Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context presents work that addresses the concerns, thoughts, and desires of contemporary artists from the Southern African region as they grapple with the legacy of post-colonial structures. Regional Identities x Global Context is the second iteration of Crossing Night, an exhibition series organized by the A4 Arts Foundation—a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the creative arts in southern Africa. With an emphasis on transition and transformation, Crossing Night explores how local politics, urban landscape, and place shape the personal identities that define regional culture. The exhibition will feature photography, video, sculpture, and installation works.
For this exhibition, MOCAD and A4 Art Foundation are proud to partner with The Wedge Collection—one of Canada’s largest, privately owned contemporary art collections focused African diasporic culture and contemporary Black life. Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context will include a range of works that push the form of lens-based practice, by artists Jody Brand, Edson Chagas, Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Calvin Dondo, Nicholas Hlobo, Pieter Hugo, Binelde Hyrcan, Samson Kambalu, William Kentridge, Lebohang Kganye, Moshekwa Langa, Sabelo Mlangeni, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Musa N. Nxumalo, Robin Rhode, Athi-Patra Ruga, Penny Siopis, Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillim, Andrew Tshabangu, and Kyle Weeks. Additionally, MOCAD is proud to announce that artists Nicholas Hlobo and Binelde Hyrcan will travel to Detroit to create site specific sculptural installations for the exhibition.
Crossing Night will be accompanied by States of Flux–a public program series for Detroit based artists, thinkers, and organizers to respond to the themes of the exhibition. States of Flux will include talks, performances, and workshops that will serve as a platform for robust understanding and intercultural dialogue between Southeastern Michigan and Southern African regions.
Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in collaboration with the A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town and is curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator, Josh Ginsburg, Director at the A4 Arts Foundation and Jova Lynne, Ford Curatorial Fellow at MOCAD.
Funding for Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context is provided in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Additional support for the exhibition was provided by Glenn Charles, Eric T. McKissack, André Des Rochers, and Josef Vascovitz & Lisa Goodman. Support for States of Flux programming is sponsored in-part by Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. Ford Curatorial fellows are supported by the Ford Foundation. Exhibitions and public programs at MOCAD are supported by the A. Alfred Taubman Foundation.
source: MOCAD Detroit