In tandem with Paris+ par Art Basel week and on the occasion of the Black History Month of Google France which began this month, Google’s headquarters in Paris welcome the group exhibition Still I Rise (October 18 - October 25). The Black Googler Network, a group of Google employees dedicated to fueling inclusion at Google invited Bwo Art’s co-founder and independent art curator Brice Arsene Yonkeu to curate the exhibition.
Featuring 8 contemporary artists of African heritage based between France and Africa mainly, the exhibition intends to spark transformative dialogues internally stemming from the contributions of these artists whose works celebrate Black Culture and Black History globally. “Still I Rise, inspired by Maya Angelou’s acclaimed poem of the same title, is also and mainly a moment for us” said Brice Arsene Yonkeu. “It is a moment during which we regroup to honor each other, to celebrate our achievements in spite of the odds and our singular backgrounds, and most importantly to take up space and amplify our stories as we pay tributes to all those who paved the way for us to be standing where we are.”
Artist highlights for the inaugural event include the participation of Alexis Peskine, Thandiwe Muriu, Rakajoo, Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux, Johanna Mirabel, Deladem Duvi, Djibril Drame and Merveille Kelekele Kelekele. The artists featured in this exhibition investigate through their practices the intersections between race and space, gender, class and/or history. In their own artistic language, they explore history (collective or personal) and/or the present to either create powerful new narratives with their people at the center, or to reclaim what is theirs but was stolen or long forgotten.
cur. Brice Arsene Yonkeu