Sohrab Mohebbi and Christian Nyampeta discuss École du soir

Curator Sohrab Mohebbi speaks to artist Christian Nyampeta on the occasion of his exhibition at SculptureCenter, École du soir (The Evening Academy), on view through December 16, 2019. As part of the related public program, e-flux hosted an evening with philosopher Isaïe Nzeyimana, in dialogue with anthropologist Natacha Nsabimana and Christian Nyampeta on Wednesday, October 23 at e-flux.  Excerpt from the press release: Christian Nyampeta’s project consists of a scriptorium (a place for writing), an exhibition, and public programs concerned with “thinking Africa,” then and now. The program is resourced around the idea of an “evening school,” following the Senegalese writer and film director Sembène Ousmane, who saw cinema as “cours du soir” or “evening classes.” This concept was informed by the traditions of orality, sensuality, and conviviality within the realm of art learning and making in his region. Sembène saw cinema as a popular information system in the service of education, aesthetic experience, and public dissemination. His methodology concerned the use of cinema’s collective production, and investing in its viewing methods that draw from different uses of time, visual and textual histories, social struggles and hopes, in mutuality between his own locality and the world at large. Read more here.   Christian Nyampeta’s ongoing activities in art, design, and theory include the convening of a scriptorium, a roaming program of exhibitions, screenings, and lyrical performances concerned with longing and belonging through monuments and translation. Forthcoming exhibitions include the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Nyampeta runs Radius, an online and occasionally inhabitable radio station. He is completing a PhD in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University of London and he was awarded The Art Prize Future of Europe 2019. Sohrab Mohebbi is SculptureCenter's Curator and is responsible for organizing exhibitions, educational and public programs, publications, and for coordinating all aspects of program presentation. Before joining SculptureCenter in 2018, Mohebbi was the associate curator at REDCAT.