June 2016 ________________________________________________________________________ What we do…

(ART)AtWork: The crowdfunding campaign to support AtWork Addis Ababa Until June 25th | On the Art Basel curated Kickstarter page (Art)AtWork continues: our crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter on invitation by Art Basel for Non-Profit Visual Arts Organizations to implement the sixth chapter of AtWork, which will be held in Addis Ababa in December 2016. The 5-day workshop will be led by the renowned curator Simon Njami, AtWork co-creator and our advisor, in partnership with Addis Foto Fest and internationally acclaimed Ethiopian artist Aida Muluneh. Among the rewards that pledgers can receive are valuable works of art generously offered by such artists as Maurice Pefura, Luca Vitone, Giorgio Vigna and Enzo Umbaca. Click here to contribute to the campaign.

Finissage of AtWork notebooks exhibition at AfroPixel#5 during Dak’Art 2016 Until June 3d |Public library of Sicap Liberté 2 lettera27 is once again partnering with Afropixel, the festival that we have supported since its first edition. On the occasion of AfroPixel#5, organized by our partner Ker Thiossane as part of the official program of Dak’Art 2016 Biennale, we have inaugurated the exhibition of Moleskine notebooks created by young creative talents that have participated to the workshops held in Dakar, Abidjan, Kampala and Cairo during the last 4 years. The works have been exhibited in a public library of Sicap Liberté 2, which we have renovated for the occasion. The neighbours and the Biennale audiences have really appreciated the exhibition, curated by Katrin Peters-Klaphake, which helped them rediscover the library as a local historical place of culture. The exhibition will remain open to the public until the end of the Biennale.

A new contribution for Why Africa? The intimate gaze of Cristina Ali Farah follows the path that ties Somalia to London passing by Bruxelles. Recollecting faces, places and stories, the writer rebuilds the atmosphere and the density that they express in the context of the diaspora, artforms and creativity. The encounter with Kinsi Abdulleh, a visual artist and a social worker, the curator of the contemporary art festival organized by the Numbi Arts collective, is the departure point of this journey walk titled “London walks”.

TIK – The space of experimentation to redefine the social and the political in migration June 2 - 4|Arpj Il Tetto Onlus Lungotevere Dante n.5 Roma | 10:AM – 6:PM Tik is the name of the new physical and symbolic space, supported among others, by Archivio delle Memorie Migranti (AMM). It is born with the idea to contribute to the creation of the new forms of relations and resistence and a new approach to the migration dimension. Tik is the space that experiments with Ludopedia, a methodology of a political intervention born in Uruguay during the military dictatorship.

The gazes inside June 7-10 | Roma Cinema Farnese - Cinema Apollo 11 - Casa del Cinema - ICBSA The project The gazes inside is curated by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Associazione Amici di Giana, Archivio delle Memorie Migranti with the financial support of Ministery of Cultural Goods for the “Migrants” grant. It’s realized in partnership with Casa del Cinema, Apollo 11, Cinema Farnese Persol and Istituto Centrale per i Beni Sonori e Audiovisivi. The project wants to reflect on the migrant cinema through the screening of a series of films, many of which have been awarded Mutti-AMM award, and to develop the themes with the intervention of the directors and cinema experts.

Alter Ego

June 12, opening at 16:00 | Quirinetta, Roma An entire day dedicated to the dialogue and exchange between Italy and Africa through a rich program of music, theatre, dance and visual arts. Among various conversations on African contemporary art, Adama Sanneh, lettera27 Programs Director will share what we have done during Dak’Art 2016, during which lettera27 has exhibited the notebooks created in the last 4 years of AtWork workshops. The exhibition will feature the works of Jebila Okongwu, Maimouna Guerresi, Alterazioni Video, Mwangi Hutter, Cesar Meneghetti. Next to the artists’ pieces lettera27 will show a selection of AtWork notebooks from its art collection. The exhibition will remain open until July 15th.

AtWork al Crowdfunding Booth at Art Basel June 16-19th | Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland As part of the Crowdfunding Booth program of the European edition of one of the most important contemporary art fairs in the world, we will be showing the tangible cultural richness of AtWork, our itinerant educational format for young creative talents. While showing a selection of the notebooks produced during the last 4 years of AtWork workshops we will present our crowdfunding campaign to realize AtWork Addis Ababa during Addis Foto Fest this December. The campaign has been launched on invitation from Art Basel on the Kickstarter page curated by them.

Lago meets AtWork Addis

June 21- 22d | Lago Apartment, via Brera 30 To mark the end of our (Art)AtWork crowdfunding campaign for AtWork Addis Ababa, Lago Apartment will host lettera27 for two inspiring appointments of exchange and creativity. On June 21st at 6:PM, by invitation only, there will be a conversation between Daniele Lago, Maria Sebregondi and lettera27 on the theme “Never stop learning”. The event will also host an exhibition of some of the most interesting notebooks from lettera27’s art collection. The artists Erminia De Luca, Maurice Pefura, Enzo Umbaca, Luca Vitone, Giorgio Vigna that have generously donated their works as rewards for the crowdfunding campaign will be happy to present their pieces during the evening. It will be possible to purchase the works directly at the event to sustain the campaign. On June 22d the exhibition will be open to the public.

________________________________________________________________________

What we suggest...

Future ways of living June 8th at 19.30 | Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan Meet the Media Guru and La Triennale di Milano come together to explore the global innovation in design and the future of the cities. The ethics of design in a social context is the theme of the encounter with the Kenyan Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, industrial designer, professor of Industrial Design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology of Cape Town and the president of World Design Organization. Mugendi re-proposes the idea of industrial design starting from the design trends of the African continent.

Being and Becoming: Complexities of the African Identity May 25th – June 25th | UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa A contemporary art exhibition curated by Paula Nascimento and Raphael Chikukwa in conversation with Bongani Mkhonza. “Complexities of the African Identity” features the works of some of the most prominent video and photography artists form Africa and the African diaspora including , Yinka Shonibare, Robin Rhode, Ayana V. Jackson, Lerato Shadi, Kudzanai Chiurai, Thando Mama, Louis Kakudji, Irineu Destourelles, Yonamine Miguel, Délio Jasse, Nástio Mosquito, Mario Macilau, Helen Zeru, Mudi Yahaya, Edson Chagas, and more.

The Nationless Pavilion 2016 May 28th – November 27th | 15° International Architecture Biennial in Venice Nation25 is back to the Venice Biennial with The Nationless Pavillion: the physical and mental space for those not represented by any national pavilion in the artistic and social sense. The frontier and the search for the new forms of adaptability, the central themes of this year’s Biennial, are reflected in the exhibitions and artistic performances that will be realized. The series of performances curated by Nation25, Embodying Borders, will feature the artistic collective Kinkaleri and the Palestinian performer and choreographer Nadia Arouri, the founder of the theatre company Yante, whose work centers on the Israel-Palestine geopolitics, using the dance as means of resistance.

Who I Am : Rediscovered Portraits from Apartheid South Africa June 2d- September 3d | The Walther Collection Project Space, New York, United States “Who I Am” is a selection of studio portraits rediscovered and realized during the apartheid in South Africa. The black and white shots, realized between 1972 and 1984 by the photographer Singarum Jeevaruthnam Moodley nicknamed “Kitty”, presented by the Walther Collection, capture a number of intense faces that tell us about the life conditions of the workers from the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. These are the eloquent images capable of transmitting the social change, the inter-gender relationships, the ethnic portraits of time and the power relationships that have been conditioning the working environment for a long time.

Blaxploitalian – A hundred years of Afrostories in the Italian cinema June 4th Gonzaga University, Florence | June 13th Giugno University of Texas, Rome Fred Kuwornu, the director of the documentary Blaxploitalian will be the guest of the American Universities in Italy conference titled “Intersections 2016”. Inspired by the book “Africa in Italy” edited by Leonardo De Franceschi, Blaxploitalian is the documentary that follows the traces of various pioneers that have preceeded the new generation of Afroitalians, starting from the end of the nineteenth century. A story that spans more than a hundred years, starting from the silent and colonial cinema and ending up with the contemporary cinema, telling the stories of the Afroitalian actors.

The Incantation Of The Disquieting Muse June 4th – August 7th | SAVYY Contemporary, Berlin The project, curated by SAVVY Contemporary, deliberates around concepts of the supranatural beyond Western misconceptions – through an exhibition, performances, lectures, and other invocations. It looks at how 'witchery' phenomena and practices manifest themselves within cultural, economical, political, religious and scientific spaces in Africa and beyond.

Laba! Arts Festival 2016

June 11th | Bukoto Street, Kamwokya, Uganda The festival is born out of the necessity to create new spaces of musical and artistic expression, to favour artistic and intellectual encounters and to increase the dialogue between the artists and various creative approaches. This year the festival is at its tenth edition revolving around the “Open theme”. The wide horizons proposed by the title of the manifestation will allow to concentrate on the free collective artistic creations as well as on the individual experiences to guarantee the possibility to the spectator to encounter a wide expressive range of the contemporary art in Uganda.

Camminando controvento: Igiaba Scego – Caetano Veloso June 2016 As part of the Incendi book series, a new title Walking againt the wind, is about to come out. It’s an encounter with the visionary and musical, poetic and singing world of Caetano Veloso through the words of Igiaba Scego. A creative and innovative journey through the existence and the works of one of the most important musicians of the 19th century, under the guidance of the writer who herself is a master of travel.

The Cape Town Art Fair The Cape Town Art Fair launched the call for artists for the fifth edition of the festival that will take place between the 17th and the 19th of February. Cape Town, characterized by the lively artistic scene, will become a gallery of contemporary African art. Thanks to its cultural heritage and its favourable geographic position and extraordinary beauty, Cape Town will become the perfect destination to show the art works representative of our times and its capacity to innovate.