Here are the final works of the Finest Artist of Africa ~|~ FATMA CHARFI performed at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern, Switerzerland. Paul used to visit the gardens on a regular basis but Fatma only found that out after she had created the work. She was at the last stages of breast cancer at this time and this work is really her swan song to the world. I was so delighted to be asked by her son Nabil M'seddi Charfi to translate (well more interpret than a full translate) the final words of such a huge figure in the world of Contemporary African Art. So without further a do here is Fatma's Last Works.
The Artist version in french:
Interpretation in English by ~|~ Joe Pollitt
Flowers and the Human Lace | Elfenau Gardens in Bern,
Switzerland
In the last three years I have become a lot closer to
nature, inside of which I am able to calm my revolting cells and tranquilize
my dreadful neurosis during these (simultaneous) world revolutions. In spring,
summertime and especially in the fall, I visit the gardens of Elfenau in Bern.
Here is where, my (Aberics) and I, live out this magical connection with the
flowers. I have discovered the vibration of sound, the importance of the
meditational frequencies and often listen acutely to bird-songs and in doing so
I am able to tune in to the voices of the flowers that speak to me. Mutually,
we have gained a certain kind of privacy and a magnificent trust has been
building up. Day after day, I monitor the micro details of their daily
transformations. Original or exhausted flora, rooted or on the ground, always
sublime. My gaze constantly amazed, not to mention my joyful attention.
I watch them intensely and in turn they ostensibly look back
at me. I fear that the moment will disappear, blown away by a gale, in a-blink
of an eye, a-glorious rainbow sky, a-stroke of time, a-momentary distraction,
a-passing detachment of my constant devoted curiosity…
Lately, I have been building transient interfaces with
intermingled foliage, tips of branches, pieces of colour and ends of faded
bloom. Rays of hope on a background of dark stems as daylight creates the
unification of the ‘many-flower’, made-up from not-so-dead petals found on the
ground. A rose, with its diverse coloured plumage layered together to form
another, blended to create a high-bred plant with the use of washed out petals
that gently lean on one another, to become unusual, novel yet blooming...
It was then that I knew and the flowers knew, that hereafter
every tomorrow would never be the same... I felt that instant connection as the
flowers engrossed me, completing me into existence. Together, we grew far
deeper and way beyond the general visitor's brief and lazy stares....
Like a petal on a tissue, paper issues of
"Itself", I plunged into the world of flowers in the gardens of
Elfenau in Bern. A lace of vegetation, the
new-born-strong and beautiful, its structure distinctive, its multi-coloured
goodness, its rebirth and its pristine light...
Just like the natural world
we are human lace, capable of intelligence to evolve to become the paramount of
ourselves…
Human
silhouettes-cum-dancers, bonded by handstands, stick-thin arms, antenna arms,
root arms, arms raised in celebration.
Upwards, and forwards, a
creation of a human lace with a new universal skin, an innovative thrust,
graceful movements, a perfect result. A network of everything and just as lace
ties so a bird flies....
Fatma Charfi (2006... 2012...
2014)
Charfi,
F. (F.C.). Human lace and Elfenau Flowers in Bern (2014), Bern, Switzerland.
To win the Peace we must first chop off their heads!
In watching the various videos below about Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Zambia and an article on Cameroon with the influences of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, it becomes alarmingly clear that politics takes precedence over human life. Stories are repeated from country to country right across the East down to the South. The way in which the Africans are being treated is abominable, all agencies working in the Aid Industry should be ashamed. Your actions have proven useless and millions have died. We begin to see that the
United Nations are an utter disgrace. The Security Council full of highly paid
liars and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International even Genocide Watch are
organizations unfit for purpose. The way to rule the world with absolute
impunity is to side with Power be it UN, US or UK followed by such joy to be
had from the creation of conflict which, if done successfully, causes Wars and of
course, those necessary famines. Like lambs, the majority are born to be
slaughtered and with commerce on the rise, pollution is a small price to pay.
As in the case with Glencore in Zambia in the toxic copper mines, the company regularly poisoning the water-table, contaminates the air as the children choke as we watch their elderly crawl their way around each and every room. We are the present that
the future certainly doesn't want and clearly doesn't need. Check this video out. The Church of England has shares in this company......Turning a blind eye for profit.
The loop-holes in the Law are
there to hang us all.
The simpletons, the small
boys in uniforms acting as Dictators doing the will of others and thinking
themselves ‘freedom fighters’; nothing could be further from the truth. They
are Western educated, well-trained Agents of hate. Legal murderers, motivated
by personal greed, bought
by bigger fish whose Power exceeds the yearning for mere pounds, shillings and
pence. In the end they will leave these futile and vain Agents out for the
wolves to devour; washing their hands of them and once again becoming
invisible, happy in the knowledge that their instigation of mass-murders has
seen a return on investments which have paid such handsome dividends.
Murder as a model of success
Akon wants me to turn my back on
the majority and talk about the few. To lie as much as possible; to hide what
is true. He wants me to focus on the rich, on the possibilities of Africa. To
help the Continent rise ~ rise on the back of a bunch of lies.
As friends, can we put our hand on our hearts and say Tony
Blair has done so much good for the world? Firstly, as PM, taking Great Britain
into War with Iraq, then Afghanistan, then leaving office and becoming the
Peace Envoy for the Middle East and now as a Political Advisor to Paul Kagame
of Rwanda, a job he does for FREE! Paul Kagame and his Rwanda Patriot Front,
made up of Tutsi's, have since 1994, mass murdered over 5 million Rwandans,
both in Rwanda and the Congo. This is what the International Community sees as
a model of success? Blah, blah, blah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZpjmEjGuFs.
Here is the Beeb and the Untold Story of Rwanda, watch if it even matters, stay
silent, stay safe. Here the story unfolds, tells of truth and what has been
going on in the dark corners of East Africa. BBC
News |
The people of Northern Uganda haven’t got long to live. The
clock is ticking. A solution must come sooner rather than later.
We are hiding behind the cloak of Aid and simply throwing
money at the problem and so Aid becomes the perfect excuse, the Pardoner, which
makes donors, satisfied that they have assisted in some small way in the plight
of the most vulnerable. Nothing changes, everything stays just as it always was
and will be. What we need is effective change rather than money that slips into
the pockets of the perpetrators. We need Leadership that protects the citizens
rather than starves them into submission. In a Continent that is so rich in
resources it seems unthinkable that people should starve in our Modern era.
Disgraceful behaviour. No decent human being wants to turn their backs on the
most defenseless but by doing nothing we are effectively allowing evil to
overcome good. Staying ignorant can longer be a justification for staying
silent.
Shall I go out today? I am on my own, I look like an
oddball, a weirdo, I can hear them all whispering behind my back, ‘look at him,
loser, chubby chappy, what-a-cock, nob-jockey’. Shall I go out today? Can I go
out, I am so fixed behind this screen, fearing the world, thinking all are
against me, shall I go out today? Fuck it, why not...the world is full of
cunts, just like me...WHY NOT...Let me risk it for a chocolate biscuit. I am
off to find some friends at the Unfest -
Tunbridge Wells Fringe Festival
I've gone out in the town, beside me I see this sexyPepsi
and want to chat up this beautiful bird and out of my mouth
comes this, "I am a witness to a Genocide in Uganda", that has to be
one of the world's worst chat up lines ever. I have to somehow get this out,
express myself to the world. Have you seen the documentary, "Brilliant Genocide" it was shown to the students of Columbia University in NYC. Click and enjoy:
Turned to Social Media and what happens next, ping,
my email is calling me, a note from Twitter …
LETTER FROM THE HATERS!
Hello,
We’re writing to let you know that your account features will remain locked
or limited for the allotted time due to violations of the Twitter Rules,
specifically our hateful conduct policy.
We do not allow people to promote violence against or directly attack or
threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual
orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability,
or disease.
Upsetting people's feelings, really. People have feelings,
who would of known?
So I email back:
Dear Haters,
I read
your post with interest and I am no longer interested in what you or your
friends, of whom you have many, have to say or do ever. I now look forward to
deleting you off my Social Media list. I hope that doesn't bother you too much.
You are now blocked for good and quite frankly, for the good of others....
In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges
the world-famous economist and thinker Dambisa Moyo, on why she believes
liberal democracy is failing, and what can be done to save it.
The best-selling author first made waves with her book Dead Aid where she argued that foreign aid was in fact preserving poverty in Africa instead of relieving it.
Now the economist is taking on an even bigger target: liberal democracy itself.
In recent years, the West has been said to be in crisis:
the election of Donald Trump, the UK’s Brexit vote, and the rise of
far-right parties across Europe have all been cited by some as evidence
of the failures of the current political system.
In her new book Edge of Chaos, thebest-selling
author provides her own diagnosis for the upsurge of populist and
anti-establishment attitudes and provides a radical blueprint for
change, which would “restrict the behaviour of politicians, limit the options available to voters, and…narrow the scope of the electorate itself.”
We ask:
Is democracy really under siege?
Is there such a thing as too much democracy?
Should some people get more voting power?
And, is prosperity more important than political rights?
Tickets are free of charge, but must be booked on Eventbrite, in
order for you to gain entry. Seats are allocated on a first-come,
first-served basis, so please arrive by 6.30pm to avoid disappointment.
The recording will begin at 7.30pm.
This event is being recorded, and will
be broadcast globally on the Al Jazeera Media Network at a later date.
By being a member of the audience at this event, you may be recorded or
photographed. By attending the event, you hereby grant Al Jazeera the
right to record you at the event and publish this material in all media,
worldwide, in perpetuity. If you do not agree, please do not attend.
Here is an extremely graphic documentary about what has been going on in that schism between North and South in Uganda. Warning: Contains disturbing material.
Today the killing continues...
Fourteen Dead in Massacre, As Uganda's U.S.-backed Gen. Museveni Evicts Peasant Farmers on Behalf of Investors
Champagne
toast. U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac and dictator Museveni.
This is when she presented her credentials to Museveni in 2015 as
reported in The New Vision. Photo: Uganda's Presidential Press Unit.
GULU--Leaders
in Uganda's Acholi region have condemned a new spate of killings and
evictions of peasant farmers by soldiers and police as the country's
U.S.-backed dictator of 32 years Gen. Yoweri Museveni tries to seize
land to sell to foreign investors.
Uganda receives more than $1 billion in U.S. financial and military aid from U.S. taxpayers' money each year.
Even
though U.S. Ambassador to Ugandan Deborah Malac has not uttered a
word Amnesty International has condemned the military attacks. "The
evictions have been carried out by the authorities in violation of the
constitution and international human rights law," the global human
rights organization said in a statement calling for "urgent action."
Village
leaders report that 14 people have been killed and two are missing in
the latest attacks that occurred from May 15 to 17. As many as 5,700
homes are reported burned and over 15,000 people displaced.
Political,
religious, and village leaders from the region have called the campaign
"ethnic cleansing." Soldiers have burned down the homes of people
evicted from their lands forcing some, including women and children, to
sleep in the forests as they hide from the security forces fearing they
will be killed.
Fifteen people are reported dead in raids against
the population of Apaa villages in Amuru district in the northern part
of Uganda. The raids and evictions were carried out over a three-day
period beginning May 15. It was a joint military assault by the Uganda
Wild Life Authority, the Uganda Police, and the military which is known
as the Uganda Peoples' Defense Force (UPDF). It is believed that the
Museveni regime wants to lease the land to foreign investors who want to
turn the huge tracts into game parks reserves.
Political and
religious leaders, and some of the victims of the raids, met at the
Acholi Cultural Institution palace on Sunday May 27, to condemn the
attacks by Gen. Museveni's armed forces. The meeting was chaired by Dr.
John Baptist Odama, the Archbishop of Gulu Catholic Arch Diocese.
Sabino
Ocan, a survivor, said the attack killed Elibarina Auma, 83, a mother
of 10 children in her village of Punulyech. "The soldiers came and burnt
270 huts and looted chicken and goats," Ocan, who is a cultural,
political and religious leader, said. He said the looted livestock were
given to ethnic Madi people from Adjumani to carry for them.
Gen.
Museveni has been stoking inter-ethnic violence between Acholi and
Madi; fighting between the two peoples, promoted by the regime, has
caused many homes to be abandoned. The regime has encouraged the Madi to
attack Acholis claiming the latter are occupying land that belong to
them. Critics contend the strategy is to make the areas where the Acholi
reside inhospitable and eventually lease them out to the foreign game
parks developers.
The area in question is about 319 square miles
of fertile land. Ocan said soldiers have created a garrison in
Punulyech, and in Gazi village in Apaa Parish to prevent people from
returning to their homes.
Ocan said the attacks against the
villagers were comparable to the atrocities against the Ryohingya,
Muslim minorities who were attacked and driven out of Myanmar by the
armed forces. "I appeal to international communities..." he said,
referring to the attacks as "terrorism."
These new attacks by
Museveni's military comes as people in the northern part of Uganda are
slowly recovering from the two-decades conflict between the UPDF and the
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony. Between 1986 to 2006,
almost 2 million Acholis --or 90% of the population-- were herded into concentration camps by the regime. It is estimated that as many as one million people perished from hunger and diseases in the camps.
Also
at the media briefing, Apaa Village leader Okema Justine was still
receiving calls with updates from people describing the burning of homes
and torture of villagers by soldiers. “So far the total numbers of
grass thatched huts burnt by soldiers is 5,700, displacing over 15,000
civilians,” Okema said. “We have so far lost 14 people and two are
missing,” he added.
Livingstone Okello-Okello, the
highly-respected former Member of Parliament, and Chairman of Acholi
Wang OO, a community networking and mobilization organization, condemned
the killing, but also cautioned that people should refrain from
Museveni's plan to incite war between the Acholis and Madis which he
will then use to seize land.
“This is Museveni's systematic move
to cleanse Acholi [ethnic people] and he is committed and doing it,”
Okello-Okello said. “He has taken all our land stretching from Kololo to
Lipan in Lamwo district.”
The latest attacks have created great
anger amongst the youth in the region. Some have approached their chiefs
and political leaders seeking their blessing to mobilize armed
resistance. Critics contend that is exactly what Gen. Museveni hopes
would happen so that he can unleash full-scale war as he did between
1986 and 2006.
“We are being treated unjustly. They want to loot
all our wealth and make us useless,” Charles Olweny, a youth from the
affected area, said. “We will dare them and never accept such nonsense.”
Member
of Parliament Akello Lucy reported to Gen. Museveni on May 27 that
soldiers raided the Apaa community. “We wish to bring to your attention
that over 100 UPDF soldiers raided this community and during their raid
they shot a 26 year old Okello Python and injured two more,” Akello
wrote, “348 huts were burnt, several goats and chicken looted and
displaced hundreds,” Akello also wrote.
Akello told Gen. Museveni
that Brig. Emmanuel Kanyesigye, the 4th Division Commander under whom
the soldiers are committing atrocities, told her his orders came "from
above."
The community of Apaa sued the Uganda government in the
High Court in Gulu District with a civil suit No. 0060 of 2011. The
Court issued a permanent injunction on February 15, 2012 which is still
valid to this day and the matter is proceeding. However, the regime has
repeatedly used the Uganda security forces to violate the injunction by
creating a state of terror in the region.
The Deputy Speaker of
Uganda's Parliament Jacob Oulanya who presided over a hearing in the
House on April 13, 2017 ruled that the issue was not about a boundary
dispute between Acholis and Madis because people of Uganda can stay
anywhere in the country. “When our people were in IDP camps, their land
was degazetted as game reserve without consulting the land owners,”
Oulanya said in Parliament. He was referring to the concentration camps,
euphemistically called Internally Displaced Peoples' camps sometimes.
Oulanya
instructed the Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda to return on the
floor of Parliament to degazette the Land. On June 21, 2017, the Speaker
of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga ruled that the government should go back
and reaffirm the boundary between Amuru and Adjumani districts. She went
ahead to emphasize that cultural and religious leaders and communities
must be involved in the process within one month. One year later,
nothing has been done; except the new armed attack against civilians by
government forces.
On October 13, 2017, the Local government
Minister, Tom Butime declared Apaa parish as located in Adjumani
district --not in Acholi but in Madi-- and ordered the police and Chief
Administrative officers of the two district to implement his directive. A
signpost and roadblock is now set 16 miles inside Amuru district as
part of Adjumani.
A Joint Acholi Leaders’ Communique on the Apaa
Crisis was issued on May 27. It demands, among other things that: the
Museveni regime immediately halt the wanton and inhumane attacks by the
state security agencies; and, immediately withdraw the UPDF, the Police
and Uganda wild Life Authority armed agents from Apaa.
The
communique, which was read by Justice Galdino Okello, the Court of
Appeal Judge, further demanded that: government give assurance of its
commitment to resolve the issue and to respect the Court order stopping
further eviction; and, that the government officials who violated the
Court order be held in contempt of Court.
“The attention of the
International Community be drawn to the ... gross violations of human
rights happening in Apaa and those involved face the world Court for
heinous crimes against unarmed civilians,” the Communique reads in part.
Jonathan Silver praises the book Africa Uprising: Popular Protest
and Political Change by Adam Branch and Zachariah Mampilly for
providing fresh insight on the histories and geographies of protests on
the African continent.
Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change
is a new title from the African Arguments series by Zed Books. In this
engaging and accessible book Adam Branch and Zachariah Mampilly seek to
provide a sweeping, continent wide response to the global uprisings we
have witnessed on the streets of cities around the world over the past
few years, reporting of which has often marginalised or excluded the
unfolding protests across Africa. Furthermore, as the authors assert,
the categorisation of uprisings in North African countries as part of
the Arab Spring or of South African exceptionalism should not preclude
accounts that claim to write authoritatively on the place we call
Africa. This wide ranging and well put-together book examines the
diverse histories and geographies of protest in Africa to suggest both
new insights to these political ruptures, potential, if uncertain
futures and finally how they might help us rethink the global uprisings
that began in 2011.
After an introduction Branch and Mampilly set out their core argument
and key contribution of the book. This is that the uprisings in Africa
(both contemporary and historically) can best be understood through the
divisions that characterise many African societies. Taking Chatterjee’s
(2004) notion of civil and political society the authors situate it
within the resistance to colonial and post-colonial rule. Branch and
Mampilly establish a tension here that they assert runs throughout this
history.
Chatterjee’s terms, generated from his experiences in India are
firmly grounded within the Africa context and elucidated through
examining the opposing ideas of two towering intellectual figures, Franz
Fanon and Kwame Nkrumah. The main divide between Fanon and Nkrumah is
traced to the countering ideas of non-violent resistance and ‘Wretched
of the Earth’, lumpenproletariat uprisings that offered very different
responses to the issue of breaking imperial rule.
The authors go on to outline the consequences of Fanon’s critique of
independence struggles such as those in Ghana in which the, “Such a mode
of decolonialisation would set the stage for the pathologies of
colonial rule after independence” (p31) that perhaps best illuminates
the unfolding analytical orientation in the book. The disappointments of
“multiparty regimes and neoliberal economics” in the late 1980s and
early 1990s and the limits to the capacities of civil society is thus
understood both as the precursor to the third wave of protest which the
book focuses on and understood historically as emerging from the
mistakes of the generation engaged in anti-colonial struggle, further
perpetuated by the failure of civil society (such as NGO’s and the
educated middle class) over the last 30 years to reach out beyond their
narrow political focus.
The book continues with empirically rich accounts of uprisings in a
number of countries across the continent. They take examples of Occupy
Nigeria, of ‘walk to work’ protests in Uganda, the histories of protests
in Sudan and the build-up and response to anti-government protests in
Ethiopia to provide rich and textual accounts of the histories, make
ups, successes and failures of these uprisings providing fresh and
important perspectives that will surely be welcomed by activists
struggling for social justice in these places.
Core to the authors’ argument is the ways in which these uprisings
are limited by differences and divisions within each of the societies
studied as well as the repressive state apparatus that have if anything
intensified over the last decade.
The authors show the often intractable difficulties not just of civil
and political society outlined above but of bridging the urban and
rural divide in African societies through the political distance that
exists between these constituencies but also the dialectical
repercussions of political demands (for instance a lowering of food
prices in the city hold the potential to further impoverish farmers in
the countryside). Ethnic and religious differences form another key
decision that has restricted the potentials of uprising from the schisms
between North and South in Uganda to the intense heterogeneities of
different peoples that make up Africa’s third largest country of Sudan.
As the book explains, little visible change has occurred in Uganda,
Sudan and Ethiopia after the latest wave of protest beyond the increased
securitisation and militarisation of urban space, clampdowns and
restrictions on activists and opposition politicians, mirroring the
failures and disappointments of uprisings elsewhere. This is not to say
the authors ignore the future potential challenges to these violent
regimes and the neoliberal economics that have done so much to stymie
social justice over the last few decades, rather they highlight that a
better grasp of the schisms of these societies generally and within the
protests specifically is a pre-cursor to mobilising across civil and
political society, urban and rural and religious difference.
Finally and perhaps most pertinently for readers working on or
interested in similar issues elsewhere Branch and Mampilly suggest that,
“engagement with African political society protest can be a starting
point for rethinking the ongoing global wave of protest” (p201). Making
the provocation that such manifestations of political society have a
long history in Africa as activists have fought against “choiceless
democracies and austerity for decades” brings a new Afro perspective to
ongoing global debates in challenging austerity, authoritarian
governance and the one percent. This idea of how places such as Uganda,
Sudan and Ethiopia have prefigured global regimes of austerity is an
important contribution of the book, challenging academics and activists
elsewhere to take seriously the African experience and to learn from
some of the limitations and potentials that are explored in
well-informed case study chapters.
Dr Jonathan Silver is the Leverhulme Fellow in the Geography Department at the University of Durham. Follow him on Twitter @InvisibleMapper.
The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and
in no way reflect those of the Africa at LSE blog or the London School
of Economics and Political Science.
References
Chatterjee, P. (2004) The politics of the governed: popular politics in most of the world. New York: Columbia University Press.
FATMA CHARFI | THE DEATH of HUMANITY (1955 – 2018)
LONG LIVE FATMA CHARFI
FATMA CHARFI | HUMANITARIAN
FATMA CHARFI | INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
The Art of Fatma Charfi is one that was born out of intense
sorrow. The origins of her works where instigated by the events that unfolded
in front of her eyes, at the time of the first Gulf War, back in 1991. This was
a time of great sadness throughout the entire Arabic world. Sitting in her
apartment in Bern, Switzerland, she, like so many others, watched the brutal
scenes of the bombing on the city of Baghdad. When we met, back in 2006, she
recalled that grief-stricken evening with such clarity and described how she
watched with tears streaming down her cheeks, the inconsolable horrors of the
mass murders inflicted on the innocent people of Iraq. Numb and in shock she
stretched out her hand, blindly fumbling to find the hankies in her box of
man-sized tissues on her glass coffee table, in the middle of the room. One
after another she twisted the tissues with her fingers, rubbing them fiercely
with her thumb and first finger as they slowly and gently fell down onto her
wooden floor. Continually pulling, involuntarily crying and sobbing with
exasperations, sheet by sheet, these man-sized tissues where wrenched out of
the box and then the next and the next, until the entire box was empty. The
rest of the night was a blur but she remembered falling asleep in a wet pool of
her own tears that where generously soaked up by her fresh white Egyptian
cotton covered pillows. When she woke the next morning she saw, with utter
amazement, what she had done. There, all over her wooden floor, in her front
room where the fallen angels; the symbolic message of this terrible Arabic
massacre. On seeing this sight she fell to her knees and wept, determined to
make the world take note of their numerous acts of wickedness.
Finally, she had found her voice and her medium. So began
the age of the figurine, which Fatma named, her “Abroucs”.Over the next three decades Fatma used her
Art in glorious ways; sometimes she would support Arabic and African women and
their plight of being marginalized and ignored; at other times she would
highlight the injustices of Switzerland’s ironic status of neutrality and their
naivety to the countless human rights abuses that take place across the world
but specifically in Africa. The highlight of her career is to be found in the
installation entitled, the “Laboratory of Peace” – the compassion and
sensitivity in her Masterpiece or Mistresspiece is overwhelming, the work is
not only powerful and poignant, it is also emotionally moving and capable of
touching even the darkest of souls. She told me over the phone that she was so
delighted that children from all walks of life, would leave her exhibition in
floods of tears, so blown away at the marvel of it’s simplicity and
transparency. In her passing she leave a cultural vacuum, not only for Tunisia
but also the World.
Fatma Charfi was born in 1955 into a large family of
Maghrebi nautical cartographers from Tunisia.* She was the fifth child and the
only daughter of eight and grew up with her seven brothers and mother, Nabiha
Ben Cheikh and father, Abdel Raouf Charfi in the city of Sfax. Her artistic
career began in 1974 at Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Tunis in
the capital, Tunis where she studied for her degree in Fine Art. In 1977 she
went on to train as a cartoonist in Poland. In 1980 she moved to France and
worked on her doctorate in “Artistic Aesthetics” at the Institut d’Estétique
et de Sciences de l’Art de Paris | Sorbonne, and in 1985, she was awarded a
PhD for her thesis related to the experimentation and the study of water; a
year later she moved to Bern, Switzerland to attend the École Supérieure d’Art
Visuel de Genève, where she enjoyed an internship.
Fatma was awarded the Jury Prize at the Alexandria
Biennale, Egypt, in 1999 and took part in the Dakar Biennale, Dak’Art 2000 and
became the first female artist to win the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor. She
returned to Dak’Art in 2004 and again won the price for the second time, she
proudly used to boast that she had danced with the Senegalese President and
just how well she danced. Dak’Art honoured her again in 2010 and exhibited her
artworks in a Retrospective at the Biennale.
Throughout her career Fatma exhibited her works in numerous
countries including Tunisia, France,
Switzerland, Egypt, Senegal, Germany, Spain, Dubai and America. Her works where
shown extensively in the USA, mainly in Group Shows like “Shatat
Disapora”, Arabic Women in Art at the University of Colorado Art Gallery,
Boulder in 2003 followed by “A fiction of Authenticity” shown at the CAM Saint
Louis, 2003; Carnegie Mellon University’s Regina Gouger Miller Gallery,
Pittsburgh, 2004; Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, Texas in 2006.
She leaves behind her son Nabil M’seddi Charfi, aged 30 and
her daughter Emna M’seddi Charfi, aged 25.
We artists do need to pay a lot for our materials, transport , time etc.. a lot..
( most of the time upfront )
Why do people still expect that all we do is all for free..
That it's OK to not pay us all of the sudden or just wait for 5 months..
We do get in trouble , trying to fix things in impossible ways.
So many artist do "suffer "from this.
It's not normal ..
We do need to stand up to this.
I'm done!"
Joe Pollitt Declares: Furious,
I have been forced to sell my Originals on Ebay. Artists have NO
FUCKING PENSION and the RENT IS DUE! Still to pay my water rates,
electricity and gas...reason for photo to be so shit...shot under
candlelight. http://www.ebay.co.uk/.../International.../401403815148
My
mate's dog is fed twice a day, is taken out for three walks by dog
walkers, he even has health insurance, sleeps on a sofa next a 40" TV
Screen with the remote, paw-friendly and what do I get...A slap in the
face for thinking I was an International Artist. Furious. Absolutely
Fucked Off! I blame the FRENCH...but then again, I blame them for
everything.
Conny types: "Is dat niet het verhaal van iedereen die als zelfstandige ondernemer werkt? In ieder geval de late betalingen......"
Translation: "Isn't that the story of everyone who works as a self-Employed Entrepreneur? At least the late payments......"
Joe Pollitt Replies: "Love your answer Conny but NO. An Artist is born and those in
authority know this. They know that the Artist will Art all their life. This is
the true nature of an Artist. The Artist creates regardless and therefore all
great Artists are exploited because those in Power know this fact. The one
thing an Artist is NOT is an Entrepreneur. They are VERY DIFFERENT BEASTS. Polar
opposite in fact. There are MONEY PEOPLE and there are ARTISTS. Damien Hirst is
a moneyman and always has been. To think otherwise degrades the value of Art.
Hirst has shown the world, with the right determination and forging the right friendships,
Art can be manipulated and molded like a lump of clay. Hirst first choice of
megalomaniac, Charles Saatchi, could not have been any wiser. An arrogant man
with a respectable sense of self-loathing, coupled with vast wealth, influence
and power…Perfect."
Cesi Denise Nolten types: "Sad
but true.. so don't start before u have them sign a contract and have u
pay 50% upfront. And they sign for paying u 50%. In two weeks after
delivery. (Algemene voorwaarden) after some hard lessons u will have to
do it this way.. if they respect u.. they will agree to sign. Ps --only
in holland-- they are this lazy in paying.. with no law to protect us as
a freelancer.. we should get together as artists here to see if we can
do something about it right? So let me know if ur up to something.. im
in!"
Pollitt sends her a backhand to the bassline with:
"Artists should expect not to
get paid. They live in chaos, disorder and therefore need
"Management", people to write proposals and understand that specific
narrative. They need Publishers, PR and the Best Critics and Curators on their
side. Language is a form of censorship here in the UK, if you can't understand
the process, which is virtually impossible to comprehend unless you've been
taught it you are setting yourself up for failure. It is a little like, Social
Workers speak, it is only understood by those in the know. So it becomes
political, where you went to Art College, which Framer you use, where in the
World do you holiday? The importance of where you have drinks and meals out,
which Clubs as you a Member of. In the end the Art World is one to avoid. Great
Artists hate it, as do I.
What is happening is that the
World is turning the Artist into a Tradesman/women. It is all Cobblers. Craft
is not Art. The two are different but since the rise of the Hirst and others,
Artists are now expected to support a team of 10 to 20 craftsmen and women and
build a Production that can then be sold to the Museums, like the making of a
Movie. But is it Art? Art has become Advertising, Commercial. A huge adult
slide down the side of a building, a giant inflatable butt plug, a tent with
all the men's names on display that the artist allowed to fuck her and abuse her? IS THAT A WORLD ANYBODY
WANTS TO BELONG TO....."
"Well Raquel, Conny and Cesi; Art
Ladies of Holland, you have certainly got me thinking again and writing, which
is lovely. What it boils down to is money. The cream does not rise to the top. If the cream is poor it is highly likely it will curdle. The main questions are: can you stay in the Game long enough so
that you don't sink and die? Can you afford to go to the right Colleges, do the right Courses, invest in the right restaurants, Clubs, pubs and what not. This
is even before you have put pen to paper. Art has become a Cottage Industry,
the making of Factory Art. This is such a juicy subject to tap into but may leave
the readers feeling lost and empty. Personally, my escape has always been Africa. To me,
Africa means life in all it's glory. There is no word for Art there, everything
is Art, so I have spent my time boring people with Africa. Little did they
understand that Africa is Art and Art is Africa, because the world is asleep and
most are far too busy to think straight. The masses would rather be told. You
see Ladies, the majority like to be beaten, herded into pens and be among their
familiars, in order to keep on bleating."
