1-54 is honoured to invite an artist presented at 1-54 Marrakech 2020 at the Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as an awarded artist in residence for a three-month period in 2021. The selected artist will be announced at 1-54 Marrakech on Thursday 20 February.
Initiated in December 1990, the Thami Mnyele Foundation is named in commemoration of the South African artist and freedom fighter Thami Mnyele, who inspired Dutch artists to set up an artist in residence program in Amsterdam. Its main aim is to stimulate and facilitate cultural exchange and cooperation between the visual arts and artists of the Netherlands and countries from the African continent and the diaspora, endeavoring to contribute to the continent’s cultural and artistic development.
In 2020, the Thami Mnyele Foundation will have existed for thirty years. To celebrate this milestone, the Foundation has invited several institutions to participate in their research residency programme. Alongside the residency, the Foundation is producing a publication. Working with The Art Momentum, the publication will not only focus on the residency but will also include interviews conducted by Dutch and African writers with ten alumni of the Thami Mnyele Foundation. The publication will be distributed both nationally and internationally.
Several residencies have been awarded for 2020, selected by institutions based in the Netherlands that have a long-standing relationship with the Foundation, including Zam Magazine, Amsterdam Museum, Rijksmuseum and the Prince Claus Fund. The ZAM Magazine platform will be inviting an artist whose residency will culminate in a presentation at the Mandela Lecture in the Schouwburg on 1 March 2020. The work will focus on the life of Thami Mnyele, who died 35 years ago. The Amsterdam Museum will be selecting an artist in the spring who will work specifically with the institution. Alongside Rijksmuseum, the Foundation will invite an artist who will be working during the Slavery, an exhibition, at the museum, with a focus on the Dutch slave trade.
At the end of the year, The Prince Claus Fund will receive the artist during their award ceremony. AGA LAB, Amsterdam will be giving each of the artists a workshop in their lab and de Ateliers will be hosting the artists for talks and meetings. Foundation alumni will also be included in the Foundations 2020 celebration programme. CBK Zuidoost is preparing an exhibition focusing on alumni who work in Europe The Amsterdam Trail/ Galerie Lemaire will be inviting alumni of the Thami Mnyele Foundation to participate in the annual trail where contemporary artists will show in the ethnographic galleries in Amsterdam. At the end of the year, Framer Framed will show alumni from Curaçao and Suriname with Surinamese artist Marcel Pinas. The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape town; High Museum of Art, Atlanta and several others will be showing the work of alumni of the Thami Mnyele Foundation Award. With Gasworks, London and TransArtist/Dutch Culturele there are plans for a symposium about residencies. Every event of this milestone year will be reflecting the Foundation’s unique relationship with each institutions, including those not mentioned above, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg and London; Brakke Grond, Amsterdam; Galerie SANAA, Utrecht; Stevenson Gallery, Amsterdam; 32o East | Ugandan Arts Trust, Kampala; art school Khartoum and No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam.
The artist residency by the Thami Mnyele Award Foundation will include a personal studio in the centre of Amsterdam, a small library and living space. The programme aims at encouraging open and unbiased interaction between different fields of art through contact with the cultural institutions.
To read more about the Thami Mnyele Foundation Award please click here.
