By Frederick Philander
WINDHOEK
Namibian visual artist Ismael Tjijenda recently returned from attending an international art exhibition in the German city of Kassel.
According to Christiane Schulte, director of the Goethe Zentrum, the exhibition is regarded as the most important of contemporary art, drawing attention from all over the world.
“Tjijenda joined a so-called ‘information tour’ for art experts from Sub-Saharan Africa”. This information tour within the Goethe Institute’s visitors’ programme took place from 5 to 12 August 2007 with 12 art experts from Africa who took part,” Schulte said.
Arguing in favour of her country’s implementation of the programme, she said:
“Even engaged and competent disseminators in the area of fine arts from Sub-Saharan Africa have comparatively scarce possibilities to inform themselves directly about current tendencies of art. The reasons for this are the limited financial resources of people themselves and organizations in connection with a relatively far and expensive travel.”
In her view exhibitions such as this year’s Biennale in Dakar or ‘Africa’s re-mix’ show once again that black Africa is an independent centre of fine arts.
“Africa’s finest works qualify for ‘international standards’ and enrich the international discourse.
The participants commit themselves to pass on the experiences and impressions of their journey to the institutes of their region, to fellow artists and the relevant public through publications and events.
Previous experiences have shown this method to be very successful in achieving the desired disseminating effect,” she said.
Schulte thanked Air Namibia for sponsoring the Namibian artist’s flight to Germany.