Book Launch | Where is Africa: Volume 1

In 2017, curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu initiated research on the traditional positioning and mispositioning of the arts across the African continent. Their new book, Where Is Africa is an extended set of exchanges with contemporary artists, curators, designers and academics who are actively engaged in representing the continent, both within and outside its geographic boundaries. By examining artist collectives, new currents in art history and the rise of contemporary art festivals in and about Africa over the past ten years, the project unpacks the imperialist foundations of cultural institutions and their anthropological fascination with African objects, people and places.

Author Emanuel Admassu joins Prof Amy Kulper, Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture to discuss Where is Africa. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception. 

Please note this event is first come; first seated with limited capacity. 

Speaker Biography

Emanuel Admassu is an architect and educator whose work addresses spatial justice, design theory and contemporary African urbanism. He is an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP); and a co-founding board member of the Black Reconstruction Collective.

His art and architecture practice, AD—WO, in partnership with Jen Wood, investigates how race and space are co-constituted through various assemblages of imaging and measuring. Their work has been exhibited internationally at venues including La Biennale di Venezia (2023), Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023), Art Omi (2023), Harvard Graduate School of Design (2023), Museum of Modern Art (2021), Architekturmuseum der TU München (2018), and the Studio Museum in Harlem (2017). AD—WO’s work is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and the High Museum of Art (Atlanta).

His publication, Where Is Africa (Center for Art, Research, and Alliances (CARA), 2024), co-edited with Anita N. Bateman, is a transdisciplinary anthology of interviews, essays, and artworks.

More information

Image: Book Cover, Where is Africa