State of L3 is back from Dakar!
May 15, 2010
The Dakar Biennale & our Presentation at the Maison de l’Amérique Latine, Paris
were a huge sucess for the Collective!
Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain
Dak’Art 2010 7 May – 7 June 2010 Dakar, Sénégal.
Next shows are:
Gallery 23, Amsterdam 27 June
Keti Koti Festival 1 July
Smart Project Space 10 July
MC Mansour at the L3 Vernissage in Medina, Dakar
Two Installations at the Dakar Biennial
A.J. Guzman, Ton van Beers & Raul Balai 4 State of L3
STATE OF L3
Location: Medina, a suburb of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Time: 10 p.m. in the evening. Temperature: 22 degrees.
Locals are still on the streets. They provide a continuous noise. Trading in the rickety stalls and small shops continues. On TV screens they showing the latest football games.
A single car is parked in front of a long low building with a brownish red coating. From the roof a video is projected, hidden inside a stylized, white painted wooden boat. On the opposite, on the ’sidewalk’, stands an old white minivan, witch is used as the screen.
The Pan African collective STATE OF L3 founded and coordinated by the Latin American Dutchman Antonio Jose Guzman – give an intermediate presentation of a long term project in which a constantly changing group of artists and filmmakers dealing with the triangle of Amsterdam’s, Dakar’s and Recife’s historical benchmarks. Within this, the participants searching for their roots and thus their identity. This intercontinental project stands for the African Diaspora in a concentrated form. The videos are a series of rough-cut images, recorded at various locations. Short conversations, records of building operations, fragmented travel and staged scenes alternate. Sometimes there are explanatory subtitles, usually not. That structure makes a cryptic works to contemporary video compositions.
For the temporary display a group of children has gathered. They jump and dance enthusiastically through the light and pictures. Their shadows build up an extra dimension in front of the recorded images. Through that suddenly they belong literally and figuratively to the context. The other residents on the street look curious, they have never seen such a thing. No idea how to deal with this new form of heritage reconditioning. A few foreigners, mainly Dutch and Scandinavian, watch the show.
STATE OF L3 is a project that turns up every time. Short notice, in different locations at different forms.
Back in Europe the upcoming exhibitions will take place at Gallery 23 and Smart Project Space in Amsterdam as well as in Utrecht in Sanaa Gallery and The M HKA Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art.
Translated from Rob Perrée text.
L3 Draft Imaginary sketches, Mix visuals from “The Day We Surrender” with Footage of the L3 Participants.
A selection from our archive most favorite artists & inspirators!
This is just to give you a flavor of the L3 archive, the artists we work with, installations we have made and some of the international artists we consider important for our work.
A.J. Guzman, Ton van Beers & Ischa Stuart 4 State of L3
Mickalene Thomas
The work of this artist is part of the archive created by the State of L3
(No Part of the Collective)
Giordana Jansen Perret-Gentil 4 State of L3
A.J. Guzman with Armin Kane Dakar 4 State of L3
Niel Fortune 4 State of L3
Siri Driessen & Roos Van Haaften
Raul Balai 4 State of L3
Mateus Sá (Canal03) 4 State of L3
Beto Figueiroa (Canal03) 4 State of L3
Beto Figueiroa (Canal03) 4 State of L3
Siri Driessen Research Images 4 State of L3
Isha Stuart 4 State of L3 Flying Boat
Radcliffe Bailey
Storm at Sea, 2006 Piano keys, African sculpture, model boat, paper, acrylic, glitter, and gold leaf 212 x 213 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Radcliffe Bailey
The work of this artist is part of the archive created by the State of L3
(No part of the Collective)
Tess & Armin Kane in Dakar working on the car covers of L3
Galerie 23 ready to host L3
Armin Kane Celebration Figures 4 State of L3
