Celebrating the C& Cosmos

That’s one decade of publishing/ exchanging/ listening/ learning/ networking/ sharing/ meeting/ collaborating/ developing/dancing…and receiving local, national and international support, developing partnerships near and far.

That’s one decade of building educational formats, working with international critics, artists and curators around the discourses of contemporary Art from Africa and the global Diaspora.

That’s one decade of constantly growing the C& network thinking canons beyond a canon, writing art histories, creating new presents, producing futures in the now.

In 2013 it all started with an idea, one website and the name Contemporary And (C&): Focusing on artistic productions which are contemporary “&” connected in the most various ways to Africa and the global Diaspora. There was a strong urge to create a digital platform, which links creative perspectives all over the world – facilitates, reflects, and instigates discourses and questions around visual art production from Africa and its Diaspora. Key here was and still is the accessibility of all content and the urge to move beyond the idea of centers and beyond singular histories and presents.

One of C&’s first memorable moments took place in Venice 2014, bringing together for the very first time all participating artists from African perspectives at the Biennale in a fold-up map. When the Angolan Pavillon won the Golden Lion the only available interview with the Pavillon’s artist Edson Chagas was in that little C& map. 2014 followed the launch of C&’s first print issue during the Dak’Art Biennale. Some still remember that launch party by the beach as legendary. A further remarkable step was the print issue launched in 2017 in the frame of the São Paulo Biennale. This led to the kick-off of C& América Latina Magazine a year later (2018), focusing on Afro- and Indigenous perspectives that connect Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Over the last ten years C& has grown into a cosmos taking place online, offline and in-between with C& Print Issues, C& Critical Writing Workshops, C& Mentoring Programs, diverse C& Projects such as the C& Center of Unfinished Business, C& Commissions or the C& Artists Editions.

And the journey continues, C& will keep changing its shape, formulated and formed by the many voices carrying and manifesting it.

From the first idea and during all that time we were fortunate to be supported by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, which provided funds, co-published and enabled us to curate and design this platform. The ifa has been and still is our greatest partner and supporter. We also want to thank our board members for their constant input as well as the many, many supporters who have accompanied us such as the Ford Foundation, Musagetes, the British Council, the Goethe Institut, the Mellon Foundation, or the Terra Foundation, as well as the many many hosts and collaboration partners such as CCA Lagos, Raw Material Company, O’Menelik 2Ato, the Armory Show, Dak’Art, Doul’Art, Klar’Art, documenta, or São Paulo Biennial to name a few.

And now!  Watch out for a year of exciting events, launches, encounters of people! On panels and dancefloors around the globe!

The Kick-off will take place in Berlin at ifa Galerie and Acud, 18^th of March! More details to follow soon on contemporaryand.com and @contemporaryand.americalatina on Instagram.