Kerkennah01
Kerkennah01
Photo: director, John Fleetwood, has been invited to curate an exhibition for Kerkennah01 , an international photography festival, directed by Olfa Feki, set on the Kerkennah Islands, off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia. Fleetwood is one of five curators invited to curate an exhibition for the festival, his fellow curators are, Jeanne Mercier (France), Missla Libsekal (Canada), Valentine Busquet (France) and Hejer Chelbi (Tunisia).
Of traps and tropes
21-27 June 2018
Curated by John Fleetwood
‘Of traps and tropes’, curated by Fleetwood, features work by artists héla ammar (Tunisia), Matt Kay (South Africa), Meghna Singh (India) and Simon Gush (South Africa).
Set in a shipyard on the island of Cherqui, ‘Of traps and tropes’ reflects the intricacies and complexities of construction and labour in this setting. Photography and video works included in the exhibition show how photography is used to record and make history but also, how it can be used to hide, erase and manipulate history. ‘Of traps and tropes’ reflects on history as the constant, multiple and often contesting writings and re-writings that mark the de/constructions of narratives: of different ways of telling stories, of stories collapsing into stories.
©Simon Gush. From the series 'The Island'
©Meghna Singh. From 'Arrested Motion'
©hela ammar. From 'Saadya'
©Matt Kay. From the series 'Losing Ground'
The shipyard marks a site of construction, labour, mobility and, of a socio-economic reality. The works of the artists featured in ‘Of traps and tropes’ intersect delicately with these topics through central themes in their own work. Relevant themes include: the writing and rewriting of history as a continuous process; construction and erasure of memory; contestation of collective history through the performance of memory and, the marking of history as a non-moment through the suspension of time in the act of waiting for something to happen.
Fleetwood, ammar, Gush, Kay and Singh will travel to Kerkennah islands for the festival period, the seven-day programme for Kerkennah01 includes workshops, walkabouts with the artists, panel discussions and presentations by the curators.
‘Of traps and tropes’ is supported by an ANT Mobility Grant from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
For more information contact Georgia Munnik
Posted 06 Jun 2018