Being Her(e) curated by Paula Nascimento & Violet Nantume
SDC
November 24, 2017 till January 7, 2018
Location
Calçada Domingos Tehakahanga nr. 18 B - Luanda, Angola
Contact
galeria.auditorio@bancoeconomico.ao
Being Her(e) examines the historical and contemporary perceptions of what it means to be a female body in contemporary Africa. The double interplay in the title implies not only a presence denoted through time and place – being here – but also an irrefutable and defiant female presence, which articulates itself as an individual – being her.
Navigating a historiography of the body, which chooses to articulate its presence and impact, Being Her (e) proposes a reflection on the act of myth making in relation to the female body, embodying and performing ‘woman’ and female interiority. It does so, by addressing various themes, including gender, agency, subjectivity, memory, belonging, sexuality, and identity. The exhibition invokes the body as a site and starting point – an intimate and collective space and a site for social and political inscription, where history is contested, and fantasies are played out – as well as time and temporality as they pertain to transitions from girlhood into womanhood on the African continent. Furthermore, we consider notions of (self) representation and what it means to live and leave, memory and personal geographies.
The artworks curated and presented in Being Her (e) confront, contextualize, and question the historical and contemporary notions of what it means to be a female body in Africa as well as the African diaspora, questioning preconceived ideas about womanhood and femaleness, as well as a reflection on the somehow elusive theme of identity and its representation.
