those photographs but we don't, so how do I, within my practice, have people transported back in time?” Benissan says of the driving inquiry behind her process.
Her work on display was drawn from an archival photo taken in the 1960s by a German agency during a tour of Kumasi. “That resonated with me because it’s an umbrella they still use to this day,” Benissan says.
Photo courtesy of Rita Mawuena Benissan and Gallery 1957.
With her practice, Rita Mawuena Benissan aims to transport people back in time.
Nigerian artist Modupeola Fadugba has paintings of swimmers on display, except it’s not as simple as it sounds. While the top part of her paintings feature visible characters and brown and black-hued depictions of people in varying states of reflection or thought, the bottom part of her paintings are largely indecipherable, intentionally muddled so as to, as she says, inspire reflection from anyone looking at them. These works, which started over four years ago, are subversive, ambiguous and brilliantly tricky.
“The work is trying to reconcile figurative and abstraction,” Fadugba says. “And that works with the theme of Keeping Time, perceptions of reality versus reality. So you can look at the work and say, what is the reality? Is it the reflection part or is it the thing you think is tangible? And at any given moment it can change.”
Photo courtesy of Modupeola Fadugba and Gallery 1957.
Modupeola Fadugba’s piece tries to reconcile figurative and abstraction by inspiring reflection.
Looking ahead
With Accra fast becoming an art hub, more artists are finding space to explore radical ideas. While in Ghana, Julianknxx began working on a film alongside Eshun, based on the latter’s seminal book, In The Black Fantastic. Meanwhile, Benissan continues to find purpose in reviving unknown Ghanaian histories.
This artistic energy pulsates through Ghana and points to a vibrant future as an art hub. As Eshun puts it, “What I see is an environment where artists are recognising the power they have. I can see growing opportunities for people to engage and be part of a widening art sector as a whole. And that's the thing that I'm most excited about.”