AFRICAM - CAM MUSEUM

AfriCAM
Contemporary art in Africa

CURATED BY
Antonio Manfredi

IN COLLABORATION WITH
(FCA) Foundation for Contemporary Art, Ghana

OPENING
December the 5th 2009 at 6.30pm
December the 5th / February the 28th 2010

CAM_Casoria Contemporary Art Museum presents AfriCAM, the first big exhibition that the museum of Casoria dedicates to the African art. Realized from a project of journey and discovery by Antonio Manfredi, the exhibition curator, the event at CAM (from December the 5th 2009 to February the 28th 2010) proposes works by African artists contacted directly on place where no intermediation by galleries nor collectors does exist. Following CAM philosophy, AfriCAM is the expression of the idea of an art free from private economical intervention and from western influences often conditioning the originality of the artistic productions. The path followed by Antonio Manfredi to discover the artists and choose their works, now exhibited, touched different areas of the African continent, even the most secluded ones, where artists seldom leave their villages or their cities. So a fresh and refined exhibition was born, finally bringing to a public permanent collection a body of works coming from Africa. The exposed works fascinate for their expression of an elegant simplicity, showing an intense way of life not lacking of social awareness. Their references to the inside fights, to the exploitation and to the social difficulties shine through the colourful representation of reality. Sometimes, far from the stereotypical representations of a linear art, paintings do space from a synthetic graphism to an expressionism with “fauve” matrix. Materical and earthy, the poor elements used to realize some of the presented works become imaginary reproductions of a far reality. Sable, wood, pieces of can, newspapers or televisions become part of the drippings of colour realized with unbelievable references to the western contemporary art. Of course, the attention to the street art is not missing; for those artists decorating walls and city shops refining their technical skills but holding fast, event though in a tangent way, to the African figurative tradition always present. It also persists, as usual in CAM tradition, a focus on the African digital products like video and photo; the will to give a global breath to AfriCAM makes exhibited together painting authenticity and the complexity and irreproachable realization of the new media art. The immediacy and purity of the execution make the strength of these works showing new and interesting perspectives and reflections in a space, CAM, once again confirming as alternative.

Artists