LesEchos

African women, the future of photography

By Michele Warnet

Feb 23, 2019 2018

Aïda Muluneh and Zanele Muholi. Two powerful women who are the African figureheads of free, engaged and furiously creative contemporary photography. These two luminous black artists are exhibiting in New York and Zurich.

Close by the little music of their names, and the only two years that separate their birth, Aïda Muluneh and Zanele Muholi are two great African photographers, with different styles and fights. Because fight, there is. The first artwork in Ethiopia for development and education through visual art. The second is fighting for respect for LGBTI minorities (acronym for the homosexual, bisexual, transgender or intersex community) in South Africa.

Lesbian in a country notorious for the “corrective” rapes and the murders of which they are victims, Zanele Muholi continues to prefer the qualifier of photographer that of “visual activist”. This former hairdresser, born in 1972, went up from her township of Umlazi near Durban to Johannesburg in the 90s. South Africa then broke the chains of apartheid and Muholi freed himself, she, braiding, to discover photography at the Market Photo Workshop, school, founded by David Goldblatt, the great apartheid documentary photographer, exhibited at the Pompidou Center at this very moment (and until May 7). From this soil has sprouted a whole South African photographic scene, of which Zanele Muholi is one of the most prominent. After Arles in 2016, the LUMA foundation is opening its doors in Zurich until May 13. And France gave him the insignia of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, last November."What characterizes African artists is often commitment", explains Marie-Ann Yemsi, curator of the eleventh edition of the Bamako Meetings, an African biennial of photography which has just closed in Mali. “But Aïda Muluneh and Zanele Muholi are, beyond that, two immense talents who are part of a history of art that is not Western,” she explains. Unbridled creativity and filled with signs and symbols, their photos show us an elsewhere, otherwise, without it being defined.

Blackened face with pigments and inhabited gaze, the series of self-portraits by Zanele Muholi, titled “Somnyama Ngonyama”, which means “Hail to you, black lioness” in Zulu, crosses the frame to touch the soul. The artist questions and challenges as much as he defuses, adorning himself with unexpected objects, from animal fleece to inner tubes, including scouring pads. Funny and disturbing at the same time. "Zanele Muholi is an activist 24 hours a day. She lives constantly surrounded by her community of women," says Anna-Alix Koffi, editor of the cultural and artistic magazine Something we Africans Got . She met the photographer in Cape Town to publish it in her latest issue. "For me, Zanele is representative of the strength of African women", she emphasizes.

It is to this woman that Aïda Muluneh pays tribute through her series "The world is 9". "The world is 9 years old, it is never complete, it is never perfect," her grandmother used to say. Words that have not left the little Ethiopian, born in 1974, but left at the age of 5 for Yemen, then England and Canada. There will be two revelations: that of photography at 16, in the art section at Calgary high school; and the need, sixteen years later, in 2007, to return to Ethiopia. She was then a photojournalist, notably for the Washington Post, and wants to correct the image of her country, stigmatized by the famine which affected her in the 80s. She herself, as a child, lied about her origins, preferring to escape the heart-broken mines caused by the simple name of Ethiopia. , claiming to come ... from South Africa. "Without training local photographers, we will not be able to change the way we look at this country" , insists Aïda Muluneh. She does this, building on the company she founded, Desta (Developing and Educating Society Through Art) for Africa, through workshops, exhibitions and, since 2010, the Addis Foto Fest biennial, including the next edition is held this year. Artistically, this return to the land of origin "was a challenge and a source of inspiration" , she testifies.

His creative works are enriched and adopt color, while his documentary series retain black and white. Painted bodies and faces, saturated primary colors, supernumerary arms and hands, are the elements that make up the dreamlike scenes she produces. The strength of his images lies in the depth of reading they offer. “The painted faces first call out to the viewer, but my objective, through successive levels of interpretation, is to share not only an aesthetic experience but also to deliver messages” , comments Aïda Muluneh. It is at the heart of the new edition of the exhibition-event on "New Photography", which brings together seventeen talents at MoMA in New York, from March 18 until August 19.“In his work, one is multiple. The way in which she takes hold of the African artistic heritage, with body paintings and fabrics, to create a contemporary and extraordinary representation of the individual, undoubtedly has to do with her own relationship with Ethiopia ” , analyzes Lucy Gallun, the curator of this exhibition called “Being: New Photography 2018”.

Two women, two photographers, two activists whose work is praised - almost - everywhere in the world. Almost, because if they have chosen to live and work on the continent, it is not always easy. “Africa's place means that its artists continue to be better known in the West,” laments Anna-Alix Koffi. Zanele Muholi in South Africa faces the difficulty of documenting an inconvenient truth. Until the Minister of Culture, Lulama Xingwana, who in 2009 declared one of his exhibitions "immoral and contrary to the spirit of the nation". Aïda Muluneh talks about the “suspicion” that the simple act of taking out a camera provokes in the streets of Addis Ababa. Not to discourage these two artists who excel at delving into their roots to better achieve the universal.

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