Publication: Pubic Art in Africa
book release date : 14.03.2017
ebook release date : 09.2017
Publication Public Art in Africa. Art and urban transformations in Douala
by Iolanda Pensa et al.
Public Art in Africa is the first book exclusively dedicated to public art in Africa. It focuses on the experience of more than 86 contemporary artworks realized in public spaces in the city of Douala (Cameroon), between 1991 and 2013. This book explores the role and the impact of art on urban transformations according to two complementary perspectives (a series of essays and a catalogue raisonné) and with the personal and subjective point of view of 70 international and Cameroonian artists, curators, museum directors, cultural institutions and art critics, who have been involved for years in the production of contemporary artworks. doual’art , the cultural institution at the center of the public art production in Douala, organizes since 2007 the Salon Urbain de Douala (SUD), an event which enriches the cultural heritage of the city every three years. An enriched digital version of the volume contains an additional series of academic essays, which aim to lay the theoretical foundations of public art in Africa. A historiographical and iconographic glossary adds to the understanding of contemporary artistic practices in the continent.
editors :
Iolanda Pensa is an art critic and a researcher at the Laboratory of Visual Culture at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). After studying the African contemporary art biennale of Dakar, she is currently focusing her research on production and distribution systems of knowledge in a complex context (in Africa in particular and in mountain territories), on the promotion of the impact of cultural institutions and public art, Wikipedia, Creative Commons and also on events linked to African contemporary art.
With: Marta Pucciarelli, Fiona Siegenthaler, Marilyn Douala Bell, Kamiel Verschuren, Xandra Nibbeling, Lucas Grandin, Asta Adukaite, Maud de la Chapelle.
ICU art projects 