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After four years of producing our magazine Contemporary And (C&), we know our readers are focused on and interested in features, essays, and interviews with young voices as well as old masters or trailblazing curators from African perspectives, be they in São Paulo, New Jersey, or Lubumbashi.
At the same time, our global readers are not only consuming all the insights gathered on C&, they are also avidly dedicated to constantly furthering their own professional growth, to broadening their skills and practices. How do we know that? Because the C& section “opportunities”—featuring residencies, calls for applications, workshops, conferences etc.—consistently has click figures in the thousands. What might seem less challenging from a journalistic perspective in comparison to our features, exclusive interviews, and essays is in fact a substantial area of our work: the aspect of education, providing information among young artists and curators in Africa and the Diaspora. This is also strongly reflected in our practice beyond the magazine: our third C& Critical Writing Workshop just ended in Lubumbashi; plans for the upcoming workshop in Harare in September are underway; and the C& Mentoring Program with young writers from Nairobi, Kigali, and Addis Ababa are in full swing.
This print issue is therefore solely dedicated to education in the arts. Interviews and guest contributions bring together ideas, experiences, tools, and learning spaces/formats in the fields of art, critical education, theory, and everyday practices. They engage with such questions as: What discourses, formal, and informal activities are emerging in the field of art education? What are the links between art, education, and global power relations? What innovative and alternative forms of art education have been applied in the past and today?
From Aida Muluneh‘s photography festival (Addis Foto Fest and the associated master classes to Souleymane Bachir Diagne‘s views on knowledge production and philosophy to the recent #feesmustfall protest movement in South Africa through the mediation of art history in Yaoundé, this issue presents perspectives and possible strategies by players in the field of cultural mediation.
The publication of this issue coincides with documenta 14 in Kassel, curated by Adam Szymczyk and his curatorial team, including curator-at-large Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. To mark the occasion, we interviewed participating artists from African perspectives such as Pélagie Gbaguidi and Akinbode Akinbiyi about their interest in the mediation of artistic knowledge.
Finally, we are glad to feature in this issue leading players involved in the upcoming conference “Under the Mango tree − Ulterior Sites of Learning” taking place on July 18–19, 2017 in Kassel, hosted by the ifa and in cooperation with documenta 14.
To find out more about previous print issues of Contemporary And, click here.
