18 December 2024

In Memoriam: Lionel Manga (1955 – 2024)

Marjolijn Dijkman & Annette Schemmel

“Si nous voulons que le monde soit différent, il faut que notre langue pour le dire soit différente.” Lionel Manga quoted in Le Monde Afrique, 4/12/2022

As an artist collective, we are mourning the loss of a beautiful kindred soul from Cameroon, who died prematurely earlier this week. We remember Lionel passionately sharing his evocative views, which were both poetic and critical. We love to picture him in one of his favorite places, in Doual’Art’s garden by “the old mango tree that stands there covered with moss and epiphytes (...), a microclimate that affords a serenity in which conversations blossom between laughter and exclamation.” (Lionel quoted in “Post-Script”, ECHOES, DiArtgonale, 2013)

Our first encounter took place in 2009 in Enough Room for Space’s Rotterdam studio, followed by many meetings and exchanges in Europe and Cameroon. In 2013, we published the exchange ‘Post Script’ between Lionel Manga and Belgian artist Vincent Meessen in the journal DiArtgonale ECHOES, and Annette Schemmel quoted him abundantly in the case study “Visual Arts in Cameroon: A Genealogy of Non-formal Training 1974-2014”, Langaa, Bamenda 2016.

Lionel was a true spokesman for several generations of artists in Cameroon and beyond. We will miss his contagiously open and free spirit, extraordinary talent for words, and provocative decolonial thinking.

Marjolijn Dijkman and Annette Schemmel (initiators of “Present Perfect”, 2007-2017, Enough Room for Space)

1 April 2017

LUNÄ Talk: IN_DEPENDENCE

PERFORMATIK17 at ERforS HQ, BE

"Without its Eurocentric distortions, decolonization would be at the center of the narrative we tell about the twentieth century - and this retelling would allow us to see that global capitalism today is most fundamentally shaped by the struggle for independence." from 'Empire of Cotton, A Global History' by Sven Beckert. 

Take a seat at the LUNÄ table for a discussion about social, political, and ecological (in)dependence. Material aspects are also relevant: especially in relation to cotton, they form a constant theme throughout colonial history and the power structures that dominate today’s world.

Invited contributors: Prof. Sven Beckert (historian, Harvard University, US), Prof. Peter Pels (anthropologist, Leiden University, NL), Christine Chivallon (anthropologist, CNRS, Bordeaux,  FR), Helen Elands (art historian, independent researcher, London, UK), Marjolijn Dijkman (artist and initiator of LUNÄ Talks), Maarten Vanden Eynde (artist and co-host) and Alioum Moussa (artist and co-host).

26 - 28 October 2015

Artistic Training and Arts Education in Cameroon

Colloquium II, Yaounde, CM

Pedagogic exchanges amongst profiled visual artists and academic teachers are in the focus of this second colloquium in Yaoundé. The invited experts will critically assess pedagogic attitudes by means of lectures, film screenings and discussions and thus contribute to a skill enhancement of the participating art teachers, artists, art historians and art critics.

15 - 17 October 2014

Artistic Training and Arts Education in Cameroon

Colloquium, Yaounde, CM

Pedagogic exchanges amongst profiled visual artists and academic teachers are in the focus of the colloquium in Yaoundé. The invited experts will critically assess pedagogic attitudes by means of lectures, film screenings and discussions and thus contribute to a skill enhancement of the participating art teachers, artists, art historians and art critics.

21 February 2014

Launch ECHOES

Presentations and discussion, SAVVY, Berlin, DE

Enough Room for Space proudly announces its new special edition of DiARTgonale entitled "ECHOES". To celebrate this launch, Mutant Matters at Savvy Contemporary (Berlin) will host a discussion about the accessibility of knowledge resources and public archives for contemporary artists working outside of Europe.

With contributions by: Lorenzo Sandoval, Luis Berrios-Negron, Annette Schemmel and Bathilde Maestracci.

13 February 2014

Launch ECHOES

Launch & Lecture, WIELS, Brussels, BE

WIELS is kindly hosting one of the launches of ECHOES_DiARTgonale Special Edition #2. By discussing a selection of art works made in Douala, Cameroon, art historian and curator Annette Schemmel will sketch out the complex networks of references used by informally taught artists in this context. Her lecture is entitled "Sharing Knowledge. A Perspective on Contemporary Art made in Cameroon.

12 February 2014

Launch ECHOES

Roundtable discussion, SMBA, Amsterdam, NL

Like the first issue, the new magazine ECHOES_DiARTgonale Special Edition #2 seeks to extend access to relevant archives, books and education in Cameroon. As part of its efforts to inform European audiences of the conditions of artistic production in African contexts, SMBA is hosting a round-table discussion with select experts.

Talks and discussion: moderated by Lucy Cotter with Annette Schemmel, Bassam El Baroni, Pauline Burmann

July - August 2013

Collective editing period

ERforS HQ, BE

We are editing the upcoming magazine ECHOES DiARTgonale Special Edition #2. Editors Annette Schemmel, Marjolijn Dijkman, Amélie Bouvier and Bathilde Maestracci are meeting with the translators, with the artists Vincent Meessen and Patrick Wokmeni and with the designer Indre Klimaite to finalize the upcoming magazine.

November 2012

JAMAN – DiARTgonale Special Edition #1

Online reader and print version

JAMAN is the fist of a series of special editions by Enough Room for Space in collaboration with the Cameroonian artist journal DiARTgonale. This issue lends its title from an art project that explores encounters between Cameroon and the “West” during more than a hundred years. The art works, the poetic and scientific texts and the cartoons that have been specially produced for this issue challenge cherished notions of cultural authenticity.

10 September - 31 October 2011

Residency Period Present Perfect

Ruth Afane Belinga & Salifou Lindou, The Hague, NL

Artist and art historian Ruth Afane Belinga and artist Salifou Lindou from Cameroon are staying in residence in The Hague. During their stay, they will re-think the Cameroonian artist journal DiARTgonale in collaboration with the artists Marjolijn Dijkman, Christian Hanussek and Maarten Vanden Eynde, the graphic designer Indre Klimaite and the curator Annette Schemmel.

20 September 2011: artist talks by Ruth Afane-Belinga and Salifou Lindou moderated by Annette Schemmel. 8 p.m. hosted by NEST, the Hague

March 2011

Interview with Goddy Leye (1965-2011) by Annette Schemmel

Published in Mosaïques, CM and African Arts, US

This interview with Goddy Leye (1965-2011) is one of his last statements about his visions regarding the Cameroonian art scene. It was published in March 2011 in French in the fourth issue of the Cameroonian culture journal "Mosaïques". In Autumn 2011 it was featured in English in African Arts, a journal published by MIT press.

December 2010

IN_DEPENDENCE

Project by Alioum Moussa & Maarten Vanden Eynde, SUD, Douala, CM

Taking the 50th anniversary of the independence of 17 African countries as a starting point, this project’s aim is to inspire dialogues about a variety of notions of independence, be they individual, political or artistic. The artists will distribute fifty pairs of black and white T-shirts to fifty pairs of participants to the triennale Salon Urbain de Douala, taking place in December 2010.

March 2010

Writing About

Published by Fucking Good Art (#25)

A publication edited and compiled by Lucia Babina and Zoe Gray as a result of Talking About! With amongst others: Never Swallow the Past, a contribution written by Annette Schemmel (ERforS) which meditates upon retellings of history in the light of the 50th anniversary of Cameroonian independence.

12 September 2009

Talking About

Gathering in Rotterdam, NL

As part of the program Talking About!, Enough Room for Space initiates a discussion with a group artists and cultural producers working in the context of Central Africa and in specific in Cameroon.

Talking About! brought six artists and cultural producers from Cameroon to the Netherlands; Ruth Belinga (artist, curator, Yaoundé), Goddy Leye (artist, founder of artist initiative ArtBakery, Douala), Hervé Youmbi (artist, member of the collective Cercle Kapsiki, Douala), Achille K Komguen (artist, editor of the newspaper DiARTgonale, Yaoundé), Lionel Manga (writer, Douala), Achille Atina (cultural mediator, Douala).

Additionally, Enough Room for Space has invited Hervé Yamguen (artist, member of the collective Cercle Kapsiki, Douala), Emiliano Gandolfi (curator), Alexander Vollebregt (artist), Kaleb de Groot (artist), Meruro Washida (curator), David Maroto (artist) and Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson (artists) as discussion partners to Enough Room for Space.