2018 residencies, programme and events

Residencies

RAW Residency began in 2011 and has welcomed more than 40 practitioners from a variety of creative fields. The residency programme is open to visual artists working in any medium, as well as to writers, curators, musicians, filmmakers, architects and researchers. We are pleased to announce that artists Zen Marie (South Africa), Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwait), Christian Danielewitz (Denmark), Vincent Chomaz (France/Germany), and Erika Nimis (Canada) have been selected for this year’s residencies, taking place from January–March and from June–July. We will additionally be hosting and producing the site specific project of artist Godfried Donkor (UK/Ghana) and supporting artist Uriel Orlow (Switzerland) in his research through our residency programme.

Education

RAW Académie is an experimental residential programme for the research and study of artistic and curatorial practice and thought. The programme takes place over seven weeks in Dakar. It is dedicated to a dynamic reflection on artistic research, curatorial practice and critical writing. The Académie is held during two distinct sessions every year; October-December and April-June. Each session is directed by a lead faculty who has displayed an off-the-beaten-track practice in regard to art, curating and art criticism.

Session 4, Corpus Callosum, will be led by the pioneering South African performance and video artist Tracey Rose. Corpus Callosum references the space of play and potential that can be drawn out between the left and right brain, and this Académie will mine its possibilities in dismantling binary oppositions notably through performance practice. It will take place from March 26–May 11.

Session 5, Germination, will take place from October 29–December 14 and will be directed by Nigerian-born artist Otobong Nkanga. The session will look at the ways in which artistic projects contribute to ecosystems, allowing for germination and growth to take place.

Public debate

Fridays @RAW is a constellation of weekly public events that offer a platform for reflection and debate around artistic and curatorial practice, architecture and urbanism, and society and cinema. The programme is built around four different thematic components and is organised in collaboration with local practitioners and experts in their fields: vox-ARTIS is a privileged moment for artists to share their work with a diverse audience and introduce and provide insight into their practice; Parlons Sénégalaiseries is a series of debates and discussions on Senegalese society in particular and contemporary Africa at large; RAW Ciné-club consists of film screenings followed by panel discussions and CITEOLOGIES is a reflection on the contemporary African city-space through the prism of urban and architectural policy and politics.

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Symposium

Since its inception in 2011, RAW Material Company has passionately maintained a commitment to exchange between practitioners within the African continent. Condition Report, a biennial symposium reflecting on the status of artistic and curatorial practice in Africa, has contributed to the emergence of new discourses and awareness in relation to the dynamics at play in the contemporary art landscape. A third edition of Condition Report will take place from September 20–22 with a focus on contemporary African art history. It is convened in collaboration with art historian Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi and will investigate both academic and artistic practice that is forging new art histories from the continent.

International

International collaborations will include Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), participation at the Curators Academy (Singapore), the Dhaka Art Summit and guest curatorship at Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.