Image courtesy of Kó
Lean on Me, a group exhibition exploring interpersonal relations and transnational connections in postcolonial Africa is currently on view at Kó. The exhibition features Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Yagazie Emezi, Sesse Elangwe, Turiya Magadlela, Collins Obijiaku, and Stephen Price.
The exhibition is exploring how African artists, from the exhibiting artists’ point of view, contribute to the visual dialogue which can in turn to be a tool to connect people and share history. Reiterating the important role that art plays in shaping the population’s thinking, by penetrating their subconscious and revealing feelings that they have suppressed or long forgotten.
The exhibition is a visual representation and artistic continuation of postcolonial theories and ideas expressed by African thinkers and writers, particularly Chinua Achebe, Achille Mbembe, and Leonora Miano.
Curated by Brice Arsène Yonkeu, the title of the exhibition was taken from his poem.
“Lean On Me,
Because as a Brother I have your back.
Lean On Me,
Because as a Human I can feel your pain.
Lean On Me,
Because in this spirit of togetherness, your win is my win.”
Raised between France and Cameroon, Brice Arsène Yonkeu is a Paris-based independent curator and art advisor with a focus on contemporary African art. He is a passionate storyteller and he is committed to bridging cultural divides and promoting cross-cultural dialogues through the arts.
Image courtesy of Kó
About ‘Lean on Me’ Yonkeu says:
“This stanza clouded my thoughts as I explored the works of the artists featured in this exhibition, forcing on me this title when I could have easily borrowed Achille Mbembe’s Out of the Dark Nights. In this book, which gathers Mbembe’s essays and thoughts on decolonization, he writes that ‘to free oneself once and for all from colonial alienation, and to heal the wounds inflicted by the law of race, one had to know oneself.’ The duality in this statement led me to consider dividing the exhibition space into two parts. The first part focuses on identity and the knowing of oneself, and the second part depicts the warm embrace of renewed consciousness and identity.”
Image courtesy of Kó
To investigate the construction of identity in postcolonial Africa, the dialogue starts from the first part of the exhibition which includes the works of Yagazie Emezi, Turiya Magadlela, and Stephen Price, and in the second part of the exhibition, the dialogue is continued featuring the works of Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Sesse Elangwe, and Collins Obijiaku whose portraits embody a sense of new consciousness and display a sense of pride attached to an identity claim.
The group exhibition, which opened on 29 April, is on view till 26 May 2023.
