Wide Open School @ Hayward Gallery

Thanks to Hannah Pool for the heads up on this one – how did I miss the Wide Open School at the Hayward Gallery? Two and a half weeks of artist-led classes, workshops and discussions, many of which were free, have already sped past… but fear not, there’s still plenty more to come before the School closes on 11th July, including Gillian Wearing on ‘the creative state of being’ and ‘being happy’, and two sound workshops with Susan Philipsz.

Fans of contemporary art and artists from/about Africa may be especially interested in the following:

Bouchra Khalili – Do You Speak English? – on language and film
Fri 29th June, 2pm, £10

Romuald Hazoumè – Scrap tales: making art with discarded materials – workshop
Sat 30th June + Sun 1st July, 2pm, free
Tues 3rd July + Weds 4th July, 2pm, free

Wael Shawky – Art and history – discussion
Tues 10th July, 2pm, £10

Pascale Marthine Tayou – From inception to death: the nature and life cycle of artworks – discussion
Tues 10th July, 2pm, £10
Weds 11th July, 2pm, £10

Plus, my pick of the rest:

Isaac Julien with David Harvey – Choreographing Capital
Weds 4th July, 8pm, £10

Limited concessions are available for most events – check the website.

Vincent Michea @ Jack Bell

Jack Bell’s next show, which opens tomorrow night, is by Vincent Michea, a French artist who splits his time between Paris and Dakar. The exhibition is called Before the Bigger Splash – hopefully there will be more info on Jack’s website soon.

You can read more about Michea (and several of Jack’s other artists) at his collaborator André Magnin’s website here.

Show: 28 June – 28 July

Opening hours: Tues-Sat, 10.00-18.00

Jack Bell Gallery
13 Mason’s Yard, St. James’s, London
SW1Y 6BU

Romuald Hazoumè @ October Gallery

Moncongo – Romuald Hazoumè (2012)

Romuald Hazoumè is back at October Gallery this summer with Cargoland, a solo show featuring new installations, sculpture and photography. Hazoumè is known for his quirky, amusing and politically cutting work highlighting the entanglements of everyday life and work in Benin with local, national, transnational and global flows of material goods and capital. To hear more about his work, go along to his gallery talk this Friday at 4pm.

Show: 28th June – 11th August

Opening hours:
Tues – Sat, 12.30 – 17.30

October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London
WC1N 3AL

The Gaddafi Archives: Libya before the Arab Spring @ Slade Research Centre

Colonel Gaddafi and Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, holding hands in Moscow, April 27th, 1981 – Michael Christopher Brown for Human Rights Watch (2011)

The London Festival of Photography is in full swing, and photography from and about Africa is very much part of the picture: the British Museum display Money in Bamako and London and Steve Bloom‘s South African photographs at the Guardian Gallery are still on view, and there have been (by all accounts) great events and workshops from the likes of Jodi Bieber.

This coming week another Africa-related exhibition opens its doors: The Gaddafi Archives. For nine days only, there’s a chance to explore the Human Rights Watch photographic record of documents and images found in state intelligence buildings and destroyed Gaddafi residences, covering over 70 years of Libyan history that has until recently been a closed book.

Tickets are £7.50 (or £5 with an Open City ticket) and can be bought online here or on the door.

Show: 21st-29th June

Opening hours: daily, 10.00 – 22.00

Slade Research Centre
Woburn Square, London
WC1H 0AB

Kisito Assangni @ Art Connect @Tiwani Contemporary

Kisito Assangni

Tiwani Contemporary’s Art Connect series continues this week with a film screening curated by Kisito Assangni. Time is Love.5 is the latest edition in Assangni’s annual international programme of video art on the theme of ‘love in hard times’. More info here.

RSVP to info@tiwani.co.uk

Tuesday 19th June, 6.30pm

Tiwani Contemporary
16 Little Portland Street, London
W1W 8BP

Art Connect @ Tiwani Contemporary

Lucy Azubuike

Art Connect is a series of panel discussions, screenings and live performances coming up at Tiwani Contemporary, and the first instalment is taking place TONIGHT, as artists Lucy Azubuike, Amarachi Okafor and Victoria Udondian discuss their work and the Nigerian art scene with curator Gabriela Salgado. All three artists are currently participating in We Face Forward, the festival of West African art and music that launched last week in Manchester.

5th June, 18.30 – 20.30

Tiwani Contemporary
16 Little Portland Street, London
W1W 8BP

Jodi Bieber @ London Festival of Photography

Jodi Bieber

Award-winning South African photographer Jodi Bieber is giving an evening talk and a four-day masterclass as part of the London Festival of Photography. Join her to find out more about her practice, and hear the inside story on her recent work in Afghanistan, which won her the 2011 World Press Photo Award.

Talk: 7pm, 7th June, Foto8 Gallery, £12.50

Masterclass: 7th-10th June, Fitzrovia Community Centre, £649

For more great South African photography during the festival, also check out Steve Bloom at the Guardian Gallery.