ECHOES - DiARTgonale Special Edition #2 (Dec. 2013)

Hosted by the Cameroonian artist magazine DiARTgonale, Enough Room for Space's series of special editions presents the outcome of a long-term curatorial endeavour initiated in 2010, for which Cameroonian and European artists collaboratively produce new, research-based artworks.

As its title suggests, the new issue deals with echoes that reverberate in the contributions by artists, writers and passionate amateurs of both continents. For instance, film-maker and artist Vincent Meessen and writer Lionel Manga have appropriated the correspondence that French novelist Céline sent from Cameroon in 1916. Their “Post-Script” echoes the historic exchange of letters and reflects on Céline’s dual identity as hygienist doctor and author.

On their part, the sculptors Justine Gaga and Beate Engl have thought through the references informing their individual practices in Cameroon and Germany. Together, they have created two theme fabrics and a series of manifesto panels for public space, which they intend to use as props for a performance that exhibits and questions canonized expectations towards art. As an extra, a small survey by the editors promotes the new panoply of art libraries in Western and Central Africa.

Under the title “Hard to Catch” Marjolijn Dijkman engages in a triangulation of photographic representations of Cameroon, ranging from the late-colonial Prunet archive to the image bank of Rose and Nicolas Eyidi, to the contemporary photography by exiled Patrick Wokmeni.

A documentarist in his own right, Joachim Oelsner-Adam is passionate for the decaying audiotape boxes gathered in radio stations across the country. An interview with him stages Cameroon’s distinct history of pop music. And finally, the artists Em'kal Eyongakpa and Stefaan Dheedene are responding to manipulative politics with poetic means.”