2018 Visual Arts Encounters (RAVY). Visual Arts Demonstration

Cinematographic screenings, performances, evenings, exhibitions, painting are among others, the activities that will animate these extended meetings from 23 to 29 July 2018. The 6th edition of this festival is open in Yaoundé.

FRU Claudia AMABO

The sixth edition of the Yaounde Visual Arts Encounters (Ravy) opened this Monday, July 23. Oriented on urbanity, this sixth meeting of the visual arts aims to reflect on issues related to identity from the individual point of view, political, philosophical, social, architectural, anthropological, etc. Moreover, here the urbanity in question is concerned with national, continental and international living together. For this purpose, during seven days, several countries like Germany, Cameroon, Canada, France, Gabon, Japan and Sweden will put together ideas to achieve a concrete representation and of the notion of urbanity.

Nobody leaves unchanged from the Yaounde Visual Arts Meetings (RAVY). Passersby of the streets of the capital, transferred spontaneously public performance of a Christian Etongo, a Snake or a Jelili Atiku, will not say the opposite. How to get away with it after the sight of a buried man living under a pile of land near a chapel in Mvog-Ada. Or that of another strolling down Kennedy Avenue under the yoke of a crucifix? These scenes, which every two years since 2008 have shattered the tranquil daily life of the capital, will not appear in the landscape this year. The Association des Palettes du Kamer, organizer of this biennale of visual art and its partners the Goethe Institute, the French Institute of Cameroon and the Ministry of Arts and Culture, are clear: “There will be a significant reduction in performance in public spaces this year“. Announcement made during the presentation conference of RAVY 2018, July 23 at the Goethe Institute. According to Serge Olivier Fokoua, Artistic Director of the festival and Landry Mbassi Commissioner General, it is imperative to take into account the security context in which the country is currently located. “It would be unwise to provoke crowd movements in the arteries of the city,” said Landry Mbassi. Reduction, but not disappearance.

Since Monday, the Japanese artist Hiroto Tsuchimoto moves from house to house offering his services to perform household chores. Performance, but in all discretion, there will be also every night from 23 to 29 July on the reserved sites that are the Blackitude Museum, the OTHNI, the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Goethe and cultural spaces “O’Botama” (Biyem-Assi) and “Ah, huh ?! “(Mobil Olezoa), the latter being the village of the festival, various representations. In 10 years, the RAVYs, have marked the spirits, propelled talented visual artists and sounded the reputation of this meeting at the national and international levels. But the visual arts is more than just performance. And this year, as in previous editions, a good part of the festival will be devoted to photography, videos and installations, painting and sculpture. Artists from Germany, Cameroon, Canada, Finland, France, Gabon, Japan and the DRC will use their artistic energy around the theme: “Urbanitudes”.

Landry Mbassi, Commissioner General has chosen to place the activities of the RAVY under this cover, for the purpose he said, “To demonstrate the dynamism of cities, to explore the shocks caused by the boiling, the cosmopolitan side observed in large cities Metropolises.”