THE SHORT CENTURY
April 2002

In this extended interview, Okwui Enwezor, curator of "The Short Century", talks with arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown about the changing art world and the exhibit as a history lesson. 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 II: Enwezor discusses the correlation between art and politics, and the use of art as a political tool.

 

Online Special: The Short Century Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Arts and Entertainment   P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center	JEFFREY BROWN: So your approach to art is always through a kind of cultural and political context? OKWUI ENWEZOR: Not, not always. Not always. I'm obviously very interested in the cultural and political contexts in which art is created, but I think that to do justice to the discourse that I have set out to propose in my work, I think that one has to be first and foremost attentive to the work. One has to be first and foremost attentive to the intentions of the artist; that one has to pay the greatest fidelity to the ways in which that work expresses itself within the larger concerns of the artistic world. So it's not really to ideologize the work of African artists or the work of artists working across different cultural and political boundaries but to bring about new ways of sort of looking at what I believe to be very, very important productions and practices that are going on in other parts of the world. JEFFREY BROWN: One of the striking and interesting things about an exhibition like this is that it is a kind of history lesson told through art. That's not a typical exhibition, I don't think, the attempt to show people something they've never seen, and to show them half a century of history. OKWUI ENWEZOR: Well for Africa it's something that is certainly new, not for Europe. And I think this is what has made the exhibition more rewarding. In my own experience I think it is really an exhibition that obviously set out not simply to be an exhibition of art; it's an exhibition of social history. And I think that the combination of very, very powerful set of images and objects and so on alongside the commentary material has made it possible for the public to begin to penetrate some of its more opaque or obscure corners. JEFFREY BROWN: When I read biographies or profiles, you're regularly described as a star in the international art world. Many of the artists you've exhibited here are now regularly exhibited internationally. Does that say something about the role of Africa in the art world today? Does it say something about the changing art world today? OKWUI ENWEZOR: Well I think it says more about the change in the art world, and less about Africa specifically because, of course, my work is not only simply with African artists; I work with artists from Asia and I've worked ... with artists from Europe and the United States. But I think it really does say something about a change in the art world, and I think it's one that is much more complex than it was 15 years ago.

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