Conférence de Grace Ndiritu
Grace Ndiritu en conversation avec Chloé Maillet et Natsuko Uchino
Cette conférence publique est proposée dans le cadre de la semaine des workshops intersites.
Grace Ndiritu a étudié l’art du textile à la Winchester School of Art, au Royaume-Uni, et à De Ateliers, à Amsterdam entre 1998 et 2000. Certaines de ses œuvres figurent aujourd’hui dans des collections muséales comme le Metropolitan Museum of Art à New-York et le Musée d’Art Moderne à Varsovie. Ressuscitant l’esprit des séances surréalistes des années 30 et des groupes de prise de conscience des années 70, Grace Ndiritu invite le public à prendre part à des séances de méditation et des performances collectives dans le cadre de son projet Healing the Museum. Socialement engagée, l’artiste utilise différents modes d’expression ésotérique (cultures électroniques, chamanisme, rituels amérindiens…) pour développer des outils critiques et introspectifs de la société afin d’améliorer le vivre ensemble.
ARTISTS BIO
Grace Ndiritu (Kenya/UK) performs, paints, films, photographs and does research projects. In 2012, Ndiritu made the radical decision to spend time in the city only when it was needed, and otherwise live in rural, alternative and often spiritual communities, while expanding her research into nomadic lifestyles and training in esoteric studies such as shamanism, with which she began more than 16 years ago. Her research into community life has so far resulted in the founding of The Ark: Center For Interdisciplinary Experimentation.
In 2012, Ndiritu also started making a new oeuvre entitled Healing The Museum. It arose from the need to reintroduce non-rational methods such as shamanism to reactivate the 'sacrality' of art spaces. Ndiritu believes that most modern art institutions do not reflect the daily experiences of the public and the widespread socio-economic and political changes that have taken place worldwide in recent decades have further eroded the relationship between museums and their public. Museums are dying. Ndiritu sees shamanism as a way of reactivating the dying art space as a space for sharing, participation and ethics.
Her archive of more than forty 'handmade' videos; experimental photography, painting and shamanic performances are extensively exhibited. Exhibitions, performances and screenings took place in places such as, Museum Modern of Art, Warsaw; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris; Glasgow School of Art; Klowden Mann Gallery, Los Angeles; La Ira De Dios, Buenos Aires and the 51st Venice Biennale. http://gracendiritu.com/