Okwui Enwezor Boeken

For much of Africa the 20th century was overshadowed by the experience of colonial rule, with political independence arriving for most peoples only in the last 50 years. "The Short Century" is a broad survey of cultural life in Africa from the independence movements through the post-colonial era to the end of apartheid in 1994. Expansive, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated, this book studies achievements in all areas of the performing and fine arts, photography, literature, theatre, architecture, music, and film.

Snap New Positions in Contemporary African Photography gathers approximately 250 works by 30 artists from across the continent, an amazingly wide range of individual artistic responses to the unprecedented shifts taking place in Africa's economic, social and cultural spheres. In addition to introducing audiences to the multiple imaginations and voices of today's African artists, Snap Judgments explores the ways photo-based art has developed across the dialectic of traditional African aesthetic values and Western influences. Contemporary African photography has emerged in the post-World War II de-colonization movements, the quest for independent national identity, and the effects of globalization and modernity. Snap Judgments organizes the work that grew out of all that into four thematic groups--landscape; urban formations; the body and identity; and history and representation--groups that reflect the issues around which Africa's experimental artists have been articulating new styles and visual languages. Nigerian independent curator and art historian Okwui Enwezor, widely recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on contemporary African art, has included an essay by art historian Colin Richard, an appendix on recent exhibitions of African photography, biographical notes on the artists, and a general bibliography.

Die Geschichte der Apartheid in Südafrika – eine umfassende Auseinandersetzung mit Ursprung, Entwicklung und Niedergang Fotografen wie Eli Weinberg, Alf Khumalo, David Goldblatt, Peter Magubane, Ian Berry u. a. spielten eine äußerst wichtige Rolle in der Dokumentation der Apartheid. Ihre Bilder belegen, wie das System die alltäglichsten Aspekte des südafrikanischen Lebens durchdrang, vom Wohnen über öffentliche Einrichtungen und Verkehr bis hin zu Bildung, Tourismus, Religion und Handel. Chronologisch aufgebaut, verbindet der vorliegende Band Fotografien und kenntnisreiche Texte miteinander, um die entscheidenden Aspekte der Apartheid zu ergründen, wie die Institutionalisierung mit Hilfe des Rechtssystems, den wachsenden Widerstand in den 1950er Jahren, die Radikalisierung der Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung sowie Mandelas Rückkehr. Detailliert und umfassend recherchiert, präsentiert Rise and Fall of Apartheid beeindruckendes Fotomaterial aus mehr als 60 Jahren und wird so zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der historischen Dokumentation Südafrikas.

The catastrophic fate of European Jewry during the years of National Socialism in Germany and the subsequent calamity of the holocaust for both Jews and other minorities under the Third Reich have continued to press on contemporary thinkers and historians the difficult task of coming to terms with its features. While the Holocaust or Shoah remains representative of a form of state crime, its overwhelming singularity is today tested by many cases of state impunity, systemic violence, repression, war crimes, and gross human rights violations--especially in the Balkans and Rwanda. In the wake of the debates around such violations, new and formidable categories of jurisprudence are emerging in which such notions as transitional justice, global justice, and universal jurisdiction are working to reshape the nature of judicial sovereignty on the one hand and accountability on the other in the post-cold war period. Experiments with Truth engages with the vicissitudes of the emerging debates around "Truth and Reconciliation," new forms of global justice, testimonies and memories of communities. In this volume a wide range of intellectuals, artists, filmmakers, and historians respond to the challenge of transitional justice in often difficult but illuminating ways.

Beginning as a full-fledged literary movement in the late 1980s in the French Caribbean, Creolite ventured into the "chaos" produced by history to reclaim nationalist Creole identities.

Recently democracy has been the watchword for a range of disparate, yet apparently convergent contestations and negotiations within the global order. Democracy Unrealized , detailing the results of Platform1, the first of four conferences held in conjunction with Documenta 11, presents a context within which the interpretive and conceptual regimes surrounding democracy can be reargued against the claims of a neoliberal ideology. From this globalist viewpoint, democracy described as an unfinished project requires no structural changes, for it is complete in all its foundational features, requiring only small technical adjustments and minor tinkering. This is how the main Western democracies have seen themselves--at best as "incomplete implementations" of equality and justice, rather than as limited, flawed, dead-ended, and problematic. In response to this presumption, this book proceeds from the idea that realizing democracy is partly a matter of bringing to light what liberal democracy has promised but failed to deliver. The emphasis here is on the potential for revision, a reevaluation of values, and the extension and creative transformation necessary to keep in step with 21st-century globalizing processes. This is democracy as an ever open, essentially unfinishable project that in principle has fallen short of its ideals.

Today the procedural mechanisms of urban studies are working to interpret new urban paradigms that a century ago were largely absent in a great many cities around the world. African cities are becoming the exemplars for the emergence of new urban formations that are of great interest to many researchers working in the social sciences. This interest has brought into critical light how new urban agglomerations, arrangements, and institutions are emerging from the inadequacies of the public sector, proposing a modernizing cultural revision and a rearrangement of many of the essential elements of familial identification and authority. Out of these transformations, many of which are improvisatory, new types of relations and exchanges, survival and subsistence, forms of solidarity and resistance are produced. It is in the polymorphous and apparently chaotic logic of the postcolonial city that we may find the signs and new codes of expression of new urban identities in formation. Under Four African Cities underlines a central paradox that seems to rule the view of African cities, namely their inherent dynamism and obsolescence, and engages different kinds of understanding of subjectivity and the cultural, political, social sphere of present day African urban conditions.

Organised and written by renowned scholar and ICP adjunct curator Okwui Enwezor, 'Archive Fever' presents works by leading contemporary artists who use archival documents to rethink the meaning of identity, history, memory, and loss

The book offers an in-depth exploration of El Anatsui's artistic journey, highlighting his evolution from early wood reliefs and terracottas to his iconic monumental metal sculptures. Drawing on over thirty years of research and collaboration with the artist, it delves into the themes of alternative art-making models that permeate his work. Authored by esteemed scholars Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, it stands as a definitive account of Anatsui's contributions to contemporary art.

Exploring the evolution of photography, the book showcases Thomas Ruff's innovative approaches over three decades. It highlights his latest works that delve into the historical context, processes, and technologies that shape contemporary images. Ruff's investigation offers insights into the significance and status of photography in today's culture, making it a compelling read for art enthusiasts and those interested in the intersection of art and technology.