"St Bartholomea" | 2010 | photo: Kiki Taira
Biography
Bikoro is an interdisciplinary artist whose works develop projects between communities and collecting fractured narratives for social change through identity, memory, dialogue, history and multi-lingualisms.
Creating a diverse new series of exploratory imagery, she investigates often the creolisation of identities which comment on the fractured senses of the human condition, its constructions and interrogates counter-historical narratives of speculative futures, their landscapes and of the geopolitical imaginary. The stories ironise or break the spells of ‘otherness’ by reconfiguring the map of the sensible by interfering with the functionality of gestures and rhythms adapted to the natural cycle of production, reproduction and submission, through the use of photography pushing its process into printmaking and etching.
Her experiences of inter and cross-continental migrations developed her sensibility to cross-interculturalism and to a plurality of language which she explores in her interest to deconstructing and re-constructing mythologies of both past and present. In these labours, the narratives investigate the eternal returns of historical and visual stereotypes throughout art history and how these influence our current societies and interactions. It does not aim to resolve the colonial contexts, however bends over towards the legacy of celebrating voice and cultural identity challenging conceptions of origin, authenticity and the ritual by exposing the nuances of the political that remain bold and fragile.
Nathalie Mba Bikoro is an Associate Lecturer (B.A. & M.A.) covering Philosophy, Issues of Representation in Media Arts & Photography, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Contemporary Performance Arts, Arts Management, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Philosophy with African Philosophy and African Political History. Taught institutions include Greenwich University London (Film & documentary production), South Bank University London (Issues in Representation, Media Arts Theory & Technology and Arts Management) in Humanities, Arts & Sciences Department, as well as teaching Contemporary Art History at Richmond Adult College.
She is an independent curator in Contemporary Visual Arts, specialising on 'fractured' narratives in literatures of African Diaspora, Border crossings and the politics of immigrations, Colonisation and the Slave trade economic triangle past and present. She is directing curator at ArtLab Open The Gate Gallery in London with monthly exhibitions programmes showcasing professional and emerging contemporary artists focusing on transnational dialogues & collaboration between cultures.
She leads international performance arts & film workshops and festivals including Perpendicular Casa e Rua Belo Horizonte Brazil, Corpos Informaticos Politicos Brazilia University, TEAK Academy Helsinki Finland, Lulea Academy Performance Arts in Norbotten Sweden, KHG Kassel Germany, Focus Gallery Basel Switzerland, Meeting UFO's international touring exhibition of performance and film, Transitstation Live Arts Copenhagen (2010), Research Group Corpos Politico Informáticos & FLAAC Festival Latinoamericano e Africano de Arte e Cultura Brazilia (2012), and Kingston University amongst many others.
She recently published "Identity Nudity The Political Power of Contemporary Live Art Performance in Ato Malinda; The agorical spaces of performativity between the arts and political historycisation" through the Goethe Institut Nairobi Kenya and is completing her PhD in Fractured Historical Black Narratives with reference to Performing the Body in Post-Colonial theories and the development of alternative spaces/communities in politically challenged areas.
She is a visual arts and performance artist and has exhibited internationally including Perpendicular Brazil (2011), African Heritage London (2010) and Museum Africa Johannesburg South Africa (2011), A Twist in the Taile SAVVY Contemporary Africa Gallery Berlin Germany (2011), EPAF11 Warsaw Poland (2011), amongst many others. Her works have featured in Senegal´s Dak´Art Biennale 10th edition (2012) winning 2 international arts awards including Afrique Soleil Bamako Mali and Fondation Blachere France.
Public Talks include 'A gaze through the lens of Contemporary African Performance' South London Gallery, 'Libidinal Bodies and the space of the Archaeological'(2011), LAPsody 3rd International Conference & Festival for Live Art and Performance Studies at the Theatre Academy Helsinki (2011), Greenwich International Post-Graduate Research Conference (2008-2011), amongst many others.
For more information please visit:
www.creativeconsultancyafrica.yolasite.com
nbikoro.com
www.nbikoro-aliceinwonderland.yolasite.com
www.creativeafricanetwork.com
Creating a diverse new series of exploratory imagery, she investigates often the creolisation of identities which comment on the fractured senses of the human condition, its constructions and interrogates counter-historical narratives of speculative futures, their landscapes and of the geopolitical imaginary. The stories ironise or break the spells of ‘otherness’ by reconfiguring the map of the sensible by interfering with the functionality of gestures and rhythms adapted to the natural cycle of production, reproduction and submission, through the use of photography pushing its process into printmaking and etching.
Her experiences of inter and cross-continental migrations developed her sensibility to cross-interculturalism and to a plurality of language which she explores in her interest to deconstructing and re-constructing mythologies of both past and present. In these labours, the narratives investigate the eternal returns of historical and visual stereotypes throughout art history and how these influence our current societies and interactions. It does not aim to resolve the colonial contexts, however bends over towards the legacy of celebrating voice and cultural identity challenging conceptions of origin, authenticity and the ritual by exposing the nuances of the political that remain bold and fragile.
Nathalie Mba Bikoro is an Associate Lecturer (B.A. & M.A.) covering Philosophy, Issues of Representation in Media Arts & Photography, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Contemporary Performance Arts, Arts Management, Visual Arts & Cultures, Post-Colonial Theory, Philosophy with African Philosophy and African Political History. Taught institutions include Greenwich University London (Film & documentary production), South Bank University London (Issues in Representation, Media Arts Theory & Technology and Arts Management) in Humanities, Arts & Sciences Department, as well as teaching Contemporary Art History at Richmond Adult College.
She is an independent curator in Contemporary Visual Arts, specialising on 'fractured' narratives in literatures of African Diaspora, Border crossings and the politics of immigrations, Colonisation and the Slave trade economic triangle past and present. She is directing curator at ArtLab Open The Gate Gallery in London with monthly exhibitions programmes showcasing professional and emerging contemporary artists focusing on transnational dialogues & collaboration between cultures.
She leads international performance arts & film workshops and festivals including Perpendicular Casa e Rua Belo Horizonte Brazil, Corpos Informaticos Politicos Brazilia University, TEAK Academy Helsinki Finland, Lulea Academy Performance Arts in Norbotten Sweden, KHG Kassel Germany, Focus Gallery Basel Switzerland, Meeting UFO's international touring exhibition of performance and film, Transitstation Live Arts Copenhagen (2010), Research Group Corpos Politico Informáticos & FLAAC Festival Latinoamericano e Africano de Arte e Cultura Brazilia (2012), and Kingston University amongst many others.
She recently published "Identity Nudity The Political Power of Contemporary Live Art Performance in Ato Malinda; The agorical spaces of performativity between the arts and political historycisation" through the Goethe Institut Nairobi Kenya and is completing her PhD in Fractured Historical Black Narratives with reference to Performing the Body in Post-Colonial theories and the development of alternative spaces/communities in politically challenged areas.
She is a visual arts and performance artist and has exhibited internationally including Perpendicular Brazil (2011), African Heritage London (2010) and Museum Africa Johannesburg South Africa (2011), A Twist in the Taile SAVVY Contemporary Africa Gallery Berlin Germany (2011), EPAF11 Warsaw Poland (2011), amongst many others. Her works have featured in Senegal´s Dak´Art Biennale 10th edition (2012) winning 2 international arts awards including Afrique Soleil Bamako Mali and Fondation Blachere France.
Public Talks include 'A gaze through the lens of Contemporary African Performance' South London Gallery, 'Libidinal Bodies and the space of the Archaeological'(2011), LAPsody 3rd International Conference & Festival for Live Art and Performance Studies at the Theatre Academy Helsinki (2011), Greenwich International Post-Graduate Research Conference (2008-2011), amongst many others.
For more information please visit:
www.creativeconsultancyafrica.yolasite.com
nbikoro.com
www.nbikoro-aliceinwonderland.yolasite.com
www.creativeafricanetwork.com