We Are Still Here Exhibition

How are we looking at our pasts to better understand our present moment in order to influence our futures?

The group exhibition curated by Afrinova titled, We Are Still Here explores this question through the independent voices of contemporary artists from Africa and the diaspora.

 

Drawing inspiration from an insightful paper written by Zimbabwean archaeologist Ashton Sinamai, it outlines the importance of African knowledge systems as an influential and valuable contribution to global histories and futures.

 

This is a relevant backdrop to detailing the importance of heritage-based knowledge systems that can help us understand the past and, more importantly, map our futures.

In this present intersection of hybrid realities and identities, we invite our audience to reflect on what it means to be custodians of heritage. What kind of world emerges when people tap into a new era of creation outside of validated systems?

 

By delving into the concept of heritage, the exhibition offers us the collective opportunity to redirect our gaze, look within and build new pools of knowledge curated by us through us.

An interdisciplinary showcase of the intrinsic creativity and esoteric methods of knowledge passed down through generations to acknowledge the simple fact that 'we stand on the shoulders of giants.'

 

Similarly, the artwork shown in We Are Still Here affirms, through various artistic mediums, the inherent nature and influence of African knowledge systems embedded within the contemporary art world.

 

Featuring a range of diverse artists who share a new context to the continent's rich culture, we get to experience some of the many ways heritage continues to inform and influence their realities.

 

Exhibiting Artists: Afroscope, Cherry-Ann Davids, Kwaku Opoku, LauraArminda Kingsley, Mpho Mokgadi, Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape (Mo Laudi),Nyahan Tachie Menson, Teddy Pratt and Valerie Etitinwo.