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Encounters: Mimi Cherono Ng'ok

ifa-Rave-Scholarship holder presents herself:
For those that exist on the periphery
Wednesday, 8th June 2011, 7 pm
ifa-Galerie Berlin, Linienstraße 139/140, 10115 Berlin


"In May 2008, a number of xenophobic attacks occurred in various cities in South Africa. Supported by the Edward Ruiz Mentorship grant for young emerging photographers, I produced a body of work around African immigrant experiences in South Africa. The work entitled ‘I am home’ is a series of black and white portraits shot on medium format. This work seeks to create an archive of African immigrant experiences in South Africa, focusing on issues of displacement, mobility and identity. My focus on African immigrants in South Africa is an investigation addressing the sensitivity, subtlety and complexity of life in South Africa as an African, as the ‘other other’. These photographs document ideas of loss, absence and explore the identity of home associated with movement and migration as well as explore ideas of difference within South African society. This work is an investigation of a different phenomenon, that of Africans immigrating within the continent. Their experiences and challenges in familiar yet culturally distant places.

A prominent objective of my work is to capture new identities that are continuously being constructed based on the periphery and the center. My current residency in Berlin is a continuation of this subject. As a point of reference, I will be exploring the ideas and circumstances around the life of Afro German poet May Ayim as well as interrogating Berlin; its history as a fractured city, an island as well as a sanctuary for individuals that existed on the periphery. I aim to explore issues of fragmentation, isolation and acts of repetition in everyday life that function as a form of ritual."
Mimi Cherono Ng’ok

Mimi Cherono Ng’ok is a Kenyan photographer. She was born in 1983 and lives in Cape Town and Nairobi. In 2006 she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town. With support from the Edward Ruiz photography mentorship award, Mimi Cherono Ng’ok created a photographic series on African immigrants in South Africa and was rewarded with a solo exhibition at the Market Photo Workshop gallery in Johannesburg and Maputo. She participated in exhibitions in Cape Town, Nairobi, Tarifa and Berlin. For her photograph ‘self portrait´, she won the 3rd PhotoAfrica contest.’ In 2010, in conjunction with the African Arts Institute in Cape Town, she started the photographical project ‘Voices, African Artists living and working in Cape Town’. The book is a compilation of testimonials, documenting refugee’s artists living in South Africa. Currently, she is working in Berlin with SAVVY contemporary.

With this presentation, the ifa-Gallery Berlin starts a new series of lectures/presentations by artists and curators who are supported by ifa with a Rave Scholarship or similar programs.

Weitere Informationen: www.ifa.de