Bios – Chinafrika

Lu Shan

jochen — Fri, 12 May 2017 14:30:48 +0000

Lu Shan (born in Hunan 1985) is living and working in Guangzhou. At the Guangzhou Academy of fine arts MFA she is the leading designer for the Guang Dong Museum of Arts.

Solo Exhibition
2011 Take an extra nap, Hong Kong Fringe Club, Hk
2012 Always saloon, 225space, GZ
2015 Iam paper, HBS,GZ

Group Exhibition:
2015 Ecology Investigation of Contemporary Art of Young Guangzhou Artists, Guang Dong Museum of Arts, GZ
2017 theory of Evolution –Arts on paper,space-station,Beijing

“Hi, I’m Lu Shan. I like drawing. I hope that I can communicate with the world by drawing, and that you can get to know me through my works.”

Payne Zhu

jochen — Wed, 03 May 2017 13:53:23 +0000

Payne Zhu (born 1990)is living and working in Shanghai. He graduated from ShanghaiUniversity of International Business and Economics and worked as new media marketing manager at L’ORÉAL China from 2013-2014.

He is a self-taught artist.

Exhibitions:

2016
好景不常在光复路235号上海
You Won’t Be Young Forever, No.235 Guangfu Road, Shanghai
地下清影艺术空间杭州
Underground, Inna Art Space, Hangzhou
⽩白⽇日梦夜⽆无眠⽃斗鱼直播互联⽹网
Live streaming/Life’s dreaming, Douyu.com, Online
2015
展览的噩梦(下) 上海当代艺术博物馆上海
The Nightmare of the Exhibition Part II, Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai
腹地计划时代美术馆⼴广州
Hinterland Project, Times Museum, Guangzhou
地⽅方⼯工作激烈空间上海
Difang Work Project, Radical Space, Shanghai
2014
⼀一个幽灵游荡剧场微信群互联⽹网
A Specter, Wechat group, Online
展览的噩梦(上) 激烈空间上海
The Nightmare of the Exhibition Part I, Radical Space, Shanghai
2013
被偷⾛走的能量昌平⼤大厦209号上海
The Hidden Potential, ChangPing Building, Shanghai

Map Office

jochen — Wed, 03 May 2017 13:33:39 +0000

MAP Office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez (1966, Casablanca, Morocco) and Valérie Portefaix (1969, Saint-Étienne, France). This duo of artists/architects has been based in Hong Kong since 1996, working on physical and imaginary territories using varied means of expression including drawing, photography, video, installations, performance, and literary and theoretical texts. Their entire project forms a critique of spatio-temporal anomalies and documents how human beings subvert and appropriate space. Humour, games, and fiction are also part of their approach, in the form of small publications providing a further format for disseminating their work. Their cross-disciplinary practice has been the subject of a monograph, MAP OFFICE – Where the Map is the Territory (2011), edited by Robin Peckham and published by ODE (Beijing). Early 2013, Map Office was the recipient of the 2013 edition of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize.

Laurent Gutierrez is co-founder of MAP Office. He earned a Ph.D. of Architecture from RMIT. He is a Professor at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he leads the Master of Design Programs and the Master of Design in Design Strategies as well as the Master of Design in Urban Environments Design programs. He is also the co-director of Urban Environments Design Research Lab.

Valérie Portefaix is an artist and architect. She is the principal and co-founder of MAP Office. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art, and a Master of Architecture, she earned a Ph.D. of Urbanism from University Pierre Mendes France. She is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

MAP Office projects have been exhibited in major international art, design and architecture events including: Ullens Contemporary Art Centre, Beijing (2013); 7th Asia Pacific Triennial (2012); 1st Kiev Biennale (2012); 6th Curitiba Art Biennale (2011); 7th, 11th and 12th Venice Architecture Biennale (2000, 2008, 2010); Evento 1st Bordeaux Biennale (2009); 4th Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual (2009); 2nd Canary Island Biennale (2009); Prospect.1 New Orleans (2008); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007); 52nd Venice Art Biennale (2007); 15th Sydney Biennale (2006); 1st Paris Triennial (2006); 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005); 1st Singapore Biennale (2006); 2nd, 3rd and 5th Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale (2007, 2009, 2013); 1st Architectural Biennial Beijing (2004); 1st Rotterdam Architecture Biennale (2003).

Their publications includes: Unreal Estates of China (2007); The Parrot’s Tale (2007); My PRD Stories (2005), HK LAB 2 (2005); HK LAB (2002); Mapping HK (2000); among many others publications on the « Made in China » phenomenon and other, related issues.

Their first film City of Production has been selected for the official competition at: 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009, 33rd Cinéma du Réel Paris 2009, 1st Migrating Forms New York 2009, and presented at: 10th Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (2008).

SUMMARY OF MAIN PROFESSIONAL ACHEIVMENTS (a selection)

Major Exhibition in Museum / Cultural center (selected)
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
M+, Hong Kong
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing
Museum Fur Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna
MAXXI, Roma
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Ayo Akinwande

jochen — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 11:16:42 +0000

Ayo Akinwande was born in Lagos and he is a graduate of Architecture from Covenant University, Nigeria. In his journey to creative freedom, he found expression in the art of photography and has since sought to expound his expressive and thematic scope.

His work focuses on the performative possibilities of everyday life; drawing his props from the same palette. He strives to re-create surreal experiences which he believes through keen observation can be traced in memory and reality. He addresses social issues with the use of satire, while holding a light to interpersonal relationships.

In 2015, he had two solo exhibitions with titles; “Women of Africa” in Athens, Greece and “Boju-Boju” in Lagos Nigeria. Ayo was also part of the “What’s Inside Her Never Dies” group exhibition at the Yeelen gallery in Miami, USA. The same show was also featured at the 2015 Art Basel Miami.

In his new project titled “Power Show” to be exhibited at the National Museum, Lagos in August 2017, he will be exploring large scale installations involving the use of found objects, photographs, newspaper archives, sound and performance in addressing the electricity, corruption and economic problems in Nigeria. Ayo lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria.

Sam Hopkins / David Lalé

jochen — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:09:03 +0000

Sam Hopkins was born in 1979 in Rome (I) and raised in Kenya and England. He studied History and Spanish in Edinburgh and Cuba, proceeded to postgraduate studies in Contemporary Art in Oxford and Weimar before returning to Nairobi in 2006. His artistic practice employs a diverse range of techniques to engage with the question of how narratives and truths are embedded, encoded and produced by different media. He co-initiated the grassroots media collective Slum TV, was a core member of the public space activists Urban Mirror and is a frequent collaborator of the Nairobi-based collective Maasai Mbili. Hopkins has participated in various international exhibitions, including biennales in Dakar (S) Poznan (PL) and Moscow (RU) and has exhibited at a wide range of museums and galleries, including Kunsthaus Bregenz (A) the Goodman Gallery (SA) and Richard Taittinger Gallery (USA). His work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian (US), Abteiberg Museum (D), the Iwalewahaus (D). In 2014 he was named one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy (FP) Magazine. He currently works between Cologne and Nairobi.

David Lalé is a film-maker and writer from the UK. He trained at the National Film & Television School, and started his career making documentaries for TV – including three films for Al Jazeera’s prestigious Witness series. His films have screened at international festivals including Berlin, Telluride, Camerimage, and Film Africa, and been awarded the WorldView Prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Main Prize at Paris Signes de Nuit, the International Press Prize at Clermont-Ferrand, as well as a special mention in competition at the Berlinale. Currently he works as an independent producer, pursuing experimental non-fiction projects. His recent works have been supported by UK Arts Council, Goethe Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, British Council, US National Endowment for the Humanities, and California Documentary Project.

Cobus van Staden

jochen — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:25:55 +0000

Ruth Simbao

jochen — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 13:14:24 +0000

Patrick Mudekereza

jochen — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:07:48 +0000

Patrick Mudekereza is a writer and cultural producer living in Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo. He is currently director of Waza, Centre d’art de Lubumbashi, previously known as Picha Art Centre. He co-founded and run the first three editions of Rencontres Picha, Lubumbashi Biennial. He was involved in several art projects, including the collective Vicanos Club, was editor of the cultural magazine Nzenze, organized and participated in several exhibitions in Congo and abroad such as Congo Far West. He coordinated and edited publications such as Les Chroniques du Congo and exhibitions catalogues.
His critical articles were published, among others, in African Art and Contemporary And. His last curatorial project Revolution Room/Chumba cha Mapinduzi , in collaboration with Visual Arts Network South Africa, explores the potentials of collaboration between artists and communities from the mining industries in southern Congo and Johannesburg. He was, for 4 years, member of the steering committee of Arterial Network, an umbrella of African civil society organizations. He is currently member of Arts Collaboratory, a community of art centers from Africa, Latin America and South Asia.
He received the Congolese National Award “Arts, Sciences et Lettres” in 2015.

Eddy Mayaya Kasomba

jochen — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:06:55 +0000

Eddy Mayaya began his artistic career as a videast before becoming passionate about styling.

He has participated in several workshops and produced several short films including “Contre-jour” in which Eddy films the daily life of people who live in the university area of the city of Lubumbashi.

As a stylist, Eddy wants to revalue African fabrics and how they are perceived. His last work “KIZOBA – ZOBA”; a lingala term which refers to an amalgam of fabrics of loincloths carelessly mending; Eddy has revalorized a model of long-neglected accoutrement in the south of the DR Congo.

In the Chinafrica project, Eddy will present a textile work that will illustrate the Chinese influence in Congolese fashion.

Daniel Sixte Kakinda

jochen — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 14:51:21 +0000

Member of the Lubumbashi collective of comics makers Les Mines Lushoises, Daniel Sixte is an artist based in Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He regularly publishes cartoons on his Facebook account and on his blog. He has participated in the MAONO project of the Agence Future from Belgium (in 2012 and 2013), in a collective exhibition on the campus of the Free University of Brussels (in December 2014) and at the Contemporary Art Museum of Antwerp (in June 2015).

He’s currently working on a documentary film with Lindiwe Matshikiza, a sud-african artist, and leads workshops for training and creation in comics as well as graphism at the Waza art center of Lubumbashi.

An excerpt from his comic book Men and Beasts, to which the congolese writer Sinzo Aanza participated, will be published in the USA in the Words Without Borders Magazine in February 2017.

For Chinafrika Daniel Sixte will present a graphic work that analyzes the sino-congolian commercial relations based on the history of the Congo and on numerical data produced in reports of NGOs and other international or local institutions.