• Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa / FNAGP Residency 2016
  • Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa / French Composition : Narratives of La Croisière Noire

    • Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa / FNAGP Residency 2016

    Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa studied Literature at Cambridge University and Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. She is Director of Research at the Nagenda International Academy of Art & Design (NIAAD) in Namulanda, Uganda and Research Fellow in Fine Art at the National Academy of Art & Design in Bergen, Norway. She is also Convener of the Another Roadmap for Arts Education net­work’s Africa Cluster. Emma works in a wide range of media, for­mats and con­texts. Recent and upcoming exhi­bi­tions and events include: You Must Make Your Death Public (De Appel, Amsterdam, NL), Kabbo Ka Muwala (National Gallery of Zimbabwe, ZW, Makerere University Art Gallery, UG & Kunsthalle Bremen, DE), The Society of Exclusion (tranz­itsk Gallery, Bratislava, SK), Greetings To Those Who Asked About Me (Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, EG), Boundary Objects (Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, DE & CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, ES) and Giving Contours to Shadows (Savvy Contemporary/Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, DE).

    Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa is cur­rently researching the roles that rep­re­sen­ta­tional prac­tices played in European powers’ attempts to advance argu­ments in favour of colo­nialism and its per­pet­u­a­tion in Africa right up to - and, indeed during - the lib­er­a­tion strug­gles of the mid-twen­tieth cen­tury. Her pre­sent focus is the archive of La Croisière Noire (The Black Cruise) - the name given to a trip organ­ised by French car man­u­fac­turer André Citröen in the course of which eight spe­cially designed motor­cars drove 10,000 km from Algeria to Madagascar between 1924 and 1925. The declared aim of La Croisière Noire was to con­duct sci­en­tific research and to provide med­ical and human­i­tarian assis­tance to so-called “prim­i­tive” indige­nous Africans. But it was also pub­licity stunt intended to trans­form Citroën into a global brand, and to serve as a dis­play of French colo­nial power – as well as a mil­i­tary mis­sion. Upon the team’s return, the pho­tographs, paint­ings, draw­ings, and films that were pro­duced during La Croisière Noire were dis­sem­i­nated widely. Best-selling accounts of the journey were pub­lished in a variety of lan­guages; and exhi­bi­tions and screen­ings brought the thou­sands of arte­facts and spec­i­mens that the team had col­lected before to a hungry public, who then often took them home in the form of sou­venirs.

    WORKSHOP - RETURN TO THE CROISIÈRE NOIRE (THE BLACK CRUISE)
    Wednesday June 8th, 2pm-7pm at the Villa Vassilieff

    A work­shop with Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa (artist) and Sarah Frioux-Salgas (archivist, Quai Branly Museum)

    Currently in res­i­dency at FNAGP, a pro­gram in which Villa Vassilieff is involved, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa will share her early research into the archive of the Croisière Noire (the Black Cruise) and into some of the dif­ferent sce­narios that have marked the dis­sem­i­na­tion of images and objects col­lected during this major com­mer­cial and colo­nial enter­prise. This work­shop, which will be held at Villa Vassilieff on Wednesday 8 June, will focus in par­tic­ular on the La Croisière Noire exhi­bi­tion that took place at the Louvre Museum in 1926. In addi­tion to pho­to­graphic doc­u­men­ta­tion and jour­nal­istic accounts, there exists, in the col­lec­tion of the Musée du Quai Branly, a set of reports by schoolchil­dren who were taken to see this exhi­bi­tion. The aim of this work­shop will be to explore what can be learned from these essays about the exhi­bi­tion itself, its scenog­raphy and its mode of address, and also to con­sider the ways in which both the exhi­bi­tion and French edu­ca­tion at that time sought to induct these young people into the role of colonisers. How does the gaze of schoolchil­dren in 1926 allow us to read this event in the pre­sent?

    Working documents for the project "La Croisière Noire" (the Black Cruise) by Emma Wolukwau Wanambwa, June 2016. Credits : Emma Wolukwau Wanambwa & Villa Vassilieff.
    Emma Wolukau Wanambwa, during the workshop "Focus on La Croisière Noire", June 2016. Credits : Emma Wolukau Wanambwa & Villa Vassilieff.
    Working documents for the project "La Croisière Noire" (the Black Cruise) by Emma Wolukwau Wanambwa, June 2016. Credits : Emma Wolukau Wanambwa & Villa Vassilieff.