Exposition on African culture and design opens in Spain

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain is showcasing the contemporary creation of 120 African artists and designers.

The event organised by the German Museum Vitra Design in partnership with the Africa-Making A Continent of Contemporary Design will highlight various works from different creative fields which include: object designs, furniture designs, graphic arts, illustrations, fashion, architecture, urban planning, craft cinema and photography.

The expo is aimed at giving African designers the opportunity to showcase Africa’s perspective on politics, economics, social, cultural and its diverse technology. The artists through their artistic work will explain how culture has infiltrated African design as they outline what culture is in general.

Artists

Omar Victor Diop, a Senegalese photographer focuses on personalities. He makes up the booming cultural scene in his country. He works with his subjects, like artist Mame-Diarra Niang, to bring out their personalities through the props and the pose.

Ikire Jones is celebrated in his spirit of print imagination in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos. His work as a tailor’s apprentice always makes him want to design clothes for the citizens of a new Africa.

Mozambican photographer Mario Macilau aims to capture the hip youth of his country’s capital, Maputo. As well as portraying contemporary fashion, the pictures also refer back to the heyday of African studio photography, the exhibition catalogue says.

Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru creates unimaginable things that only a few can do. He designs spectacles out of wires and ornaments with African origin

One can also find the common project of Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse titled Ponte City which was presented to the Ball in Paris in 2014. It documents how remarkably the inner life of the skyscraper Ponte City is in Johannesburg.