THE SHORT CENTURY
April 2002

In this extended interview, Okwui Enwezor, curator of The Short Century, talks with arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown about the correlation between art and politics, and the use of art as a political tool. Part I : Enwezor discusses the "Africa of the imagination", and the interactions between Africa and Europe during the latter half of the 20th century. Part III: Enwezor discusses the changing art world and the exhibit as a history lesson.

 

Online Special: The Short Century Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Arts and Entertainment   P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center	JEFFREY BROWN: Now much of the exhibition focuses on that period leading up to and including the moment of liberation in many countries. And one sees art, one reads the essays and other things in the catalog and the hope of that moment is palpable. Tell me about that moment. How did that influence the art that was being done at the time? OKWUI ENWEZOR: Well the exhibition expresses its goal in two ways: that there is independence and liberation movement, and there's a distinction between those two moments, that independence movements could be said to be those movements that are non-violent in nature while the liberation movements are those that are seen to be really based on armed struggle; there is a degree of violence attached to them. And I think that when you look at the different kinds of representation that come from the two sides, one tends to be very socio-realistic in its orientation and this is mostly works that come from the liberation struggle phase where art and culture were very, very important tools for the drive towards liberation. JEFFREY BROWN: Political tools. OKWUI ENWEZOR: Very, very important political tools, and I think I will use Angola, I will use South Africa as an example, I will use Mozambique as an example, even a place like Kenya could be seen as part of this trend. On the other hand, those works coming from areas where independence was achieved through negotiation are much more nuanced, are much less invested in heavy political rhetoric and are much more involved in sort of addressing the African space from a distinctly different point. It's much more introspective in its approach and its method even though one could go back to say that the distinction blurs in the space where the intention of the artist was sort of to open up a kind of liberatory space for the African imagination... JEFFREY BROWN: Where the artists in the liberation movements aware of that political edge to their work? OKWUI ENWEZOR: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean throughout the '60s and the '70s and especially in the '80s in South Africa art and culture was a very, very important political tool, and I think that artists had to be seen to be committed in their everyday reality, as being part of the movement to achieve liberation, and I think this awareness is quite palpable in most of the works that you will see from South Africa.

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