Paris Conference
Paris. an internationally key and highly influential Western space in all things concerning the arts and modernity, is the perfect stage for Black Portraiture[s]: The Black Body in the West, the fifth in a series of conferences organized by Harvard University and NYU since 2004. Black Portraiture[s} explores ideas of the production of self-representation, desire, and the exchange of the gaze from the 19th century to the present day in fashion, film, art, and the archives. How do these images, both positive and negative, define, replicate, and transform the black body? Why and how does the black body become a commodity in the global marketplace and what are its legacies? Also, importantly, what are the responses and implications? How can performing blackness be liberating for performer and audience? How the black body has been imagined in the West has always been a rich site for global examination and contestation. The depiction of black peoples often has been governed by prevailing attitudes about race and sexuality. The conference will draw on the ideas and works of leading and emerging writers, photographers, scholars, artists, curators and filmmakers of our time and will include a broader discussion of Africa in the popular imagination.
I showed this two-chanenel video clip "simultaneously" as a preface to part of my presentation at the BLACK PORTRAITURE(S) Conference in Paris. I am not certain how to myself summarize this four day event- which Manthia Diawara, the director of Africana Studies of New York University, said in his opening remarks was the first time since 1958 that such an event has happened in Paris (and Rome that following year). He mentioned how the work of Franz Fanon was virtually still unknown in his native France, a statement that was meant to - and successfully did- stun the hundreds of international academics. The key organizers have been Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard's W.E.B. Dubois Center and Manthia Diawara of NYU'S African Studies, but as Manthia also pointed out in his opening remarks- he has been understandably distracted by the current violence in his birthplace Mali and that the conference is in fact fully in gratitude to Deborah Willis director of Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and her team who have successfully organized this massive conference that will take place at L'école superieur des beaux arts, the Sorbonne's Paris 7 and at the Musée Branly over four days.
I was scheduled to make a presentation of my work in a panel entitled "BLACK BODIES: LIVE AND UNCENSORED" organized and moderated by SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) director and chief curator Isolde Brielmaier with creative colleagues: Lyle Ashton Harris, Elizabeth Colomba, Simon Njami, Daniele Tamagni and Carrie Mae Weems. The basic premise for my own presentation of my work was the underlying trend from "embodiment" to the "disembodied". Beginning with the enigmatic (a) Burqa project
- to the (b) Negerhosen2000
- to my use of a (white) body for "hire" in (c) White Lessons
- to the body of the audience of (d) The Passion /li>
- to the metaphor of gesture in the Goddess' (e)*Butterfly-Fans
- and finally to the disembodiment and destruction of body in the Goddess Constellation's (f) Sky Above Haiti ...
The emblematic image used for the Black Portraiture's conference was by the Angolan conceptual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda entitled "Merchant of Venice" It was very well publicized including new platforms such as UPRISING Contemporary Caribbean Art who had conducted an interview with me last year in 2012 during the Kunsthal KAdE exhibition in Amersfoort NL. A great resource for all things visual (including Caribbean DNA) is ARC Magazine, click HERE for their quick summary of the overall experience soon after this Paris event. Another ARC magazine review of a specific panel is HERE.
A 51minute presentation may be seen online by going to: www.youtube.com/user/bworldconnection (unfortunately it may not be viewed Germany due to copyright conflicts)
PARIS 4DAY CONF SCHEDULE_ Event Date and Time:
January 17, 2013 – January 20, 2013
Locations:
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts Paris 7 University, Amphitheater Musée du quai Branly
PARIS January 17 – 20, 2013
THURSDAY – école nationale supérieure des beaux-arts
14 Rue Bonaparte
Amphithéâtre 1 / Bâtiment des Loges (A)
Salle de conférences/Palais des études (SC)
9:30 AM – 4:00 PM REGISTRATION
10:15 AM – 10:30 AM (A) GREETING
Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis, organizers
10:30 – 11:00 AM WELCOME BY THE ORGANIZERS (A)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (in Sierra Leone), Nicolas Bourriaud, Manthia Diawara, Jean-PaulColleyn, Awam Amkpa, Lydie Diakhaté
11:00 – 12:00 PM OPENING PLENARY SESSION (A)
Jean-Pierre Dozon and Jean-François Chevrier, moderated by Noemie Oxley
12:00 – 1:00 PM LUNCH BREAK
1:00 – 1:45 PM SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER (A)Lilian Thuram
2:00-3:30 PM EXOTISME ET AMBIGUITÉ, EXOTICISM AND AMBIGUITY (A)
Jean-Paul Colleyn, Nathalie Coutelet, Sylvie Chalaye, ChristineDouxami, Pascal Blanchard
2:00 -3:30 PM THE IMAGINARY AND THE BLACK BODY (SC)
Kalia Brooks, Anne Lafont, Michelle Stephens, AdrienneL. Childs, Alissandra Cummins, Allison Thompson, Gunja Sen Gupta, Tuliza Fleming
3:30 – 3:45 PM COFFEE BREAK / PAUSE CAFÉ
3:45-5:15 PM (T) IN THE COLLECTION: MUSEUMS AND THE ARCHIVE (A)
Dominique Malaquais, Françoise Vergès, Bogumil Jewsiewicki,Justin-Daniel Gandoulou, Prune Helfter, Christine Barthe, Ngaire Blankenberg
3:45-5:15 PM MIRROR MIRROR: THE STEREOTYPES (SC)
Lydie Diakhaté, Michele Wallace, Diagne Chanel, Nora Chipaumire,
Léonora Miano, Rokhaya Diallo, Trica Danielle Keaton
FRIDAY – Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7
15 rue Hélène Brion - 75013 Amphithéâtre Buffon
9:00– 5:00 PM REGISTRATION
9:15– 9:30 AM WELCOME
Jean-Paul Colleyn and Manthia Diawara
9:30 – 11:00 AM MEMORY & NOSTALGIA: THE ARCHIVE IN
THE BLACK BODY
Cheryl Finley, Pamela Newkirk, Roshini Kempadoo, Celeste Marie
Bernier, Brendan Wattenberg, Renée Mussai
11:00 – 12:30 PM ROUNDTABLE – BLACK BODIES: LIVE AND UNCENSORED
Isolde Brielmaier, Ph.D., Simon Njami, Carrie Mae Weems, Elizabeth Colomba,
Kader Attia, Jean-Ulrick Désert, Lyle Ashton Harris, Daniele Tamagni
12:30 – 1:30 PM LUNCH BREAK
1:30 – 3:00PM "MIX-UP, MIX-UP": NIKKI MINAJ, RIHANNA AND OTHER
(MIS)READINGS OF PLEASURE, FEMININE ARTIFICE, BLACK-CARIBBEAN-AMERICAN
DIASPORIC PERFORMANCES IN POPULAR VISUAL CULTURE
Joan Morgan, Kevin Browne, Kimberli Gant, Treva Lindsey, Mark Anthony Neal
3:00 – 3:15 PM COFFEE BREAK / PAUSE CAFÉ
3:15-4:45 PM SWEET SWAGGER: EXPLORING REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK STYLE, BEAUTY AND GRACE
Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Robert O’Meally, Mimi Plange, Ekua Abudu, Michaela angela Davis,Catherine McKinley, Katell Pouliquen, Anna Arabindan-Kesson
4:45-6:15 PM SHOW UP TO SHOW OUT: THE RISE OF GLOBAL BLACK DANDYISM
Shantrelle P. Lewis, Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Monica Miller, AllisonJanae Hamilton, Michael McMillan, Ylva Habel
SATURDAY – musée du quai Branly
37 Quai Branly
Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss (TCL) and Salle de cinéma (SC)
9:30- 5:00 PM REGISTRATION
9:30-9:40 AM WELCOME
Anne-Christine Taylor-Descola, musée du quai Branly
9:45-11:00 AM (TCL) (IL)LEGIBILITIES: WHAT MAKES THE BLACK BODY READABLE?
Awam Amkpa, J. D. Ojeikere, Renée Cox, Heike Behrend, James Barnor,
Angèle Etoundi Essamba, Kiluanji Kia Henda
9:45-11:00 AM (SC) INTRICATE INTERSECTIONS: BLACK APPARITIONS IN IMPERIAL EUROPE
Yemane Demissie, Idrissou Mora-Kpai, Temi Odumosu, Maaza Mengiste, Artwell Cain, Paul Kaplan, Dell M. Hamilton
11:00-12:30 PM (TCL) CURATING THE BLACK BODY
Lydie Diakhaté, N’Goné Fall, Xuly Bët, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Nadira Laggoune
11:00 – 12:30 PM (SC) BLACK EROTICS: NEW THEORIES ON RACE AND PORN
Nicole Fleetwood, Carla Williams, Mireille Miller-Young, Jennifer, Christine Nash, Jafari Allen
12:30 – 1:30 PM LUNCH BREAK
1:30-3:00 PM (TCL) CONTEMPORARY VOICES: NAMING AND BRANDING THE BLACK BODY
Hank Willis Thomas, Alexis Peskine, Misa Dayson, Nana Adusei-Poku, Aja Monet, Franck Freitas and Malek Bouyahia
1:30-3:30 PM (SC) ON BEAUTY: FROM JOSEPHINE TO MAXINE
Michael Dinwiddie, Anna Maria Horsford, Dyana Williams, Horace Porter, Dominic Thomas, John Shévin Foster, Myisha Priest
3:00 – 3:15 PM COFFEE BREAK / PAUSE CAFÉ
3:15-4:45 PM (TCL) UNIVERSALIZING THE BLACK BODY
Jeff Rabhan, Jason King, Tracey Sharpley-Whiting, Ed Guerrero, Sam Pollard, Lewis Watts, Vera Grant
4:45 – 6:15 PM (TCL) BLACK OPTICS: VISUALITY, THE CINEMATIC FRAME AND THE BLACK BODY Michael Gillespie, Erica Edwards, Eve Dunbar, Hiram Perez, Michael Ralph
4:45-6:15 PM (SC) OUT OF AFRICA: YOUNG WOMEN BEHIND THE LENS
Shelley Rice, Jeanne Mercier, Zanele Muholi, Nandipha Mntambo, MaïmounaGuerresi, Ayana V. Jackson, Nadia Benchalla
SUNDAY – musée du quai Branly
Film Screenings in the Salle de Cinema (SC).
11:.00 – 11:15 AM Welcome
11:15 – 11:30 AM LES PRINCES NOIRS DE SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS *
(14’, 1975) by Ben Diogaye Beye
A satire about young men who are prepared to make the most outrageous promises in order to satisfy the longings of young women for exotic experiences.
*with the support of the Cinémathèque Afrique / Institut Français.
11:30 – 12:45 PM THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ELEGANT
(69 min, 2004) documentary by George Amponsah
This is the story of one of the most unusual clubs in the world: La SAPE. Its members, the Sapeurs, come from the Democratic Republic of Congo and have elevated fashion to the status of a religion. Set to the soundtrack of Congo's extraordinary music, the film follows the sapeurs’ spiritual leader, Papa Wemba, the world-famous musician known as ‘The King of la Sape’.
1:00 – 1:45 pm NORA
(30 min, 2008) documentary by Alla Kovgan & David Hinton
In the presence of Nora Chipaumire “Nora” is based on true stories of the dancer Nora Chipaumire, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. In the film, Nora returns to the landscape of her childhood and takes a journey through some vivid memories of her youth. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image.
2:00 – 4:00 PM SHAFT
(100 min, 1971) by Gordon Parks - Original music by Isaac Hayes. Introduction by Ed Guerrero (to be confirmed)
An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob neighborhoods in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster.
4:15 – 6:00 pm MONA LISA
(1 hr. 44 min., 1986) Drama Directed by Neil Jordan
Bob Hoskins plays George, a tough but basically goodhearted British mob flunky, recently released from prison, where he'd served a term to cover up for his gangster boss (Michael Caine). Still willing to be everyone's doormat, George agrees to act as chauffeur for Simone(Cathy Tyson), a haughty, high-priced call girl.