{"id":15295,"date":"2016-07-04T11:42:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T09:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/?p=15295"},"modified":"2019-08-15T18:38:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T16:38:18","slug":"somnyama-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/somnyama-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Somnyama in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt from a press release by Lerato Dumse<\/em><\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=10209946229152020&set=a.10202396821021535.1073741833.1223456677&type=3&theater\"
\nZanele Muholi at the installation of Somnyama Ngonyama. Exhibition view from SYSTEMATICALLY OPEN? \u2014 New Forms for Contemporary Image Production, Arles, France, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n

Somnyama in France<\/h2>\n

Somnyama Ngonyama<\/em> exhibition [by Zanele Muholi] is part of the launch of La M\u00e9canique G\u00e9n\u00e9rale, a new exhibition venue in the Parc des Ateliers in Arles (France). The Luma exhibition opens on the 4th of July [and runs] until September 25, 2016. This is Zanele Muholi\u2019s first comprehensive Somnyama Ngonyama<\/em> series exhibition. Somnyama was first shown on October 22, 2015 at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City followed by a Johannesburg opening a month later at the Stevenson Gallery. The [group] exhibition is titled SYSTEMATICALLY OPEN? \u2014 New Forms for Contemporary Image Production<\/em>, it is part of the international photography festival Les Rencontres d\u2019Arles 2016.<\/p>\n

This touring series recently opened at the Grahams Town National Arts Festival, running from 30 June – 10 July 2016 at the Standard Bank Art gallery, Albany Museum [USA]. The Grahams Town show opened two weeks after Somnyama was part of the unveiling of the Mina\/Meg<\/a><\/em> titled group show, at the Oslo Historical Museum, [Norway].<\/p>\n

Luma website describes the exhibition as \u201cdrawing upon avant-garde, political, and critically conscious legacies of aesthetic production, providing a new framework for experiencing the image as a reproduction, and prompts a structural rethinking of the photographic medium.\u201d The selection process of the participating artists, which [also] includes Walead Beshty, Elad Lassry, and Collier Schorr, followed Luma\u2019s core group \u201cestablishing a competition process to consider the contemporary importance of exhibition display.\u201d They then selected architect Philippe Rahm and four artists; to each develop a curatorial project within Rahm\u2019s overall exhibition design.<\/p>\n

Muholi\u2019s artist statement reads, \u201cSomnyama Ngonyama can be translated to \u2018Hail, the Dark Lioness.\u2019 The body of work uses stylized self-portraiture as a means to commemorate, question, and celebrate the ways the black body has been represented in photography.\u201d Muholi has chosen the Somnyama project as the base of confronting racial dynamics in her country of birth South Africa and other countries experiencing racism. The project, which is meant to be complete after 365 portraits is sustained by doing internal observations and dealing with personal issues stored in Muholi\u2019s childhood memories.<\/p>\n

Going big is one route the photographer opted for. The exhibition features six large wallpapers, averaging 4m high and 4m long. Many of the works on display are being shown for the first time. 29 framed pigment prints will be shown along with a digital slideshow projection with about 80 self-portraits playing in loop. The props influence the aesthetic in many of Muholi\u2019s Somnyama images. She has been successful in using everyday products including Pegs, Pot scourers, Flight pillow, Chopsticks, Masking tape, Latex gloves, Electric chord, Money (ZAR) and Belts. These props amongst many others will be part of the installation.<\/p>\n

Muholi, a firm believer of collaborations has teamed up with Napo Masheane who comes on board with her words. As a founding member of Feela Sista! Spoken Word Collective, Masheane has her own collaboration experience. The playwright, poet, stage director, producer, teacher as well as a local and international performer, shares a passion for the visibility of black women with Muholi. In an interview with Bona magazine Masheane declares that she is concerned with ensuring that \u201cour stories are told the way we want them to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Link<\/h2>\n

Must-See Queer Feminist Exhibitions in Europe Summer 2016 by Anna McNay and Birthe Havmoeller<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muholi\u2019s artist statement reads, \u201cSomnyama Ngonyama can be translated to \u2018Hail, the Dark Lioness.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,23],"tags":[400],"class_list":["post-15295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photography","category-queer-art","tag-zanele-muholi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}