in Frieze | 05 OCT 16

Contemporary Art Society Collections Fund at Frieze 2016

The Contemporary Art Society acquired two video works for MIMA

in Frieze | 05 OCT 16

The Contemporary Art Society has acquired two moving image works by John Akomfrah and Kader Attia at Frieze London for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), each of which addresses themes of colonization and migration.

John Akomfrah, Peripeteia, 2012, video still. Courtesy: Lisson Gallery © Smoking Dog Films

Akomfrah’s Peripeteia (2012) and Attia’s Dispossession (2013) were purchased through the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund, which was set up in 2012 and this year is working in partnership with Frieze London. The scheme supports the acquisition of significant contemporary works for Contemporary Art Society museum members across the UK.

Akomfrah's, Peripeteia, which was purchased from Lisson Gallery, is the first part of a proposed trilogy that addresses the traces, appearances and disappearances of early African life in Europe. Attia's Dispossession, purchased from Lehmann Maupin, is a slide and video installation that examines the role of Christian missionaries in the colonization of African cultures.

Kader Attia, Dispossession, 2013, single slide and video projection Courtesy: the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong

Caroline Douglas, Director of Contemporary Art Society, said: both works engage with ‘Europe’s historical relationship with the African continent – its people and cultures’. Alistair Hudson, Director of MIMA, added: ‘It is vital that we are able to respond to current urgencies, both local and global. These two works don’t just reflect the history that has formed our current culture; they can be used actively, as tools, in our work towards social change.’

The two works will be presented at MIMA in spring of 2017. They will be part a programme engaging with identity politics, the on-going migrant crisis, neo-liberalism today, and the responsibility of art within society.

Jo Stella-Sawicka, Artistic Director of Frieze Art Fair, Caroline Douglas, CAS Director, and Alistair Hudson, Director of MIMA, announcing the two acquisitions purchased through the CAS Collections Fund

John Akomfrah (b.1957, Ghana) is an artist, filmmaker and a founding member of the influential Black Audio Film Collective. His works often explore the experience of the African diaspora in Europe and the UK. To watch frieze’s video profile on the artist, click here, and to read a review of his latest exhibitions, click here.

Kader Attia (b.1970, France) is an artist who grew up between Algeria and Paris, and uses this experience of living within multipe cultures as a starting point to develop a her practice. To read Michaela Ott’s review of Attia’s exhibition at MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, included in the latest issue of frieze d/e, click here.

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