Black President

The centrepiece of the Fela Kuti festival is Black President, a group exhibition exploring the impact of Kuti’s life and work. The exhibition contains over 40 works from 34 international contemporary artists, including Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare. All of the artists have been inspired by the musician’s charismatic and complex personality – as political dissident, unabashed sex symbol, utopian visionary and musical pioneer.

The artists in the exhibition come from countries that include England, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and the United States. Just as diverse are the media they employ, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, animation and video. Yinka Shonibare shows an installation with 27 dolls in batik dresses, referencing Kuti’s 27 wives. While Klaus Bürgel and Kara Walker present miniature slave collars made from 22-karat gold, referencing colonial trade and exploitation. The exhibition also shows for the first time in Europe the original graphic work for Kuti’s albums by his long-time album artist, Ghariokwu Lemi.

As well as artworks, Black President contains documentary video and photography, including intimate images of the musician by his friend Femi Bankole Osunla. Finally, it provides the opportunity to listen to the music of Kuti, those who influenced him and those who he has inspired, through listening stations with over 100 tracks of music from the 1950s to the present.

Organised by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and curated by Trevor Schoonmaker.

Pressetext

Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
Fela Kuti
Ort: The Curve
Organisation: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Kurator: Trevor Schoonmaker

mit Klaus Bürgel, Kara Walker, Ghariokwu Lemi, Femi Bankole Osunla, Yinka Shonibare, u.a.