C&10: One Decade of Contemporary And

Contemporary And 10 ! C& TEN! 2023 marks a special year for Contemporary And (C&): the platform will be turning TEN! We invite you to celebrate with us! The Kick-off will take place in Berlin on 18th of March – featuring Ligia Lewis, James Gregory Atkinson and Magnus Elias Rosengarten in a panel discussion at ifa-Gallery Berlin, and a party a ACUD Club with music by Zambake and DJ Tmnit a.k.a. T.Total.

C& 10: That’s one decade of publishing/ exchanging/ listening/ learning/ networking/ sharing/ meeting/ collaborating/ developing and dancing…

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 a constantly growing C& network producing canons beyond a canon, writing art histories, creating new presents.

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 the 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 global Diaspora. Key here was and still is the accessibility of all content and to move beyond the idea of centers and beyond singular histories and presents.

One of C&’s first memorable highlights 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 triumphed winning the golden lion the only interview with the Pavillon’s artist Edson Chagas could be found in that little C& map. 2014 followed with the next unforgettable first-timer with C& launching its first Print issue during the Dak’Art Biennale with a with a party by the beach still referred to as legendary. A further legendary Print issue was launched in 2017 in the frame of the Sao Paulo Biennale which 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 an entire 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 goes on, C& will keep changing its shape, formulated and formed by the many voices carrying and manifesting it.
During all that time we were fortunate to be co-funded and co-published by the ifa (Institute for Foreign Affairs), which provided complete freedom to curate and design this platform.

And now! Watch out for 12 months of exciting events, launches, encounters of people! On panels and dancefloors around the globe!

More details to follow soon on contemporaryand.com and @contemporaryand on Instagram.