This exhibition presents a major recent addition to The Met collection: a monumental royal crest carved two hundred years ago by a Bamileke master in the Cameroon Grassfields region This masterpiece belongs to a group of only fifteen surviving works that are central to the African art canon The gathering of four tsesah crests here allows for their distinct formal qualities to be compared and appreciated—a first in an American museum the creation of tsesah crests began in the early eighteenth century in the powerful chiefdom of Bandjoun in the Bamileke region While historically the region's 102 chiefdoms had their own distinct identities they shared parallel structures of leadership centered on the personality of an all-powerful sovereign Corresponding political ambition and rivalry across the neighboring chiefdoms were reflected in their patronage of art forms that conveyed their legitimacy Tsesah crests are believed to have been developed to give expression to these notions of royal power Held by or worn atop the head of an emissary of the fon's inner circle a tsesah was a towering presence in performances that punctuated matters of state from royal funerals and enthronement rites to the delivery of judicial sentences as well as the rarity of occasions at which they appeared tied them intimately to the fon; therefore only one tsesah would have been active in a chiefdom at any given time By the time these works were collected by Westerners across the Bamileke region the events they once animated were never documented by outsiders and little is known about the specifics of their choreography and function Though only fifteen tsesah crests survive today they have a prominent place in the repertory of sculpture from sub-Saharan Africa Their grandeur and originality captured the attention of early 20th-century art critics such as Carl Einstein and James Johnson Sweeney who presented the genre in their pioneering African art surveys of 1920 and 1935 came to the attention of Western scholars in the late 1960s and 1970s; only three were known previously all collected by colonial officers and missionaries in the Bamileke region (specifically the centers of Batcham and Bamendjo) between 1904 and 1925 The tradition is now said to have originated in Bandjoun: not only were several crests collected there but local artists also identify themselves as heirs to the earlier masters Beyond the precolonial examples now in Western collections a renowned artist and high-ranking Bandjoun court official produced a number of tsesah crests between 1970 and 1990; several of these entered the art market while others were integrated into the Bandjoun royal treasury Tahbou claimed kinship with a long line of Bandjoun-based sculptors who created such crests and is a key source regarding their history and function Art historians have since nuanced his claim of a direct tie to the sculptors responsible for the invention of this tradition in consideration of the political and economic benefit of being identified with such a magisterial art form At the apex of the political hierarchy in each Bamileke chiefdom he is surrounded by a number of associations of high-ranking officials The tsesah crest's rare appearances in dances symbolizing a chiefdom's sovereignty were closely associated with these governing structures A tsesah was among the primary symbols of a fon's leadership It represented dynastic continuity by underscoring the transfer of power from one ruler to the next: it may have been present during the council held to select a new fon and used in performances at a fon's funeral and at the enthronement rites of his successor the use of these crests visually echoed the statement made at the moment of the king's death and the establishment of a new king in the French monarchy: "The King is dead long live the King." According to oral history the last time a tsesah danced in the powerful chiefdom of Bandjoun was during the funeral of fon Fotso II in 1925 Art was traded over vast distances across the Grassfields region and it was not unusual for fons and high-ranking officials to commission works from renowned carvers working in distant centers The patronage of tsesah crests attests to this cosmopolitan mobility as well as to the widespread impact the form had across the region after its prototype was introduced by an unknown Bamileke carver in the early eighteenth century Examples of the genre have been collected in at least eight chiefdoms as far as sixty miles apart Although the distinctive form of these crests—the strong vertical and horizontal projections and the planar surface of the brow adorned with vibrant geometric patterns—is consistent significant stylistic variations indicate that they were created over several generations by different artists In 1972 the Bandjoun carver Paul Tahbou provided the names of some of these individuals including his father Tehgah and the carver Moube Nde They themselves had studied and trained under a previous generation of master carvers whose names are now lost The Cameroonian art historian Jean-Paul Notué established that in Bandjoun tsesah were created by several families of elite carvers the chiefdom's second chief who probably ruled in the early eighteenth century Tsesah crests testify to the transmission of knowledge over several generations each of which contributed its own creative innovations to the continually evolving genre Crest (tsesah), 18th century. Cameroon, Grassfields region. Bamileke peoples. Wood, H. 37 x W. 32 1/2 x D. 11 1/2 in. (94 x 82.6 x 29.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Acquisitions and Rogers Funds, and Anonymous, James J. Ross, and Marian Malcolm Gifts, 2017 (2017.35) The Samikhsya Cameroonian Delegation : A three-member delegation from Cameroon, led by Dr. Honore Djomo Kamga, King of Bandjoun, visited the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here for two days to get a first hand knowledge of operating a medical college with a teaching hospital. The King was accompanied by Prof. (Dr.) Maurice Kengne Kamga, Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Hamburg, Germany and Mr. Innocent Takotue Fotso, Principal Founder of the Hanseatic Institute of Technical and Applied Sciences (HITAS), Douala in Cameroon. Prof. Nachieketa K. Sharma, SOA’s Director, International Relations and University Outreach Program, welcomed the dignitaries and accompanied them during their visit to different institutions of the university. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker the compound is centred on a hugely impressive bamboo building its conical thatched roof supported by wooden pillars carved with figures from secret societies musicians and even the World Cup–winning Cameroon football team but the visitor centre to the left offers an informative tour the chefferie clearly illustrates that traditional culture is alive in the area; the small huts to either side of the avenue house the chief's fifty wives and their children adjoining a good museum on the history of metal working and sacred life in Bandjoun Take a motorbike taxi from town to get here (around CFA500 ContactAddressjust south of Bandjoun https://​www​.museumcam​.org​/ Bandjoun Station this arts centre and workshop boldly announces itself The centre supports the work of local contemporary artists 1. Bandjoun Station Dramatically decorated with mosaics, this arts centre and workshop boldly announces itself. The centre supports the work of local contemporary artists. No part of this site may be reproduced without our written permission One does not escape the shattered glass of the country Everything can happen in a complex territory with over 280 spoken languages corresponding to the same number of ethnic groups and identities religious and environmental amalgamation and density justify why tourist brochures continuously refer to Camaroon as “Africa concentrated all in one” where each fascinated look of the eye is followed by a contraction of the eye where one is left without time to fully absorb the extent of beauty of each image with the same intensity in the big cities of Douala and Yaoundé where the last ancient cities produce ceramics in mass A politically contradictory country – in the 1960’s Cameroon was the home to a number of important activists that played a significant role in bringing about the end of colonialism Now it still prepares its second stage of independence under the shadow of Paul Biya’s government As most artistic productions and developments in the continent the space of contemporary art and the work of artists shifts easily between the boundaries of the institutional and the everyday between the domains of the professional and the non-professional Corresponding to the idea of the bamiléké Man known as a natural-born trader and endowed with a remarkable entrepreneurial spirit who besides his ‘fixed job’ selling cloth in a stall at the local market still has four taxis making some extra cash cultivates his land and negotiates goats at the market the situation of artists in absolutely versatile Artists are ‘craftsman’ and are ‘contemporary African artists’ besides dedicating their time to other income generating activities the amalgamation of their artwork reveals the inevitable compromise of a mixed portfolio between the sales which guarantee survival and an independent language.       In the Cameroon “Bandjoun Station” and Yaoundé are insufficient to lead to the stages and curatorial agendas of international contemporary art spheres It is for this reason that art organisers and artists travel abroad mostly between Dakar organising events and initiatives that will bring others in Western support to development.   The artists in the diaspora have a fundamental role in projecting the name of the country into the map of contemporary art with the potential of conjuring collateral results Barthélémy Toguo or Pascale Marthine Tayou exhibit in the “Palais de Tokyo” the “Serpentine Gallery” or the São Paulo Biennale curators and gallery owners from around the world invest in searching for new “tugous” in the hope they may repeat the phenomenon of the “Africa” effect.  Marseille) Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Viena Ulisses and the dog It is however with great expectations that artists who thrived abroad invest back in their country In the Cameroonian context we can witness the creation of spaces for contestation and imagination based on local contexts which are favoured by some artists of the diaspora Joel Mpah Doph who have set in motion social and cultural intervention projects a symptom of the growth of the spaces and networks of identity construction As Ulysses who arrives displaced and whose faithful dog Argos recognizes and confirms his identity so are artists playing the different roles in the diaspora – migrants immigrants – simultaneously Ulysses and the dog It is in this sense that Édouard Glissant’s concept of “mondialité” holds a propositional value competing towards the redefinition of the aesthetic the cultural and towards a new epistemology of art Operating within the communities of those who are aware that the wealth of the world emanates from “tout-monde” – a space contrary to the nation to the country – and that the resulting patrimony belongs to all We are far from the outdated models of the nation-state and well into of a culture that is characterised by fluctuating identities it makes sense to conceptualise the images and the work of artists in terms of Glissant’s proposal even if feeling the creative anguish in face of the triumph over former historical (post-colonial) models.   Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art Viena and the artist “The promised land” of Barthélemy Toguo In 2001 Barthélemy Toguo presented in Nantes the “Terre Promise” installation The twelve metres filled with stones and junk disturbed the landings and takeoffs individual achievement and of success rendered itself ridiculous in face of the title of the piece Toguo spoke about the embarrassment towards mobility of people in the world Terre Promise can be read as a satirical play of “Jerusalem” of the diaspora and its artists an allusion to the “via sacra” of bureaucracy the endless lingering for an ill-fated stamp.To reach Bandjoun Station one makes the same mental journey of Terre Promise In this case we are closer to the “Terre Promise” Toguo proposed at the Biennale of Sao Tomé but completely covered with a thin and shiny film of aluminium We curse the obstacles that start as early as in the country’s embassies in Europe yet later landscapes shall wash away all pests.Still in the international road one can see the height of the building proudly rising in the middle of the dense vegetation of the high plateaus in an unexpected analogy with “Petit à Petit” in which one of the characters decides to build a true ‘building’ on the banks of the River Niger Imbued with the spirit and practice of an anthropologist he travels to Paris to observe how people live in a ‘maison à étages,’ and there discovers the strange ways of living of a Parisian tribe Bandjoun Station: inverse roles Bandjoun Station is a visual delight for any that first arrives The main building has a syncretism in the composition of architectural in the way it integrates elements of local Bamileke culture (the facades portraying animals contemporary forms of construction (concrete and a strong authorial mark through the hands of the great Barthélémy Toguo Symbols of animals and plants coexist side by side with a couple of apotropaic elements which together protect and watch this “house of the world.”Bandjoun Station consists of four aspects: “House,” “Visual Arts” “Agricultural Project” and an “Educational Project” medical and training spheres.In one interview Toguo states that Bandjoun Station looks to be “an answer to the lack of cultural projects in the continent it is the West that is overwhelmingly responsible for displaying contemporary African art work as well as possessing an institutional eye over what is made It is in this sense that I felt the need to build a place for exchange and life where international artists could come to work and show their pieces”.The project opened its doors and to start off an interdisciplinary team submit an agenda for a period of two years in contemporary art “The idea is to provide professional gatherings and spaces for cooperation between cultural agents from different artistic fields technical support for production and a permanent collection.” Seven acres of land in the landscape of Bandjoun constitute a parallel strand of this artistic project The idea is that these may function as laboratories for environmental integration and social experimentation as well as other local cultures that may permit the preservation of indigenous agriculture and a sustainable community connection to the land it is not about having a few more acres to plant what is needed is to promote awareness of the natural wealth of the Cameroon and its use by the people “It is a strong political act where our terrain of artists will fertilize the terrain of coffee a critical act that amplifies the artistic act and denounces what Senghor said the deterioration of trading conditions where export prices imposed by the West penalize and impoverish farmers in the South.”  whose museum collection patrimony is limited to the collection of the museums of the chefferies a new body of work will be integrated that will be available to the wider public will constitute the main foundation which will be enlarged and placed according to regular assemblies The energy of Toguo and his collaborators is unstoppable to ensure the success of Badjoun Station work never stops.Night falls very early in the bamiléké highlands and music from the other side of the road from the maison d’ étages the can be heard contemporary art on the side of the roadJust off Bandjoun a small stretch of road that takes one to Douala is occupied by scattered installations by Benoît Fossouo an outsider artist who brings all kinds of objects from the markets of Bandjoun it is about researching on signs in nature and culture that Fossouo then develops basing himself on calligraphy (entries drawn from its name with the colours used in the decoration of Bamiléké houses) the assemblage of objects that he finds (with access to local witchcraft) or the creation of “places” (the “Fruit Stall” the “secret passage” to store food and equipment) Benoît Fossouo’s installations can be considered what Jean Loup Amselle calls “self-taught primitivism” similar to the work developed by other “African prophets” whose best ambassador is Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (Ivory Coast) Bruly Bouabré created images and an alphabet for a new “bête” writing “inspired by the cliffs of the village of Békora The Angolan Paulo Kapela is another excellent example whose work is characterized by a syncretism that merges the Catholic vehemence of the devout with the political icons and emblems that characterised the independence of Angola.Today these images are part of contemporary African reality and belong to the great collections: Pigozzi The works of Bruly Bouabré and Kapela are included in important exhibitions and collections and stand to prove the success of the “self-taught primitivism” which characterises the curatorial selections of contemporary African art African art and the wild creative pulse still have to go hand in hand Instalation on the side of the internacional road Bandjoun-Douala on the river bank of the wourri…Bonandale is 10 km from Douala and not easy to find all paved roads dating back to “the time of the French” are crumbling day by day in the shadow of the persistent corruption of the police To find the MTN residency one must ask for the “village d’artistes” and sacrifice the suspension of the car before reaching the banks of the Wourri River the fishermen who drift in canoes (pirogas) loaded with the shrimp that went on to baptize the country and a group of artists.     It was Joël Mpah Dooh the first who decided to leave the chaos of Douala to “settle in a place closer to nature” The “village d’artistes” is an informal network of artistic collaboration which integrates the individual work of each artist as well as their cultural projects such as the MTN Foundation residency and the “Art Bakery” project as a means of protest and refusal towards the modus operandi and approach to working and living in the city “The arrival of the artists in this place were real ethical and political responses” we are told by Joël while he shows us the spaces of the TN Foundation residency a telecommunications multinational with a very strong presence in the Middle East as well as in the African continent: from the Ivory Coast all the way to South Africa where it is the official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup young artists MTN Foundation Today is the day to present the outcomes of the residency a large group of people gather around in a circle The young resident artist Bruno Nsecke received 1.000.000 F specially when you are only 25 and everyone is looking around from one side to the other searching for something” “and that is why all timings are strictly respected and obeyed with MTN (…) there can be no disorder the MTN residency promotes a wider interaction between the artists and the geographical environment looking for the necessary forms of production to implement individual projects It also allows for the display of each project resulting from the residencies in Douala contributing to the promotion of emerging art in the Cameroon.After the presentation the conversation livens up and moves towards the topic of African biennales What is Joël’s opinion about the inclusion of these young artists in the African and international circuit Joël Mpah Dooh appears to be uninterested and justifies: “We had the Revue Noire in the 90’s which launched several names into the market it was a general euphoria that transformed the way we felt as artists and now we complain about the necessity for specialised schools that strengthen skills because for years all we were interested was in responding to the market”  It is on the basis of this reflection that the MTN Foundation residency Project aims to continue to develop skills and training looking to fill the voids of the Cameroonian education system lacking any type of higher education in the artistic field it will soon invest in opening up residencies for young foreign artists alongside with Cameroonian artists.   a workshop for creation connected with the west “Art Bakery” is most dedicated to its ‘artist residency’ component the project takes place in a colonial style house in the urban and rural dispersed fabric of Bonendale “a convivial space where art is made and discussed throughout the day,” and “a physical and mental space where artist is questioned Leye “it is reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s Art Factory because the idea is that everyone can roll up their sleeves and work the materials we have available.”The “Art Bakery” projects are posted on the exterior walls of the building: training seminaries for critics and art historians educational services to Bonendale’s primary schools Estella Mbulli works here and explains each project with great detail focusing on what matters most: Exit Tour in 2006 where seven artists travelled through seven countries in West Africa seeking informal spaces to engage with artistic projects made during the trip The purpose of Exit Tour was to arrive in Dakar for the opening of the Biennale and “interrogate the trip as a means of aesthetic drifting,” he explains.Albeit tiny “Art Bakery” includes a library that provides the best editions of the Universal History of Art the catalogues of Les Magiciens de la Terre as well as some issues of ArtForum magazine one does not quite understand the extent of interest or the existence of local readers on topics such as primitivism or the latest acquisitions of the Pigozzi collection “These were donated by the French Embassy in Yaounde,” we are told by Estella while showing the rest of the space.Largely supported by the RAIN Artist’s Initiative Network programme from the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam) which promotes cultural exchanges between Western and non-Western artists the Art Bakery has been able to find specific funds to its projects: funding from the Dutch lottery – the DOEN Foundation the Art Moves Africa (AMA) programme that aims at facilitating cultural and artistic exchanges throughout the African continent a “studio programme” that allows artists from Basel to travel during significant amounts of time to other continents a journey to the extremities of a city The 10 km’s that separate Bonendale from Douala are done in very slow and uncertain motion Cars attempt to avoid the large holes of a road scattered with stagnant waters The result is an overwhelming number of what resemble metal boxes amalgamated at the entrance of the city The large 12 metre sculpture “La Nouvelle Liberté” While an ironic analogy may situate it closer to the Statue of Liberty many people do travel to Douala attempting their luck the truth is that the city is a dim “el dourado” filled with misery already described early in the century by Louis Ferdinand Céline In the energy of a newly conquered colonialism the French writer felt the space and freedom of action but does not refrain from characterising Douala as the sick “Fort Gono” from Voyage au Bout de la Nuit delusions and sexual encounters between white men and black women.Currently Douala is an extraordinarily dynamic city and the stage of constant spatial one of the most striking features is certainly the development of social and economic fabric setting in motion movement that constantly arranges and mixes ethnicities Douala falls under the type of cities of the South and new ways of organizing the informal sector A city in transit in its forms and content allowing us to experience life in a shifting world a “vernacular cosmopolitanism” (Homi Bhabha) La Pagode (Manga Bell's family palace, Douala-Bonanjo) the city as a laboratory: Doual’artIt is from the city and particularly of an understanding of the city as a living organism defined as a research lab on urban matters.   We are welcomed by Didier Schaub the artistic director who shows us the space while speaking about the history of the organization he co-runs with Marilyn Douala Bell “The space was an old cinema we recovered in 1991 when we started and today it is a gallery hosting a number of initiatives.” Some of the ongoing activities of the organization include exhibitions educational activities and training activities On display is an installation of the Moroccan artist Younis Rahmouni but preparations are already underway for the next pieces by the French duo of artists of the Art Orienté Objet The type of projects of this organisation relate to what we could call “social engineering” focusing on the actions of the neighbourhoods of Douala and establishing projects with various communities “It was the long-term experience in the neighbourhoods of Douala that led to the idea of the main project we are now dedicated to  LDS Salon Urbain de Douala is a biennial presentation of projects of public art that has been undertaken by the organization Doual’art and is preceded by a curatorial meeting  Arts et Urbis will bring some curatorial reflection to Douala or the Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou and will also serve to discuss the city and its relationship to water the main concept of SUD 2010.Hervé Yemguem is one of the artists who will perform a project for SUD in 2010 and represents the younger generation of Cameroonian artists He has already started preparing “Mots Écrits” in collaboration with young rappers in the neighbourhood of New Bell producer of the activities of doual’art and fine connoisseur of the city takes us there “New Bell” is the district with the largest number of immigrants in the city as well as the most conflicting Muslims who pray facing Mecca coexist alongside groups of men who are most interest in partying The territory is marked millimetrically and youth groups dominate the streets and its intersections waiting for customers to make their daily share of money from boys in moto-taxis and in “pousse-pousse,” wheelbarrows carrying goods from one place to another and can be negotiated according to distance.We arrive at Hervé Yamguem’s house Two divisions that also serve as an open workshop to the New Bell neighbourhood The poet and artist is working on the theme of “water” for the Salon Urbaine de Douala (LDS) The rhythms of the young rappers from New Bell help the work and the party “C’est le sauvetage./ Ils fanam de gauche à droite./ Le combat est rude./ L’eau est un miroir du monde” the stage name of the young man just arriving tells us that “the water here in the neighbourhood is very precious Sometimes we have to attend to the fact that Muslims spend water to wash five times a day while the mums have no water.” Until the SUD 2010 we prepare the general presentation of the projects in each district with rest of the artists Younès Rahmoun instalation in Doual’art, Douala several important events were highlighted in the media the conflict escalated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the death of the South African singer and human rights activist Miriam Makeba was announced; internationally the leaders of the largest economic powers in the world met to define a strategic plan in response to the financial crisis is symptomatic of the image of Africa circulated particularly around Western spheres Whether we concentrate on the inherent nature of each of the events listed Africa is portrayed as an over-determined image a place capable of shaping the abundance of circulating discourses the terms and labels for the continent and the situations of traumatic nature.The widespread geography that characterises Africa both internal and externally the continent remains a space of ambivalence that still polarizes fundamental issues as human rights Barack Obama’s victory had once again at the centre of the debate issues of race and class The Indian historian Sarat Maharaj accurately suggests and alerts us to the fact that we are falling into the “spectacle of discourse” Curators and organisers of cultural initiatives with significant visibility ‘Reflexive pauses’ and ‘emptiness’ are now promoted as is the case of the last edition of the São Paulo Biennale in a firm awareness of expanding and building upon these principles in search of new territories.But is it possible to formalise and legitimise these statements which derive mostly from critical agents the symbolic legitimization of the highest purchasing power If all spheres of life are threatened by the certainties that the current Western system has reached the artistic field constitutes no exception to this loosened guiding lines may arise in spaces beyond the macro-scale the specificities may be invested in (in the case of the biennale model) and forms of creation and production that amplify experience may be called upon.    Published in Arte Capital  PhD student in "contemporary culture and outsider art" at the University Nova (Lisbon) She has worked regularly in cultural projects as curator Master in Museology / Culture and Communication (FCT) Université d'Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse (2005) She coordinated the Sines Arts Centre (2006-2008) where she programmed the exhibition center Amongst curatorial projects: "Theater Poster Assistant Curator (Faro Capital of Culture 2005 2007)," The situation is tense but under control "(co-curator Lisbon; V Bienal de Sao Tome and Principe (co-curator She has dedicated herself to art criticism and exhibitions Published under a Creative Commons License Ibrahim El-Salahi  Zak Ové The aesthetically captivating 23rd edition of the biennale shows how art can contribute to debates around environmental sustainability Artists for generations have shown vision and leadership in addressing society’s most wicked problems Yet art by itself cannot change the world without a platform International biennales are the most high-profile exhibition platforms of our times As the third oldest continuous international biennale the Biennale of Sydney is one of the most authoritative and influential contemporary art exhibitions in the world Working collaboratively with a team of four Sydney-based curators from Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE) Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) and the Art Gallery of NSW the artistic director and Colombian curator José Roca has addressed some of the most pressing preoccupations of the day the current 23rd edition shows how biennales can make a constructive contribution to debates around environmental sustainability and can advocate for a less ecologically combative inhabitation of Earth This is not a dry or didactic exhibition: it is rich with wonder Nyikina Warrwa woman Dr Anne Poelina recently co-authored an article about the growing recognition of the legal rights of rivers She is featured in one of several similar videos in the Biennale as the personification of the Martuwarra (Fitzroy) River The personhood of rivers is a key premise underpinning the entire 2022 Biennale At the entrance to each of the exhibition venues a different river greets the viewer: its cultural significance and ecological woes embodied by a First Nations custodian narrator It is a deft curatorial device that serves to link the exhibitions across Sydney and establish the equal status this biennale affords art For the previous Biennale in 2020 artistic director Brook Andrew made a similar curatorial intervention with his “Powerful Objects” installation at each venue which served to gently reiterate the exhibition’s postcolonial discourse This is just one element of continuity between the 2020 and 2022 editions; another is the foregrounding of First Nations cultural knowledge If biennales are to retain relevance in these difficult times they must look to curatorial models that accumulate rather than discard strategies and knowledge gained with each edition the 2022 Biennale of Sydney strengthens messaging from the 2020 edition key aspects of which were impacted by COVID-19 with closures and cancellations and for that reason also have been taken up by Roca and his team This signals a curatorial generosity not usually associated with biennales more commonly perceived as the playground of individualistic artists and star curators Badger Bates with Anthony Hayward & David Doyle Purchased 2021 with funds from Gina Fairfax through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art One former biennale legacy project built on in the 2022 edition is Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks: City Forestation Instead of City Administration Beuys – a German artist and environmental activist – launched the project by planting seeds for 7000 oak trees in Kassel the planting of a single tree was commissioned for that year’s Biennale of Sydney Beuys’ work is referenced by two projects at the Art Gallery of NSW. The first is by English artist duo Ackroyd & Harvey, well known internationally for their ongoing tree-planting project Beuys’ Acorns Read more: Dance in the arts: choreographing collaboration in museums For the biennale they have created monumental “living” portraits of environmentalist Lille Madden and her grandfather Uncle Charles “Chicka” Madden the commanding portraits are ephemeral like grass itself and will likely fade over time The second work connecting back to Beuys is One Beat One Tree A digital interactive installation by the late Belgian artist Naziha Mestaoui it invites visitors to “plant” and “grow” a tree with dance-like moves the work also has real-world reforestation outcomes Another response to Beuys’ tree is being performed by artist Mike Parr this week The 2022 biennale’s homage to Beuys resuscitates Australia’s iteration of one of the world’s earliest and most iconic environmental artworks which will be relaunched with the opening of Sydney Modern later this year cultures and natural environments epitomises the 22nd Biennale of Sydney making it is near impossible to single out individual works as highlights Those that conjure the concepts of flow and interconnectedness most clearly articulate the exhibition premise There is Bernie Krause’s audio feast titled The Great Animal Orchestra and Cave Urban’s suspended bamboo river at Barangaroo Courtesy the artists; Hera Büyüktaşçıyan Courtesy the artist & Green Art Gallery Courtesy the artists & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima Leanne Tobin’s film traces the journey of the Burramatta (Parramatta) River eels at ACE Hanna Tuulikki’s equally hypnotic film depicts the artist singing to and swimming with seals in her native Scotland Carolina Caycedo’s expansive wall map of waterways at the National Art School Gallery is matched in its big picture vision by Barthélémy Toguo’s similarly sweeping painting encapsulates the exhibition’s interdisciplinary approach in a way that The 2022 Biennale of Sydney invites new audiences through its attention to those international issues also impacting Australia and in its extensive participation with local artists and communities Though still very much part of the international biennale network this exhibition has all the ingredients to offer Australian visitors inspiration and meaningfulness at a time when art and exhibitions are all too easily overshadowed by the global challenges we face Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article UNSW respectfully acknowledges the Bidjigal clan of the Dharawal Nation on whose unceded lands we are privileged to learn and recognise the broader Nations with whom we walk together UNSW acknowledges the enduring connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to culture The Uluru Statement is delighted to announce Water is a Right the new exhibition by French-Cameroonian artist Barthélemy Toguo in which he invites viewers to discover new works conceived for the exhibition as part of a residency at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona Here he has created a realm where fish and birds live side by side “Taking stock of the current problem of the lack of drinking water in many parts of Africa and the rest of the world, I decided to transform the exhibition space into an aquatic environment. I love the shape of fish and invent other imaginary ones. With the sea in mind, I often draw the blue dotted lines in my work. I imagine rain and oceans transforming a scene or landscape into a marine universe. I marvel at the fluidity of the water non-violent world; its colour is undeniably beautiful but it’s clear that this substance offers more visual softness than a rock The dream of falling into water rather than onto a rock creates greater serenity.” Water “is an invaluable and vital element that invites us to dream and gives us life” is cruelly lacking in several parts of the planet and website in this browser for the next time I comment © All rights reserved. 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