{"id":54,"date":"2012-09-21T17:50:18","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:00:37","slug":"rikki-wemega-kwawu","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/writings\/essay\/rikki-wemega-kwawu\/","title":{"rendered":"Writings \/ Essays: Rikki Wemega-Kwawu"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Politics of Exclusion (Concluding Text)<\/em><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hypocrisy and Double Standards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an incisive rebuttal to Enwezor\u2019s virulent criticism of Seven Stories about Modern Art in<\/em> Africa<\/em>, which was one of the exhibition highlights of africa 95<\/em><\/strong>, this is what Chika Okeke-Agulu, incidentally, one of the curators of the exhibition had to say:<\/p>\n

So, multiculturalism, or postmodernism and its other manifestations cannot be but another great Western project which the West is paying for. Only the West stands to gain in the Western cultural fad called postmodernism, therefore one sees a widening of the borders of Hamelin; there are more children but the piper remains the same [\u2026]<\/p>\n

It is rather very obvious that Okwui\u00a0 Enwezor\u2019s sympathies in terms of who should represent Africa, lies not with artists living on the continent, but with the \u201cexiles,\u201d and those on the continent who produce work that can fit comfortably into the convenience bag of postmodernism and conceptual art as articulated by recent Western criticisms and theory. Which is why only one of the ten artists he listed as having been excluded from contemporary African art representations, lives on the continent (although five were represented in the various africa \u201895 <\/strong>exhibits). We are told that in the work of these ten artists, the postmodernism discourse makes them eligible for the front seat in contemporary African art. Does this not suggest that the intellectual distance between African exiles and those on the continent is irrevocably, stretching farther apart given the fervor with which the new generation of exiles have embraced postmodernism, and the seeming reluctance on the part of home artists to join the party? Does the fact that a majority of young African artists on the continent remain sculptors and painters point to the growing cultural disparities and the dissimilar existential circumstances between the one and the other \u2018African\u2019 artists? These are questions that historians and critics of art produced by Africans must contend with now, and perhaps in the future.<\/p>\n

It is the aforementioned shortage of sympathy on the part of Enwezor for the cultural realities on the continent that influences his decision to confer the genius status on Georges Adeagbo who was deemed a half-sane bricoleur in his native Benin, but was discovered by the French curator Andrew Magnin who now presents him to Western spectators as an artist of the first order probably because Adeagbo\u2019s \u2018work\u2019 reminds him of the assemblages of Western conceptual artists. Is there much, if any, difference between Adeagbo\u2019s circumstances and journey to the Western art world, and that of Body Kingelez, Kane Kwei, Jack Akpan or Cyprien Tokoudagba, who have been presented by Western curators as canonical artists to the chagrin of many African theorists, historians and collectors? The ever present danger of allowing either \u2018sympathetic outsiders\u2019 or privileged other to decide what constitutes the art of Africa, or who its creators are, remains\u2026<\/p>\n

Beyond the politics of curatorial dictatorship, any group exhibit that makes pretense at representing the whole (impossible) or parts of the territory of contemporary art in Africa, and indeed, elsewhere, must of necessity (and if it must not run the risk of alienating the people it claims to represent) reflect the dominant and also prominent artistic manifestations in the given territory. Which is what the Nigerian section, and perhaps other sections, of Seven Stories<\/strong> did in the specific conceptual territories demarcated by each sectional curator. The artists represented in that section may not fit into the constructs of postmodernist criticism, but in the context of the story told by the curator, the selection still stands to be challenged\u2026<\/p>\n

Is it not ironical that Chika Okeke-Agulu is now Okwui Enwezor\u2019s chief collaborator? Perhaps, the former had not seen the Enwezor \u201clight\u201d then, read Paul Gilroy and V. Y. Mudimbe, perhaps, writers whose philosophies have informed Okwui Enwezor\u2019s thought and curatorial work, to begin to see eye-to-eye with Enwezor.<\/p>\n

When Chika Okeke Agulu (formerly, Chika Okeke) responded to Enwezor\u2019s critique of africa \u201995<\/em><\/strong>, he was back in Nigeria then. Does Okeke-Agulu regard himself as the \u201cprivileged other\u201d now that he is on the other side of the Atlantic, collaborating with Okwui Enwezor in perpetuating the very things he Okeke-Agulu stood vehemently against when he was in Nigeria, that is, the prejudicial selection of what work or who has to represent contemporary African art, which tended to favor African Diaspora artists? Does this not smack of hypocrisy? Or is it the case of a double standard?<\/p>\n

In the run up to Documenta XI<\/em>, for which Okwui Enwezor was the Artistic Director, he was asked by Rutger Pontzen in an interview published under the caption, \u201cI have a global antennae,\u201d if he would want to attract more attention for art from the periphery. This was Okwui Enwezor\u2019s answer:<\/p>\n

Not that far. There was a discussion for a long time what art from the periphery is. Attention grew for a lot of things created in outside areas. I do not believe in that. Maybe a central idea of what art is, no longer exist, but what artists and other intellectuals do, is generated in big cities, not outside.37<\/sup><\/p>\n

This simple but heavily loaded response belies Okwui Enwezors\u2019s real intention vis-\u00e0-vis African art. I really do not understand why on earth Okwui Enwezor would want to ride on the back of contemporary African art to world fame when he has demonstrated clearly and well enough, confirmed by his response above to Rutger Pontzen\u2019s question, that his strategies are antipathetic to the interest and growth of Mother Africa.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Okwui Enwezor is not genuinely interested in Africa. His is a sham enthusiasm. His unconcealed anathema for art and artists in Africa, because they do not fall within the paradigm of the Western postmodernist rubric, can only be selfishly motivated.<\/p>\n

With Okwui Enwezor\u2019s directorship of Documenta XI<\/em>, which shot him into the rarefied brackets of world class curators of contemporary art, a feat which is a pride to, and a cause of celebration for the whole of Africa, but a celebration which, unfortunately, is getting short-lived with Enwezor\u2019s personal aggrandizement and self-promotion emerging or coming to the fore by the day.<\/p>\n

I do not know if it is because of his background as a poet, which gives him the flair for the beauty of the English language, or what, but, admittedly, Okwui Enwezor is generally given to superfluous grandiloquency. To read a text by him and have a full grasp of the content is akin to solving the most difficult mathematical problem. You plod through it laboriously. Because of the verbose nature of his writing style, which puts him obviously among the category of \u201cdifficult writers,\u201d many of his writings actually go unread. His complex, sometimes bizarre, philosophies \u2013 hypotheses and theories \u2013 actually escape the critical attention of his audience, because the language is too heavy for them to comprehend. They just skip his texts to the images in his book, if there are any.\u00a0 This is why Enwezor is able to escape any scrutiny of his inimical, high-flying philosophies, thoughts and strategies, because his writings are enshrouded cryptically in verbosity. (I hope I am not sounding like Okwui Enwezor himself here). The real import of Okwui Enwezor\u2019s writings is generally lost on his readers because of his cunning way of bamboozling them with all those big words.
\n
\nKofi\u00a0 Setordji <\/strong><\/p>\n

The fall 2010 edition of Africa Arts<\/em> magazine carries a survey by the Dutch doctoral student, Rhoda Woets, on Genocide<\/em>, the famous installation by Ghanaian international painter\/sculptor, Kofi Setordji. Genocide<\/em> sends us on a grim journey of the Rwandan Genocide, recapitulating the ghastly, inconceivable inhumanity and brutality of one man`s action meted against his fellow brother, whilst the whole world sat and watched unconcerned.38<\/sup> The Rwandan Genocide will forever remain a deep, indelible scar on the consciousness of humanity. Kofi Setordji`s macabre work is a scathing reminder of the atrocities of war, and a blatant indictment on all the culprits involved as well as the larger apathetic world, which failed to intervene promptly. It is indeed a landmark in Africa`s contemporary art and political history, and is comparable to other great political or socially oriented works, like Picasso`s Guernica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How come Kofi Setordji`s Genocide<\/em> is conspicuously missing in the recently published Contemporary Africa Art Since<\/em> <\/strong>1980 <\/em>by Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, the latest survey on contemporary Africa art, especially considering the fact that the book devotes an extensive essay on the politics of Africa, the military coupes d\u2019\u00e9tats, the wars, the economic morass, SAP, bad governance, etc, and how that has negatively impacted on the growth of art on the continent?40<\/sup> Setordji\u2019s Genocide<\/em>, <\/strong>a m\u00e9lange of a sculptural and painting installation, a very postmodernist artistic language, confronts Africa`s negative politics squarely, without any qualms, yet Enwezor and Okeke-Agulu chose not to feature him in their book. Is it because he lives in Africa and, therefore, was not captured by their Western-biased critical radar? I have a detailed critique of this book coming out soon, so please be on the lookout for it. The Kofi Setordji example is only being mentioned in passing, and it only goes to confirm the politics of exclusion being propagated by Okwui Enwezor and his cohort of disciples. There are many more examples, which I cannot get into now. I must say.<\/p>\n

Utopias and Realities <\/strong><\/p>\n

I must say, African artists living in Africa are so enraged and incensed by Enwezor\u2019s curatorial work, with its African Diaspora bias; they see it as a diabolical strategy against them, ultimately calculated to undermine their efforts in Africa, and hamstring their growth, conceptually, technically and professionally. So, instead of working in unison for the common good of Africa as African artists, African artists in Africa now see themselves being pitched in an unholy confrontation against their counterparts abroad: the local versus the Diaspora. This development is very unhealthy and must be nipped in the bud.<\/p>\n

Since Okwui Enwezor has the clout for organizing mega-shows, it greatly behooves him as well to quickly re-address this lop-sided status quo through new shows and new publications focusing on artists on the continent, and to correct the negative perception he is creating or has created in the minds of African artists in Africa. I know he can do it. And he should do it, he has no option. He would be saving his own tarnished image and legacy as well; or, as Sylvester Ogbeshie seems to suggest, Okwui Enwezor could be facing the possible wrath of our great African ancestors for having handed the African continent cheaply on a silver platter to the West. Globalization does not mean selling yourself short through self-defeating strategies. Enwezor and his team have to look for the necessary funding and embark on frequent curatorial trips to Africa. It is imperative they do that. In fact, that is the only way to know exactly what is going on on the ground in those individual countries. As the Igbo (Nigerian) adage goes, \u201cYou cannot stand at one place to watch a masquerade.\u201d The dynamic, ever-changing flux of contemporary African art can be likened to a typical African masquerade \u2013 a mesmerizing, pulsating, dizzying and kaleidoscopic performance. If you are removed from the masquerade, you even miss more. Enwezor cannot be confined to his base in the US and claim to know what \u201cContemporary African Art\u201d really is. He has to be frequenting Africa on field research trips, sometimes with extended long stays to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s post-colonial story of migration and its attendant identity politics is just another chapter in the epic story of Africa. This chapter only makes the Africa saga more interesting. It can, however, not be used alone, as the entirety of the African postmodernist experience, as the sole pillar if you have to recount the African story. A chapter in the book cannot be used to replace the entire book. But that is exactly what Okwui Enwezor has done with his curatorial strategies and theoretical discursiveness of contemporary African art, which relocates contemporary African art practice to the West, hence his undue fixation with Africa Diaspora artists. This is only part of the African post-colonial and contemporary story, and not the totality of it. Okwui Enwezor should equally be, if not more, interested in how the globalization and post-modernist ethos have impacted directly on artistic development and production on the continent of Africa. They should also strive to globalize the local, that is, bring the work of artists based on the continent to the attention of the world. The example of El Anatsui actually encapsulates the ingenuity and creative energy which proliferates and abounds on the continent. There are more El Anatsuis, Yinka Shonibares, William Kentridges, Marlene Dumases, Wengechi Mutus and Julie Mehrutis.<\/p>\n

We are living in a highly globalized village now. It does not really matter where you live today to function effectively. As an artist, you do not have to be living in a Western metropolis to be engaged in globalism. At the touch of a button in my hand, I can have a phone conversation with every corner of the world. At every moment in time, through satellite T.V, I am abreast with what is happening around the world. I sit in my studio in Takoradi, Ghana and I see instantaneously an event which is unfolding across the world. Through the internet, I am further put closely in touch with the rest of the world. I can communicate instantly across time and space, and can follow closely all the happenings on the global art front. Unfortunately, this is where the tools of globalization stop for the African artist.<\/p>\n

The utopia of globalization which Enwezor postulates presumes egalitarianism, with the free movement of people and goods around the globe. But the reality of the situation as exists now debars the African access to that free movement and full participation in the globalization process. Visa procurement alone to a Western country for an African is a harrowing experience, to say the least. Apart from the many requisite demands and very vigorous and sometimes humiliating procedures applicants are subjected to, astronomical visa fees are taken from applicants only to be refused the visa; the visa fee is never returned. This almost amounts to a rip-off, not to mention the endless, winding, labyrinthine queues in the scorching sun, which El Anatsui so well captured in his work Visa Queue<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The columnist, Akua Djanie, in a poignant diatribe captioned, \u201cThe Visa Nightmare\u201d in New African<\/em> magazine, had some real strong words of admonition:<\/p>\n

Something has to be done about the whole visa application process. And our governments should not sit down unconcerned when our citizens are fleeced by foreigners right under the noses of the governments in our capital cities. Until we put our foot down and demand to be treated as human beings, these people will continue to see us as cattle. I also think African embassies in Europe, America and elsewhere should retaliate \u2013 a pound for a pound \u2013 and institute the same visa regime for Europeans, Americans and others who want to visit our countries. But we shouldn`t hold our breadth because I know they are going to bamboozle us with the usual nonsense about killing tourism and the money thereof. Well, they would say that, wouldn`t they?<\/p>\n

In the past, we were forced over to their countries as slaves; slaves who built and developed Europe and America. And today, when we want to go and visit, we are ill-treated. It is ironic that we talk about the world becoming a global village, yet we are not free to travel around this village of ours while they can.<\/p>\n

Akua Djanie\u2019s indignant denunciation of a fraudulent visa-system which favors Westerners when they want to travel to Africa, but does not allow the African easy access to the West, epitomizes the general sentiments among Africans about the unfairness and mockery of the whole globalization process.<\/p>\n

Okwui Enwezor, the high-priest of Globalization and open borders himself, recounts how, ironically, he was once refused an entry visa to Italy by the New York Italian Consulate, ostensibly because of his African name, even though he was carrying an American passport.42<\/sup> He had already been named the Artistic Director for the Johannesburg Art Biennale and was in the process of putting the show together.<\/p>\n

Unless and until the visa policy of Western countries towards Africans is changed, Africans cannot be considered to be full participants in the homogenization of cultures in the globalization process.
\n
\nSYLVESTER OKWUNDU OGBECHIE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amidst all the euphoria surrounding the proliferation of blockbuster shows on contemporary African art in Western spaces, within mainstream art museums the last decade \u2013 The Short<\/em> Century<\/em>, Afrika Remix,<\/em> name it \u2013 a number of Africanist scholars have raised a red flag at the way contemporary African art is being defined and presented in the West.\u00a0 Suzanne Preston Blier (Dr.) in an article in Africa Arts<\/em> magazine titled, Nine<\/em> Contradictions in the New Golden Age of African Art,<\/em> put her concerns so explicitly:<\/p>\n

In short, the way that Africa is being defined within the new Golden Age of contemporary African art conveys many of the same colonial legacies that framed discourses on Africa in earlier eras. Among these are a very narrowly circumscribed and largely monolithic sense of identity, the ongoing feature of geographical isolation, the privileging of Western genres, a promotion of art framed centrally by the market, traditions of exhibition exclusion, gender-based art and status differences, a dehistoricization of Africa, Western models of political ideology, and a view of Africa in which technology (the hand) is seen necessarily to be privileged over innovation (the mind). 43<\/sup><\/p>\n

And Sidney Littlefield Kasfir (Dr.), author of Contemporary African Art (1999), in a discursive article titled, The (Dis)placement of National Art in a Transnational Art World, which appeared\u00a0 in African Arts magazine, Autumn 2008, Volume 41, No. 3, writes:<\/p>\n

Over the past fifteen years, critical and curatorial attention in the field of contemporary African art has shifted steadily away from a primarily tropical geography of practice toward a global, Diaspora one. And this is neither surprising nor inconsistent, given that the majority of influential critics and curators are themselves located within this Diaspora and not operating from the African continent (South Africa, with its own freestanding art world, is the most prominent exception). The African artist working in London or New York is far more likely to receive critical recognition than one in Yaounde, Kampala, or Addis, not because of any conspiratorial power-brokerage as is sometimes alleged, but because of the far greater visibility in the West of his or her practice\u2026<\/p>\n

Recently, Sylvester Okwundu Ogbechie (Dr.), also Nigerian born, an African art historian in the department of art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, launched a vitriolic attack on Okwui Enwezor\u2019s curatorial regime, disparaging it in a conference paper entitled, The curator as<\/em> Culture Broker: A Critique of the Curatorial Regime of Okwui Enwezor in the Discourse of<\/em> Contemporary African Art.<\/em> This paper was posted in his blog, AACHRONYM on June16, 2010 and circulated all over the net, generating so much buzz in the art world.<\/p>\n

Ogbechie challenged Enwezor\u2019s curatorial strategies and called for a microscopic examination of his work. I agreed intoto with many of the issues and arguments raised by Ogbechie, but disagreed with him when he raised into question Enwezor\u2019s educational background and paucity of knowledge in art history in general, and African art history.<\/p>\n

I thought that was too far-fetched. It was hitting below the belt, to borrow a boxing parlance. Ogbechie, on that score, very much sounded as if he had a personal tooth to pick with Enwezor, veering into his academic credentials. Did I read an element of envy, too? \u201cOkwui Enwezor and his disciples are the only people who have access to all the big funding, and nobody else\u201d, he quipped. He likened the art establishment\u2019s anointing of Enwezor as the grand prince and arbiter of contemporary African art to the art world\u2019s preference of unschooled or auto-didactic African artists like, Twins Seven Seven and the Oshogbo School, to academically trained artists, calculated to encourage mediocrity among Africans.<\/p>\n

To Ogbechie, I would say, not everybody has the privilege of going through formal education like him. Some go through the \u2018Schools of Hard Knocks\u2019. And having the highest academic degree in a field does not necessarily make you an expert in that field. By the way, who graduated the first batch of medical and engineering students? Leo Castelli was one of the greatest art dealers of the twentieth century; what kind of art history certificate did he possess? 45<\/sup> The British Sir Norman Rosenthal is touted as one of the greatest art curators, historians and writers of the twentieth century.46<\/sup> He studied neither art nor art history, but found himself in art just by chance and never looked back. Many examples abound of self-taught scholars and intellectuals.<\/p>\n

Okwui Enwezor, at least, has had a good formal university education in political science and literature. A good fundamental education is all that one needs to self-educate and be propelled to any academic or intellectual height. Unless one wants to remain in academia to teach, a good fundamental education, coupled with the passion for art, an unflagging, ravenous desire to succeed, charisma and, of course, hard work are basically what one needs to navigate his way successfully through the rough terrain of the art world, and not necessarily, lofty degrees. Okwui Enwezor has hung out in the New York art world and fraternized closely with artists, art historians, critics, collectors, dealers, museum directors, curators and Africanist scholars. He has curated numerous exhibitions in some of the most distinguished museums around the world, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Tate Modern, London, and Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin, among others. He was the first Black and, probably, the only Black yet to become the Director of Documenta, the art Olympiad of contemporary art which comes on every five years in Kassel, Germany. Enwezor directed Documenta XI<\/em> in 2003, and that was no mean feat for an African curator. He, subsequently, in 2006 curated the Biennale for Contemporary Art Seville<\/em> (\u201cThe Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society\u201d), and in 2007-2008, the 7th<\/sup> Gwangju Biennale<\/em>, South Korea.<\/p>\n

He has additionally done a lot of collaborative work with academics and scholars, like Olu Oguibe and Chika Okeke-Agulu, and rose himself to become the Dean of Academic Studies and, recently, I gather, the Assistant Director of the San Francisco Art Institute, one of the most prestigious art institutes in the United States. Okwui Enwezor is also the Adjunct Curator at the International Center of Photography, New York; a visiting Professor in Art History, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University and University of Illinois, Urbana \u2013 Champaign, all stellar American universities. He is currently the Joanne Cassulo Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in New York.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Okwui Enwezor was honored with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York\u2019s coveted Award for Curatorial Excellence. According to a Center for Curatorial Studies press release, the Curatorial Excellence Award is given to \u201ca leading curator or curators whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive exhibition-making today\u2026This award reflects the Center\u2019s commitment to recognizing individuals who have defined new thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition practice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Enwezor has written extensively, in fact, far more than many academics traditionally trained in art history and art criticism, into the world\u2019s top art journals like, Art Forum, Freize,\u00a0 Texte zur Kunst, Parkett, Flash Art<\/em>, and he is the co-founder and editor of the leading art journal on contemporary African art, Nka<\/em>, jointly published with Cornell University. What better education in art and art history could Enwezor have had than what I have enumerated? He is the author of a number of major books on art, as well.<\/p>\n

In my candid opinion, Okwui Enwezor may not have had the traditional degree in art, art history or African art history, but he is voraciously well-read and absolutely well-vexed in art history, African art history and critical theory. I do not have an iota of doubt about that. He only has an adventurous mind and likes to think exponentially and creatively out of the box, which makes him venture into unexplored areas of thought, bordering on the abstract, sometimes, bizarre theorizing. This ability of Okwui Enwezor to be highly innovative in his thinking, writing and curatorial work, coupled with an aggressive can-do-spirit and diplomatic wheeling is what has endeared him to the art establishment, and not any conspiratorial grand scheme to promote primitivistic tendencies among Africans, or to project the unschooled African above the schooled. Sylvester Ogbechie got it wrong here.<\/p>\n

When a scholastic and erudite person like Enwezor strays into speculative theorizing, which he often does, he could easily and erroneously come across as unschooled in art history\/African art history, in fact, a complete ignoramus. There is nothing wrong with that kind of recondite and abstruse thinking, to change the status quo, go against the grain or push the envelope. Okwui Enwezor only has to be told, as I am doing, that he is straying too far, that he should get back on course, and not be lampooned as he was Sylvester Ogbechie.<\/p>\n

Sylvester Ogbechie also intimated Okwui Enwezor\u2019s complicity in African-American curators being sidelined when it came to funding for art projects, and that it was he Enwezor and his team who were the only ones to have access to all the big funding. Unless Ogbechie is privy to some detailed information I am not aware of, I will again come to Enwezor\u2019s defense, that he being silent over the plight of African-American curators does not in any way implicate him in any conspiracy to sideline the African-American curators. Enwezor is fighting his own fight, just as the African-American curators are fighting their own. Ideally, they should all have been collaborating in their artistic ventures and projects, claiming the same heritage as Africans, and fighting a common cause \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u2013 the marginalization of the African in the global discourse of art. But both Enwezor and the African-American curators choose to go their separate ways in a power struggle for supremacy. That is rather unfortunate. This divided front undermines the efforts of African\/African-American curators in general in fighting for equal opportunities for artists of African descent and securing the necessary funding to support those exhibitions. They would have been stronger if they joined forces and had a common front.<\/p>\n

In any case, the question we should be asking is, what is it about Enwezor, which gives him an edge over his competitors? Why do the funding agencies prefer funding Okwui Enwezor to funding projects by African American curators? And I really do not think it is only the Enwezor School, which has access to all the major funding for art projects. If it were so, Robert Storr, who was the Artistic Director for the 52nd<\/sup> <\/em>Venice Biennale, would not have by-passed Okwui Enwezor and his school for Simon Njami (the Cameroonian curator\/writer and organizer of the mammoth, multifaceted Africa Remix<\/em>) and his team. This was in the context of curating the African pavilion \u2013 a first in the aforementioned Biennale\u2019s 112 years. It was also in spite of all the authoritative and bullying posturing of the Enwezor School, which felt that the curatorship of the Africa stand had to be automatically handed to them as the fore-runners in the struggle for the recognition of contemporary African art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Politics of Exclusion (Concluding Text)   Hypocrisy and Double Standards? In an incisive rebuttal to Enwezor\u2019s virulent criticism of Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, which was one of the exhibition highlights of africa 95, this is what Chika Okeke-Agulu, incidentally, one of the curators of the exhibition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":803,"parent":599,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-54","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions\/665"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}