Biennials & Co.
Authors: Erika Nimis
[June 5th 2024] by Érika Nimis. The Circulation(s) festival in Paris has been showcasing emerging talents in photography for the past thirteen years. Érika Nimis attended the 14th edition. Read her first-hand account here.
The Photobook
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Boris Mikhailov
[August 30, 2023] By Érika Nimis. The tone of this book by the photographer Boris Mikhailov (born in Kharkiv in 1938) is established on the front cover, which looks like a page torn from a notebook, with scribbles, stains, and things crossed out…
Ciel variable 123 – THE POWER OF INTIMACY | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis
[Summer 2023] Photography and Ukraine, Keeping Eyes Open to the War By Érika Nimis [Excerpt] Since February 24, 2022, when Russia instigated its full-scale military assault on Ukraine, there has been a constant ow of images of the conflict, both via traditional media outlets and on social networks. This is perhaps the first war to […]
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Boris Mikhailov
[December 14, 2022] By Érika Nimis. The exhibition Ukrainian Diary, presented at the Maison européenne de la photographie (MEP), is the largest retrospective ever devoted to the abundant and iconoclastic work of the photographer Boris Mikhailov, which resonates with more than a half-century of contemporary Ukrainian history. The exhibition is set out chronologically, on two floors – some twenty series – accompanied by Mikhailov’s own commentary…
Ciel variable 120 - FIGURES OF AFFIRMATION | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Taysir Batniji
[Summer 2022] By Érika Nimis MAC VAL Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine 6.06.2021 — 9.01.2022 [Excerpt] The Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne devoted a solo exhibition to Taysir Batniji, retracing with rare coherence more than twenty-five years of his art career in some fifty works: paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, installations, performances. Born in Gaza […]
Ciel variable 117 - SHIFTED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Sandra Brewster
[Summer 2021] Works from series: Smith, Blur; Video: Walk on by Optica, un centre d’art contemporain, Montréal 16.02.2021 — 03.04.2021 By Érika Nimis After long months of forced restraint, what a pleasure it is to return to visiting visual arts venues in person! I tested out this pleasure by going to Optica to see Toronto […]
Ciel variable 116 — LANDSCAPES AS MIRRORS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis
[Winter 2021] This article was originally published in French only. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Biennale de Berlin pour l’art contemporain Du 5 septembre au 1er novembre 2020 By Érika Nimis (En français seulement) See the magazine for the complete article and more images: Ciel […]
Ciel variable 115 - THE MARCH OF THE WORLD | Portfolios
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: William Kentridge
[Summer 2020] By Érika Nimis Interdisciplinary artist William Kentridge (born 1955 in Johannesburg) is internationally celebrated for his animated films composed of charcoal drawings and as a director of live shows. Born into an activist family intimately involved with the anti-apartheid struggles of the 1980s, Kentridge works in media as varied as printmaking, sculpture, performance, […]
Ciel variable 114 - MASSES | MONUMENTS | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Babacar Traoré (Doli), Boubacar Touré Mandémory, Bouna Médoune Sèye, Élise Fitte-Duval, Fatou Kandé Senghor, Ibrahima Thiam, KhéraBaba, Mabeye Deme, Malick Welli
[Winter 2020] Par Erika Nimis Dakar, a cosmopolitan capital city and crossroads on the Atlantic coast, open to all creative currents, has grown under the gaze of its photographers. An independent field of professional photography emerged in the 1990s, and the institution of the Mois de la Photo has contributed to legitimizing an increasingly engaged […]
Ciel variable 113 - TRANS-IDENTITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Guy Tillim
April 4, 2024 [originally published in CV113 in Fall 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 112 - COLLECTIONS REVISITED | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Vincent Meessen
June 7 2023 [originally published in CV112 in Summer 2019] — This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 111 - THE SPACE OF COLOUR | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Debi Cornwall
August 31, 2022 [originally published in CV111 in Winter 2019] — By Érika Nimis. Every summer since 2010, Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie en Gaspésie has literally pushed art photography into parks and forests and onto beaches, inviting visitors to a true treasure hunt along the legendary Route 132…
Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Alun Be, Anastasie Langu, Babacar Traoré (Doli), Benjamin Bayienda, Émilie Régnier, Franck Fanny, Ishola Akpo, Laeïla Adjovi, Loïc Hoquet, Oumar Ka, Pierre-Christophe Gam
October 19, 2018 — Originally published in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 110 - MIGRATION | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: David Goldblatt
[Fall 2018] —This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 109 - REVISIT | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Malick Sidibé
August 31, 2021 [originally published in French only in CV109 in Summer 2018] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 108 - GOING PUBLIC | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: David Goldblatt, Meleko Mokgosi, Sue Williamson
June 1, 2021 [originally published in French only in CV108 in Winter 2018] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 108 - GOING PUBLIC | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Akram Zaatari, Meryl McMaster, Pascal Grandmaison, Taryn Simon, Yto Barrada, Zanele Muholi
February 21, 2018 [originally published in CV108 in Winter 2018] — In June 2017, Le Mois de la Photo de Montréal metamorphosed to the Biennale de l’image, taking on the name MOMENTA, plural of momentum, which means “impetus, energy, force, thrust, drive, impulse”1 and often denotes a favourable or propitious situation. Would the update to this international event devoted to the contemporary fixed and moving image be successful and yet provide continuity with the old formula?…
Ciel variable 107 - RUINS | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Délio Jasse, Katia Kameli, Vasco Araújo
December 15, 2020 [originally published in CV107 in Fall 2017] — Three solo exhibitions (Katia Kameli, Délio Jasse, and Vasco Araújo) organized in London late in 2016 featured episodes from African and European history, particularly during the colonial period, in which the artists used “traces,” mainly photographic corpuses dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, updated via different media and devices.
Ciel variable 106 - TREES, ICE, AND CLOUDS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis
June 23, 2020 [originally published in CV106 in Spring 2017] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 105 – MONTREALITIES | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Ethan Levitas, William Kentridge, Zanele Muholi
April 21, 2020 [originally published in CV105 in Winter 2017] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 104 - FROM ANOTHER ANGLE | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Andrew Esiebo, François-Xavier Gbré, Mimi Cherono Ng'ok
February 20, 2020 [originally published in CV104 in Fall 2016] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 103 - NATURE | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Coco Fusco, Em’kal Eyongakpa, George Mahashe, Georges Senga, Héla Ammar, J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Lebohang Kganye, Lola Khalfa, Moussa Kalapo, Seydou Camara, Sihem Salhi, Uche Okpa-Iroha, Youssef Lahrichi
December 16, 2019 [originally published in CV103 in Spring 2016] — The biennale in Bamako, Mali, came to an end on December 31, 2015. This anniversary edition – the tenth – had been delayed by two years due to a major crisis that occurred in 2012. Even a few weeks before the opening, there was still a climate of uncertainty, though it was quickly swept away by the invigorating enthusiasm of the organizing committee.
Ciel variable 102 - FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis
October 2, 2019 [originally published in CV102 in Winter 2016] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 102 - FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis
October 16, 2019 [originally published in CV102 in Winter 2016] — Lagos – Eko in the Yoruba language – is a typical megalopolis. With its some twenty million inhabitants, it is the economic and cultural heart and soul of Nigeria, which is the birthplace of Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize for literature) and Fela Kuti (the father of Afrobeat) and the home of Nollywood (the third-largest movie industry in the world)….
Ciel variable 101 - STRATA | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Alessandro Aceri, Boris Nzebo, Christian Hanussek, Em’kal Eyongakpa, Ginette Daleu, Hervé Yamguen, Hervé Youmbi, Nicolas Eyidi, Patrick Wokmeni
July 31, 2019 [originally published in CV101 in Fall 2015] — Douala. Late January 2015. I take my first steps on the streets of this port city, the economic capital of Cameroon. Douala is a vibrant city that constantly eludes your grasp. First steps and already some reference points. We cannot speak of the contemporary scene in Douala without speaking of the art centres that form its identity.
Ciel variable 96 – PERFORMING FOR THE IMAGE | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Sven Augustijnen
August 1, 2018 [originally published in French in CV96 in Winter 2014] — You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Ciel variable 91 – OUR WORLD | Essays
Authors: Erika Nimis
August 14, 2017 [originally published in CV91 in Spring 2012] — A number of events (exhibitions, publications, and awards) have recently highlighted the growing success of South African photography on the international contemporary scene. Since the abolition of apartheid, and then the election of Nelson Mandela as president of the country in 1994, South Africa has become the spearhead of contemporary African photography, reinforced by a long and rich history that begins with the invention of photography itself, imported to Cape Town in the 1840s.1…
Ciel variable 78 - COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Erika Nimis | Artists: Emmanuel Bakari Daou, Fouad Maazouz, Nabil Boutros, Serge Emmanuel Jongué
[Spring 2008] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Bamako 2007 7es Rencontres Africaines de la photographie, Bamako 22 novembre – 10 décembre 2007