Re:assemblages

 

G.A.S. Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of Re:assemblages, a roaming body and multi-year cultural development programme designed to platform new, critical questions focused on the preservation and creative potential of African art libraries. This collaborative project was developed in response to the wealth of material housed in the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive and its rare constellation of African published journals, magazines, and manuscripts. 

 

Over the next 18 months, Re:assemblages will play host to numerous artistic interventions, strengthening the connections between artists, publishers, and art initiatives with library collections in Africa by fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue with various organisations holding African and Afro-diasporic art and cultural heritage collections.

Annotations Programme Curators

 

The Annotations programme is led by co-curators Naima Hassan (Interim Picton Archivist) and Maryam Kazeem (iranti press).  Naima Hassan is a researcher and curator based in Berlin. Since 2022, she has led the development of the Picton Archive at G.A.S. Foundation, Lagos. 

 

Maryam Kazeem is a writer, and the founder of iranti press, a publishing project based in Lagos, which convenes FESTAC 2077: A Speculative Writing Exercise. She completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the California Institute of the Arts as a Truman Capote Fellow. 

 

Supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund and Yinka Shonibare Foundation.

 

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Annotations

Annotations is a six-month project that explores major African cultural festivals and their dual nature as historic events and repositories of postcolonial pan-African encounters. Led by co-curators Naima Hassan (Interim Picton Archivist) and Maryam Kazeem (iranti press), Annotations will spark innovative approaches towards archival research by engaging the complex histories of FESMAN, Panafest, Zaire 74, and FESTAC’77. 

 

In addition to a social practice residency, public programme, and publication, Annotations will host a 7-week research programme designed in collaboration with Archival Consciousness to assemble a pedagogical timeline and archival resource on twentieth century pan-African festivals researched by the Associates.

 

Read the Curatorial Statement

Annotations Research Associate Programme

The Annotations research associate programme is designed to explore African art festivals, such as FESMAN, Panafest, Zaire 74, and FESTAC’77. The seven-week-long Programme falls under the wider scope of G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive’s Re:assemblages project. We are pleased to announce the selected participants from our open call - budding multidisciplinary curators, Adeyosola Adeniran and Ufuoma Ogbemudje, and independent archivist, Osayame Emokpae-Ozoro.

 

Running parallel to our archival practice internships supported by Spelman College and AUC (Atlanta University Center) Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, this opportunity for Lagos-based practitioners foregrounds our foundation's dedication to building capacity within our local industry in Lagos.

 

The Annotations Research Associate Programme is generously supported by Femi Akinsanya.

 

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Spelman College and AUC (Atlanta University Center) Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective Internships

G.A.S. Foundation is pleased to be partnering with Spelman College, and the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective (AUC Collective) to facilitate internships for three of its student members. Housed within the Department of Art & Visual Culture at Spelman College, this program aims to shape the future of the art world and position the Atlanta University Center as the leading incubator of African American professionals in these fields by cultivating students who will seek knowledge, discover purpose and make change.

 

        

 

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African Arts Libraries (AAL) Lab

In 2024, G.A.S. Foundation will bring together a constellation of African arts libraries and publishers in Lagos, Dakar, Marrakesh, Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town, Limbe, and beyond to tackle critical questions on publishing practices, library management, and archives in Africa.  Additionally, the AAL Lab’s Satellite Book Club will foster new readership of rare magazines, journals, and manuscripts published in the period described by the Okwui Enwezor as the ‘Short Century’ (1945-1994). 

 

In the longer term, museums and institutions in Europe and North America will also be invited to participate in collective experimentation with AAL Lab members to encourage new ways of providing trans-continental support, preserving, and activating African and Afro-diasporic library collections.

 

For updates on the AAL Lab and its Satellite Book Club, subscribe to our newsletter and follow our social media.

 

 

Collections-Focused Residencies

 

Through the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive, Re:assemblages will offer multiple Lagos-based residencies focussed on the exploration of African art histories across the continent and its diaspora. These residency offerings will begin with two funded fellowships under the thematic scope of Annotations.

 

Supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund.

 

 

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Re:assemblages Symposium

Following the instrumental 2012 symposium Condition Report: Symposium on Building Art Institutions in Africa held in Dakar, the inaugural Re:assemblages symposium will be organised in close association with the first cohort of the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab) with the aim of illuminating parallels, shared urgencies, and fostering circular pedagogical economies around African art histories. 

 

The harvest of the six-month project, Annotations, will result in a 2025 symposium panel focused on presenting the outcomes of the Annotations associates programme, public programmes, and residencies held at G.A.S. Foundation. 

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