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Okwui Enwezor

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Okwui Enwezor // (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator , art critic , writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich. In 2014, he was ranked 24 in the ArtReview list of the 100 most powerful people of the art world.

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99-500: Okwui Enwezor (pronounced / ɛ n ˈ w eɪ z ər / en- WAY -zər ) was born on October 23, 1963, to Okwuchukwu Emmanuel Enwezor in Calabar , the capital city of Cross Rivers State in south-south Nigeria , he was the youngest son of an affluent Igbo family from Awkuzu , Anambra State in the southeastern part of Nigeria. He is related to Walter Enwezor . Okwui Enwezor moved around several times with his family on account of

198-576: A grand opening story in Time . It opened in fall 1967 in a small space at 237 East Ontario Street that had for a time served as the corporate offices of Playboy Enterprises . Its first director was Jan van der Marck . In 1970, he invited Wolf Vostell to make the Concrete Traffic sculpture in Chicago. Initially, the museum was conceived primarily as a space for temporary exhibitions, in

297-493: A $ 16 million renovation by architects Johnston Marklee, which redesigned 12,000 square feet (1,100 m ) within the existing footprint of the original Joseph Paul Kleihues design. In 2017, the MCA commissioned architects Johnston Marklee to redesign select public spaces of the museum to create three major offerings: Marisol, the ground-floor destination restaurant with an immersive art environment by international artist Chris Ofili;

396-402: A 296-seat multi-use theater with a proscenium -layout stage. The seats are laid out in 14 rows with two side aisles . The stage is 52 by 34 feet (16 m × 10 m) and elevated 36 inches (0.91 m) above the floor level of the first row of seats. The house has a 12 degree incline. The stage has three curtains and four catwalks. For its 50th anniversary in 2017, the museum unveiled

495-715: A British protectorate, Miss Slessor acted as a female magistrate and skilful diplomatic ambassador. For her efforts in Okoyong, she was given the Efik name Obongawan Okoyong (Queen of Okoyong). She was also instrumental in the establishment of the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar, which provided vocational training for Efiks. Miss Slessor is widely regarded as a heroine in Nigerian history, and

594-633: A mission station in Calabar. Among the missionaries, Hope Waddell, who worked in Calabar from 1845 to 1858, and Mary Slessor , who evangelized Christianity in Calabar from 1876 to 1915, worked to improve treatment by and among the native peoples. They influenced many Efik people to convert to Christianity . They tried to change or abolish the following traditional practices: They founded a school to provide secondary education to Africans. They also worked to protect water supplies and limit mosquitoes to contain yellow fever epidemics. Waddell and Slessor are still honoured in Calabar today; streets and squares in

693-577: A more fortress-like exterior than the museum's earlier home, Kamin viewed the architectural attempt as a fumbled work. However, he considered the interior to be serene and contemplative in a manner that complements the contemporary art and compact and organized in a manner that is an improvement on the more traditional mazelike museums. Comparing the building to the Sullivan Center and the Art Institute of Chicago Building , Kamin describes

792-544: A newspaper owner and grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther , in 1923 founded the first Nigerian political party, the Nigeria National Democratic Party . It remained the strongest party in the elections until 1939. In 1926, Governor Graeme Thomson attempted to introduce a poll tax in southeast Nigeria, including Calabar. It would reduce the number of Africans eligible to vote in elections. The people reacted with strong protests, which Nigerians call

891-430: A restaurant in the rear of the building. Two galleries for temporary exhibitions flank the atrium. The stairwell in the northwest corner is often cited as the buildings most interesting and dynamic artistic feature. The elevated views of Lake Michigan are considered to be a rewarding feature of the building. The building's 56-foot (17.1 m) glass facade sits atop 16 feet (4.9 m) of Indiana limestone. The building

990-460: A social engagement space called the Commons on the second floor with an installation by Pedro y Juana; and a new third floor with classrooms and a flexible meeting space that puts learning at the very center of the museum. This major $ 16-million renovation converted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m ) of interior space and coincided with the MCA's 50th anniversary. Complaining that the structure has

1089-434: Is 34,000 square feet (3,200 m ), includes a sculptural installation by Sol LeWitt and sculptures by George Rickey and Jane Highstein. The floor plan of both the building and the sculpture garden is a square, on which the proportions of the building is based. The building's main entrance, which is accessed by scaling 32 steps, uses both symmetry and transparency as themes for its large central glass walls that compose

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1188-469: Is Not Even, Space is Not Empty was the first series of stage performances and a gallery exhibition presented at the MCA. The Japanese-born choreographers and dance artists performed and exhibited from June – November 2011. In 2014, the MCA was the only US venue to mount the David Bowie Is... exhibition, which broke previous attendance records for the museum. To date, the most attended exhibition

1287-425: Is a multi-purpose facility. The harbour consists of 2 terminals, A and B, and 2 smaller berths in the "Old Harbour" area. It has a channel draught of 7.5 metres. The terminals are operated by private operators under concession agreements. Terminal B, which occupies 80% of the harbour area, is operated under a concession by ECM Terminals Ltd; Intels LTD and Addak are the other terminal operators. Calabar sees itself as

1386-573: Is also home to a chimpanzee nursery - the project's youngest chimpanzees live here, where they receive round-the-clock care and supervision before moving to Afi Ranch at the age of 6-8 years. Not far from Calabar, you can visit the Kwa Waterfalls (approx. 15 km away), Ibeno Beach (30 km away) and the Cross River National Park . These three attractions are the most popular in Calabar on tourism websites. The Kwa Falls

1485-522: Is an impressive waterfall characterised by a narrow, steep gorge from top to bottom. The sparkling water plunges into the depths and forms a pool that is ideal for a variety of water sports. Anyone can go swimming here. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in the Near North Side of Chicago , Illinois, United States. The museum, which

1584-445: Is closed Mondays and is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays, with extended hours of operation on Tuesdays until 9 p.m. While the museum has no mandatory admission charge, suggested admission is $ 15 for adults and $ 8 for students, teachers and seniors. Admission is free for MCA members, members of the military and all youth, 18 and under. It currently provides free admission to Illinois residents every Tuesday. During

1683-565: Is in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area . Josef Paul Kleihues designed the current building after the museum conducted a 12-month search, reviewing more than 200 nominations. The museum was initially located at 237 East Ontario Street, which was originally designed as a bakery. The current building is known for its signature staircase leading to an elevated ground floor, which has an atrium ,

1782-440: Is known for its hand-cast aluminum panels adjoined to the facade with stainless steel buttons. The building has two two-story gallery spaces and a smaller one-story gallery space on the second floor. The third floor has a gallery and exhibition space in its northwest section, and the fourth floor has two large galleries, an exhibition space on the west side of the building, and a gallery in the southwest section. The museum has

1881-420: Is one of the monuments dedicated to her memory. Originally, the house was a mud house with two bedrooms, a verandah, a shop and a parlour. She referred to it as a "trailer", but the locals called it a "good pass all". In 1889, Mr Owens, a carpenter at the mission, was hired to build a more permanent structure for her. The walls were made of iron plates with wooden doors and windows. When Southern Nigeria became

1980-550: Is the 2017 Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg exhibit, which broke the David Bowie Is... record set in 2014 with over 193,000 attendees. Following David Bowie Is... , the MCA debuted the critically acclaimed exhibition Kerry James Marshall : Mastry in 2016. Mastry later traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art . In 2017,

2079-513: Is the capital city of Cross River State , Nigeria . It was originally named Akwa Akpa , in the Efik language , as the Efik people dominate this area. The city is adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa rivers, and the creeks of the Cross River (from its inland delta). Calabar was once described as the tourism capital of Nigeria, especially due to several initiatives implemented during

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2178-746: The Hammer Museum , Los Angeles. Co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts , the MCA presented Luc Tuymans from October 2010 – January 2011. Susan Philipsz : We Shall Be All was presented at the MCA February – June 2011. The Turner Prize -winning artist's sound exhibition featured protest songs and drew from Chicago's labor history. The exhibition Eiko & Koma : Time

2277-512: The Haus der Kunst , Munich, before it opens at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on 30 September 2019. Enwezor served on numerous juries, advisory bodies, and curatorial teams including: the advisory team of Carnegie International in 1999; Venice Biennale ; Hugo Boss Prize , Guggenheim Museum; Foto Press, Barcelona; Carnegie Prize ; International Center for Photography Infinity Awards; Visible Award; Young Palestinian Artist Award, Ramallah ; and

2376-626: The International Center for Photography , New York, in 2012, co-curated with Rory Bester and "Meeting Points 6", a multidisciplinary exhibition and programs "which took place in nine Middle East, North African and European cities, from Ramallah to Tangier to Berlin", then at the Beirut Art Center in April 2011. His last exhibition, "El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale," co-curated with Chika Okeke-Agulu , opened on 8 March 2019 at

2475-733: The Knitting Factory and the Nuyorican Poets Café in the East Village . Enwezor's study of poetry led him through language-based art forms such as Conceptual Art to art criticism . Teaming up in 1993 with fellow African critics Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan, Enwezor launched the triannual Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art from his Brooklyn apartment; "Nka" is an Igbo word that means art but also connotes to make, to create. He recruited scholars and artists such as Olu Oguibe and Carl Hancock Rux to edit

2574-706: The Niger Delta until 1906 when the seat of government was moved to Lagos . Calabar developed earlier, albeit less vigorously than Lagos , with which it is sometimes compared because of some parallels. Calabar has the following achievements: From 1914 until the 1960s, a mail steamer of the Liverpool Elder-Dempster Line called at Calabar every month. In addition to letters and parcels, it also delivered newspapers, and cargo and carried up to 100 passengers to Lagos , Port Harcourt and Calabar. In 1922, British governor Clifford established

2673-551: The "Women's War", for many of its leaders, and the British termed the "Aba Riots". These riots spread from the neighbouring town of Aba to Calabar. Several administrative buildings were destroyed and more than 50 women died at the hands of colonial forces. After independence in 1960, tensions increased between the North and South areas of the country, which were strongly affiliated with Muslims and Christians, respectively. In addition,

2772-563: The "tourism capital of Nigeria". This is supported by the state government. One of the five main themes of the museum is the Esuk Mba slave market in Akpabuyo. The slave trade in Calabar was based on slave raiding and trading, which mainly took place in the hinterland, where the enslaved were mostly prisoners of war. The prisoners of war were collected at this market and sold as slaves to slave traders. Another exhibition shows objects from

2871-609: The 15th century reached this part of the Guinea coast, they called the tribes of the area "Calabar". These historic inhabitants were Efiks, Ibibios and Quas . The Efik people migrated from the area of the Niger River to the shores of the Calabar. They were fleeing civil war with their kindred and the Ibibio people . Since the 16th century, Calabar has served as an international seaport , exporting such goods as palm oil . During

2970-437: The 2008 fiscal year, the MCA celebrated its 40th anniversary, which inspired gifts of works by artists such as Dan Flavin , Alfredo Jaar , and Thomas Ruff . Additionally, the museum expanded its collection by acquiring the work of some of the artists it presented during its anniversary celebration such as Carlos Amorales , Tony Oursler , and Adam Pendleton. In 2022, collector and entrepreneur Dimitris Daskalopoulos gifted to

3069-613: The Abolition of the Slave Trade of 25 March 1807 finally stipulated that the slave trade should be abolished by law from 1 May 1807. The Daily Trust Nigeria reported the museum's decline. However, the negative report could be due to the COVID wave that was rampant at the time. The National Museum of Calabar was flat packed, shipped from Britain and built-in 1884 (it is sometimes incorrectly stated to have been built in 1959). It

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3168-538: The British blockade of Africa , sailed into Duke Town , where she captured seven Spanish and Portuguese slave ships . John Jea , an enslaved African American , came from the area. He later became a writer. A small mulatto community of merchants was located here that had links to missionary and other merchant colonies in Igboland, Lagos , and across the Atlantic. In 1846, Scottish Presbyterians established

3267-638: The Cairo, Istanbul, Sharjah, and Shanghai Biennales. In 2004 he headed the jury for the Artes Mundi prize, an award created to stimulate interest in contemporary art in Wales. In 2012, he chaired the jury for Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics. He was also a member of the jury that selected Isa Genzken for the Nasher Prize in 2019. Just as Museum of Modern Art adjunct P.S.1 prepared to open

3366-399: The Calabar cement factory. Later that day, the Nigerian 33rd Battalion landed on the beach at Calabar. The Biafran resistance was overwhelmed. After Nigerian troops advanced into Calabar from three different positions, bloody hand-to-hand fighting ensued. After suffering heavy losses, the remaining mercenaries retreated northward and fled Biafra. After three years, the country reunited under

3465-1150: The Document in Contemporary Art , International Center of Photography ; The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994 , Villa Stuck , Munich, Martin-Gropius-Bau , Berlin, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and P.S.1 and Museum of Modern Art, New York ; Century City , Tate Modern , London; Mirror’s Edge , Bildmuseet , Umeå, Sweden, Vancouver Art Gallery , Vancouver , Tramway, Glasgow , Castello di Rivoli, Torino ; In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940–Present , Guggenheim Museum ; Global Conceptualism , Queens Museum , New York, Walker Art Center , Minneapolis, Henry Art Gallery , Seattle , List Gallery at MIT, Cambridge; David Goldblatt: Fifty One Years , Museum of Contemporary Art , Barcelona , AXA Gallery, New York, Palais des Beaux Art , Brussels , Lenbachhaus , Munich, Johannesburg Art Gallery , Johannesburg, and Witte de With , Rotterdam. He organized The Rise and Fall of Apartheid for

3564-670: The Echigo-Tsumari Sculpture Biennale in Japan; Cinco Continente: Biennale of Painting , Mexico City ; and Stan Douglas: Le Detroit , Art Institute of Chicago . Enwezor was named an adjunct curator at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998. He also curated numerous exhibitions in many other distinguished museums around the world, including Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity , The Walther Collection , Germany; Archive Fever: Uses of

3663-499: The German kunsthalle model. However, in 1974, the museum began acquiring a permanent collection of contemporary art objects created after 1945. The MCA expanded into adjacent buildings to increase gallery space; and in 1977, following a fundraising drive for its 10th anniversary, a three-story neighboring townhouse was purchased, renovated, and connected to the museum. In 1978, Gordon Matta-Clark executed his final major project in

3762-510: The German magazine 032c published a somewhat controversial interview with Enwezor, conducted by German novelist Joachim Bessing . Among his books are Contemporary African Art Since 1980 (Bologna: Damiani, 2009) co-authored with Chika Okeke-Agulu , Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), Reading the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to

3861-650: The Legislative Council. The four elected members were from Lagos (3) and Calabar (1). The Legislative Council enacted laws for the colony and the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. It also approved the annual budget for the entire country. The four elected members were the first Africans to be elected to a parliamentary body in British West Africa. The Clifford Constitution led to the formation of political parties in Nigeria. Herbert Macaulay ,

3960-916: The MCA Chicago 100 works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection. The Museum acquired joint ownership of the pieces with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum . The board of trustees is composed of 6 officers, 16 life trustees, and more than 46 trustees. The current board chair is Cari B. Sacks. The museum has a director, who oversees the MCA's staff of about 100. The museum operates with three programming departments: Curatorial, Performance, and Learning and Public Programs. The curatorial staff consists of James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator René Morales, Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James , Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator Carla Acevedo Yates, Curator of Performance Tara Aisha Willis, Pamela Alper Associate Curator Bana Kattan, and Assistant Curator Jadine Collingwood. The museum

4059-514: The MCA curated a show by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami which set attendance records, and in 2019, the museum launched a mid-career retrospective for the work of the American designer Virgil Abloh , a sometime collaborator of Murakami's. In 2020, the MCA opened Duro Olowu:Seeing Chicago , a curated exhibition by Duro Olowu of over 350 artworks from Chicago which marked the first time

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4158-409: The MCA include: In 2006, the MCA was the only American museum to host Bruce Mau 's Massive Change exhibit, which concerned the social, economic, and political effects of design. Additional 2006 exhibitions featured photographers Catherine Opie and Wolfgang Tillmans as well as Chicago-based cartoonist Chris Ware . The 2008 Koons retrospective broke the attendance record with 86,584 visitors for

4257-459: The MCA offers a Tuesday evening series, In Progress , that explores the creative process, in addition to a Friday evening series led by local artists in the museum's public engagement space, the Commons. The MCA Stage has featured local, national, and international theater, dance, music, multimedia, and film performances. It is known as the "most active interdisciplinary arts presenter in Chicago" and partners with local community organizations for

4356-612: The Marketplace ( MIT Press , Cambridge and INIVA, London) and Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of a Transnational Global Form (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich), Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art , and The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society . He is also the editor of a four-volume publication of Documenta 11 Platforms: Democracy Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and

4455-575: The Mary Slessor House stands as a historical site in honour of the missionary in Ekenge, Calabar, Cross River State. Millennium Park in Calabar is an amusement park that serves as a famous symbol of the city, offering various recreational activities for children and adults. Millennium Park, with its pretty and attractive garden and arcades, is a major destination for first-time visitors. Tastefully decorated to artfully showcase and embellish

4554-632: The May 31 – show of September 21, 2008. This was the culminating exhibit of the 2008 fiscal year , which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the museum. In 2009, the MCA presented Jeremy Deller 's exhibition It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq . The exhibition was organized by the New Museum , and it was a new commission by the New Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and

4653-522: The Nigerian 3rd Naval Division under the command of Colonel Benjamin Adekunle. At this time, Calabar was being defended by the 9th Battalion of Biafrans under the command of Major Ogbo Oji. On 17 October, the Biafran defences on the beaches of Calabar came under heavy air and naval fire. Less than 24 hours later, the Nigerian 8th Battalion under the command of Major Ochefu went ashore at Lokoja and captured

4752-549: The Nigerian central government. Today's economy of the megacity of Calabar is dominated by: The state government of Cross River is trying to stimulate tourism in Calabar. The initiation of the Calabar Carnival in 2004 by the then Governor Donald Duke is probably the most successful measure to advance tourism in Calabar. Margaret Ekpo International Airport was inaugurated in 1983 by then-President Shagari. Lufthansa , British Airways and KLM/Air France fly to

4851-538: The Port of Calabar are operated by "world-class terminal operators, namely: ECM Terminal Ltd, INTELS Nigeria Ltd and Shoreline Logistics Nigeria Limited", according to the port operating company NPA. The port of Calabar's profile in the oil and gas industry is fast gaining traction as the business is to capitalise on import and export opportunities by providing an efficient port service system that guarantees fast turnaround time of vessels and faster cargo clearance. Calabar

4950-689: The Processes of Truth and Reconciliation ; Creolité and Creolization ; Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos (Hatje Cantz, Verlag, Stuttgart). In 2006, Enwezor received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association . Enwezor was ranked 42 in ArtReview ′s guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010. In 2017 he

5049-590: The South had a concentration of educated people who were politically powerful and had a history of trade and interaction with other communities. The Southeastern area decided to become independent and declared itself as the Republic of Biafra in 1967. It included Calabar. In October 1967, an armada of the Nigerian Navy left the harbour of Bonny on a naval campaign en route to Calabar. The ships carried troops of

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5148-983: The Spring of 2012, he served as the Kirk Varnedoe Visiting Professor at Institute of Fine Arts, New York University . As a writer, critic, and editor, Enwezor was a regular contributor to numerous exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and journals. He was the founding editor and publisher of the critical art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art established in 1994, and currently published by Duke University Press . His writings have appeared in numerous journals, catalogues, books, and magazines including: Third Text , Documents , Texte zur Kunst , Grand Street , Parkett , Artforum , Frieze , Art Journal , Research in African Literatures , Index on Censorship , Engage, Glendora , and Atlantica . In 2008,

5247-412: The ability to work closely with the staff of the aspiring museum. In 1996, the MCA opened its current museum at 220 East Chicago Avenue, which was the site of a former National Guard Armory between Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue from 1907 until it was demolished in 1993 to make way for the MCA. The four-story 220,000-square-foot (20,000 m ) building designed by Josef Paul Kleihues , which

5346-552: The administration of Donald Duke as the Governor of Cross River State (1999–2007). The city became the cleanest and most environmentally friendly city in Nigeria. Administratively, the city is divided into Calabar Municipal and Calabar South Local Government Areas . It has an area of 406 square kilometres (157 sq mi) and, as of the 2006 census, a population of 371,022. Both LGAs together had an estimated population of 571,500 in 2022. When Portuguese explorers in

5445-659: The airport from Calabar with a stopover in Lagos or Abuja (the last leg of the flight is operated by the regional airlines Air Peace , Ibom Air and Aero Contractors ). The Calabar Port Complex consists of the Old Port, the New Port and the Dockyard and is responsible for the petroleum terminals at Antan, Odudu, Yoho and QuaIboe as well as other jetties at NIWA, McIver, NNPC, ALSCON, Dozzy and Northwest. The three terminals at

5544-524: The ambitious The Short Century: Liberation and Independence Movements in Africa, 1945-1994 on February 10, 2002, Enwezor, then curator of the show, was hit with allegations of rape and violence against women. An email purporting to be from a non-existent group called South African Women against Abuse in the Arts circulated to art-world inboxes with a series of ugly accusations against Enwezor, then also curator of Documenta 11 , in Kassel, Germany. The authors of

5643-511: The centuries of the Atlantic slave trade , it became a major port for shipment of African slaves to the Americas. The Spanish named it Calabar. Tribes around that region were taken in as slaves for slave trades. Such tribes included the Igbo tribes (communities) who lived around that region at the time. Those minority tribes were subject to slave raids by more powerful tribes or ethnic groups in

5742-474: The city to the lake is part of a transcendent space that benefits from the sunlight that enters through the high glass walls. The building is said to be designed to separate the art from other distracting services and functions of the venue. Kamin was also pleased with the separate entrances on the main floor for the museum store and accessibility entrances. MCA’s mission statement describes itself as “an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where

5841-428: The city were named for them. On 10 September 1884, Queen Victoria signed a treaty of protection with the king and chiefs of Akwa Akpa, known to Europeans as Old Calabar—then the official title to distinguish it from New Calabar to the east. This enabled the United Kingdom to exercise control over the entire territory around Calabar, including Bakassi . Calabar was the headquarter of the European administration in

5940-442: The civil war before settling in Enugu where he spent most of his formative years. He commenced tertiary education at the University of Nigeria , Nsukka (UNN) but, in 1982 at the age of 18, he moved to the Bronx , New York, and transferred to the New Jersey City University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. When Enwezor graduated, he moved to downtown New York City and took up poetry. He performed at

6039-442: The co-presentations of performing arts. Notable MCA Stage appearances include performances by Mikhail Baryshnikov , eighth blackbird , Peter Brook , Marie Chouinard , Merce Cunningham , Philip Glass , Martha Graham , Akram Khan , Taylor Mac , and Twyla Tharp . In September 2022, the MCA Stage hosted the first annual Chicago Performs , a two-day festival of experimental dance, music, and theater that included admission to

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6138-471: The email provided no proof of their allegations, leading some in the world to see the email campaign as an attempt to dent Enwezor's rising career. From 2005 to 2009, Enwezor was Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute . He held positions as Visiting Professor in art history at University of Pittsburgh ; Columbia University , New York; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ; and University of Umea , Sweden . In

6237-444: The first American and solo exhibitions of prominent artists, such as Frida Kahlo , in 1978. Other exhibition highlights include the first solo museum shows of Dan Flavin , in 1967, and Jeff Koons , in 1988. In 1989, the MCA hosted Robert Mapplethorpe , The Perfect Moment, a traveling exhibition organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia . Additional highlights of exhibitions organized or co-organized by

6336-405: The first group back into the wild. The Drill Ranch is also home to 28 orphaned chimpanzees. As the closest relatives of humans, chimpanzees contribute greatly to the education of visitors by arousing interest and sympathy for the animal world. The project has two locations. The original site in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, is where it all began. Today, the "Drill Ranch Calabar" serves as

6435-399: The full glass-walled east and west façades giving a direct view of the city and Lake Michigan . The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago was created as the result of a 1964 meeting of 30 critics, collectors and dealers at the home of critic Doris Lane Butler to bring the long-discussed idea of a museum of contemporary art to complement the city's Art Institute of Chicago , according to

6534-716: The fundraising as major donors: Jerome Stone (chairman emeritus of Stone Container Corporation ), Beatrice C. Mayer (daughter of Sara Lee Corporation founder Nathan Cummings ) and family, Mrs. Edwin Lindy Bergman, the Neison Harris (president of Pittway Corporation) and Irving Harris families, and Thomas and Frances Dittmer (commodities). The Board of Trustees then weighed architectural proposals from six finalists: Emilio Ambasz of New York; Tadao Ando of Osaka, Japan; Josef Paul Kleihues of Berlin; Fumihiko Maki of Tokyo; Morphosis of Santa Monica, Calif.; and Christian de Portzamparc of Paris. According to Chicago Tribune Pulitzer Prize -winning architecture critic Blair Kamin ,

6633-503: The furnishings used by Europeans during the slave trade and colonial period. You can also see the constitutions in their original documents, which are kept in a large library. Calabar's most impressive monument is located in the park of the National Museum. It depicts two chained hands. Mary Mitchell Slessor was a Scottish missionary sent to Nigeria by the United Presbyterian Church in the 19th century. Mary Slessor's House , built around 1880 in Akpap Village, Calabar, Cross River State,

6732-425: The inaugural issue and write for it. After putting on a couple of small museum shows, Enwezor had his breakthrough in 1996 as a curator of In/sight , an exhibit of 30 African photographers at the Guggenheim Museum . In/sight was one of the first shows anywhere to put contemporary art from Africa in the historical and political context of colonial withdrawal and the emergence of independent African states. Enwezor

6831-427: The list of contenders was controversial because no Chicago-based architects were included as finalists despite the fact that prominent Chicago architects such as Helmut Jahn and Stanley Tigerman were among the 23 semi-finalists. In fact, none of the finalists had made any prior structures in Chicago. The selection process, which started with 209 contenders, was based on professional qualifications, recent projects, and

6930-452: The majority of both the east and west façades of the building. Two additional entrances—into the education center and into the museum store—are located on either side of the main staircase. The monumental staircase with projecting bays and plinths that may be used as the base for sculpture is reminiscent of the Propylaia of the Acropolis of Athens . The main level entry hall has an adjacent 55-foot (16.8 m) atrium that connects it to

7029-468: The museum and other related programs. The festival spotlighted three local artists whose multi-disciplinary performance pieces were shown within the museum in a series of ticketed and non-ticketed performances. Every spring, MCA presents an annual suite of live, digital, and durational performance works in its On Stage series. Both Chicago Performs and On Stage are yearly programs at the Museum. The five-story limestone and cast-aluminum structure

7128-407: The museum as an homage to two of Chicago's architectural influences: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Louis Sullivan . Other critics also note the presence of Mies van der Rohe's spirit in the architecture. Chicago-based architect Douglas Garofalo has described the building as stark, intimidating and "incongruous with contemporary sensibilities". The interior atrium, which the architect claims links

7227-500: The museum had hired a guest art curator. In 2022, the MCA presented Nick Cave : Forothermore , the Chicago artist’s first career-spanning retrospective. After a 10-year run, the exhibition series UBS 12x12: New Artists/New Work is moving from the second floor to the third floor, into a larger gallery space and will change its name to Chicago Works . The exhibition series will still feature Chicago-area artists. Rather than each artist being displayed for one month, each exhibition in

7326-586: The museum hosted the exhibitions, Pictures To Be Read/Poetry To Be Seen, Claes Oldenburg : Projects for Monuments, and Dan Flavin: Pink and Gold , which was the artist's first solo show. In 1969, the museum served as the site of Christo 's first building wrap in the United States. It was wrapped in more than 8,000 square feet (740 m ) of tarpaulin and rope. The following year, it hosted one-person shows for Roy Lichtenstein , Robert Rauschenberg , and Andy Warhol . The MCA has also played host to

7425-664: The museum that broke the museum's attendance record. The current record for the most attended exhibition is the 2017 exhibition of Takashi Murakami 's work. The museum's collection, which includes Jasper Johns , Andy Warhol , Cindy Sherman , Kara Walker , and Alexander Calder , contains historical samples of 1940s–1970s late surrealism , pop art , minimalism , and conceptual art ; notable holdings also include 1980s postmodernism , as well as contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and related media. It also presents dance, theater, music, and multidisciplinary arts. The current location at 220 East Chicago Avenue

7524-552: The museum's permanent collection and work by post-emerging contemporary artists. The third floor is for the Chicago Works series. The fourth floor has gallery spaces for the MCA Screen and MCA DNA series, while the main barrel-vaulted galleries is for special exhibitions. The museum's collection consists of about 2,700 objects, as well as more than 3,000 artist's books. The collection includes works of art from 1945 to

7623-632: The national average for Black American artists (almost 10 percent), and seven times the national average for the work of Black American female artists (3.6 percent).” Announced by the Chicago Tribune in June 2011, the MCA initiated the process of reinventing its identity with new curators, a new floor plan , and a new vision. MCA Director Madeleine Grynsztejn stated the museum sought to be 50/50 artist-activated/audience-engaged. The main floor's north and south galleries present exhibitions showcasing

7722-428: The present. Former MCA Chief Curator Elizabeth A. T. Smith provided a narrative of the museum's collection. She says the collection has examples of late surrealism , pop art , minimalism , and conceptual art from the 1940s through the 1970s; work from the 1980s that can be grouped under postmodernism ; and painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and related media current artists explore. During

7821-423: The project's headquarters, office, quarantine centre for new animals and veterinary practice, as well as accommodation for the managers and rotating volunteer staff. One of the project's 6 drill breeding groups is also located here so that anyone living in or visiting the state capital has the opportunity to see drills. This group now comprises 39 animals in 4 generations, including the first drill. Drill Ranch Calabar

7920-408: The public can experience the work and ideas of living artists, and understand the historical, social, and cultural context of the art of our time. ” In keeping with the museum’s vision of a creative and diverse future, MCA is a leader in collecting works by historically underrepresented artists “with rates more than twice the national average for the work of women (25 percent of acquisitions), four times

8019-409: The region. From 1725 until 1750, roughly 17,000 enslaved Africans were sold from Calabar to European slave traders; from 1772 to 1775, the number soared to more than 62,000. Old Calabar (Duke Town) and Creek Town , 16 kilometres (10 mi) northeast, were crucial towns in the trade of slaves in that era. In 1807, Great Britain abolished the slave trade. In 1815 HMS  Comus , as part of

8118-514: The rich history and culture of Cross River, it provides an excellent backdrop for carefree moments. The Millennium Park is beautifully landscaped and managed and complements the beauty and tourism concept of Calabar town. Located within the Calabar Marina Resort, Tortuga Island is an area with three popular plantation-style bars. The colonial-inspired themed bars are set in beautiful landscaped gardens and offer panoramic views of

8217-483: The river. The famous Tortuga Island is a seating area within the resort. The operators rave about a cocktail at sunset and a delicious grilled meat dinner. You can "order from a well-stocked bar and enjoy expertly fried fish as well as some other delicacies." The Tinapa Resort seems to have fallen into disrepair during the Covid epidemic. Pictures on a travel website show broken windows and various pioneer plants around

8316-402: The series will now be displayed for three months. Starting in 2002, the MCA began commissioning artists and architects to design and construct public art for the front plaza. The goal of the program is to link the museum to its neighboring community by extending its programmatic, educational, and outreach functions. While artists have been exhibited intermittently on the MCA plaza since 2002,

8415-535: The ship, either sitting, standing or side by side. These positions were maintained until the ships reached their destination in the New World - a crossing that could take several months. Finally, another exhibition traces the efforts of abolitionists such as William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp, who saw the slave trade as morally reprehensible and a matter of natural rights. They therefore put forward twelve proposals for abolition. A British Act for

8514-477: The slave trade and the currency of the slave trade. The Calabar National Museum, designed and built by the colonisers in Glasgow, houses souvenirs from the slave trade. In 1959, the building became a national monument. The National Museum was once the home of a British governor. It is located in Calabar, Cross River State, and displays unique artefacts and historical heritage. On a tour of the museum, you can see

8613-482: The slave trade, including chains and shackles. The traders used these to prevent resistance while transporting as many people as possible over long distances. One exhibition shows the various means of payment used in the slave trade, from copper bars, manillas and Danish guns to brass bells, gongs, flutes and more. The arrangement of the slaves on a ship is artistically illustrated. The slaves were arranged in different positions depending on where they were accommodated on

8712-485: The summer 2011 plaza exhibit showcasing four works by Miami-based sculptor Mark Handforth marks a revitalization of the plaza project. From October through May, the MCA hosts monthly Family Days , which feature artistic activities for all ages. Each summer, the museum hosts Tuesdays on the Terrace , a jazz performance series, and a Farmers Market on the MCA plaza on Tuesdays from June through October. Year round,

8811-487: The summers, the museum provides free outdoor Tuesday Jazz concerts. In addition to art exhibits, the museum offers dance, theater, music, and multidisciplinary arts. The programming includes primary projects and festivals of a broad spectrum of artists presented in performance, discussion, and workshop formats. The museum operates as a tax-exempt non-profit organization, and its exhibitions, programming, and operations are member-supported and privately funded. In 2020,

8910-415: The townhouse. In his work Circus Or The Caribbean Orange (1978), Matta-Clark made circle cuts in the walls and floors of the townhouse next-door to the first museum. In 1991, the museum's Board of Trustees contributed $ 37 million ($ 82.8 million today) of the expected $ 55 million ($ 123 million) construction costs for Chicago's first new museum building in 65 years. Six of the board members were central to

9009-424: The vacant building. The decay also affects the Calabar monorail located on the premises, which was once the first of its kind in Africa. The Drill Rehabilitation Centre nature reserve was founded in 1991 and is the first rehabilitation project for primates in the region. Drills orphaned by hunting are donated by local citizens or handed over after confiscation by the authorities; no animals are bought or taken from

9108-568: The wild. More than 75 drills have been rescued and reunited with conspecifics after a thorough medical examination. Drills have reproduced poorly in western zoos, but the DRBC has recorded over 250 births from rehabilitated wild-born parents and their offspring, making the project the world's most successful captive breeding programme for an endangered primate. Today, 286 drills live in 6 family groups, each in their own natural habitat in an electrified enclosure of up to 9 hectares. There are plans to release

9207-522: Was awarded the International Folkwang-Prize for his great services in promoting art and making it accessible to a wide public. In June 2018, Enwezor signed a separation agreement with Munich Haus der Kunst , partly because his battle with cancer took a more challenging turn. Enwezor died on 15 March 2019 at the age of 55. Calabar Calabar (also referred to as Callabar , Calabari , Calbari, Cali and Kalabar )

9306-457: Was designed by Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues . The building, which opened in 1996, contains 45,000 square feet (4,200 m ) of gallery space (seven times the space of the old museum), a theater, studio-classrooms, an education center, a museum store, a restaurant-café, and a sculpture garden. The MCA building was Kleihues's first American structure. Its construction cost US$ 46.5 million ($ 90.3 million today). The sculpture garden, which

9405-579: Was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues. The museum's collection is composed of thousands of objects of Post-World War II visual art. The museum is run gallery-style, with individually curated exhibitions throughout the year. Each exhibition may be composed of temporary loans, pieces from their permanent collection, or a combination of the two. The museum has hosted several notable debut exhibitions, including Frida Kahlo 's first U.S. exhibition and Jeff Koons ' first solo museum exhibition. Koons later presented an exhibit at

9504-450: Was five times larger than its predecessor, made the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago the largest institution devoted to contemporary art in the world. The physical structure is said to reference the modernism of Mies van der Rohe as well as the tradition of Chicago architecture . The museum opened at its current location June 21–22, 1996, with a 24-hour event that drew more than 25,000 visitors. In its first year of operation,

9603-476: Was formerly the government building or the governor's residence during colonial rule, which was built in Britain and then shipped in parts to Calabar. The Calabar National Museum is made of old Scandinavian pine and has preserved centuries-old relics, especially documents, furnishings and artefacts from the colonial era. The museum houses the relics of the slave trade, including the names of the people who supported

9702-852: Was the artistic director of the Documenta 11 in Germany (1998–2002), as the first non-European to hold the job. He also served as artistic director of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1996–97), the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, in Seville , Spain (2006), the 7th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2008), and the Triennale d’Art Contemporain of Paris at the Palais de Tokyo (2012). He also served as co-curator of

9801-542: Was the director of the Haus der Kunst , Munich, Germany. He also had the roles of adjunct curator of the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Joanne Cassulo Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art , New York City. In 2013, Enwezor was appointed curator of the 2015 Venice Biennale , making him the first African-born curator in the exhibition's 120-year history. Previously, Enwezor

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