Mpho Matsipa and Antawan Byrd

Overview

Educators and curators Mpho Matsipa and Antawan Byrd delve into Pan-Africanism, counternarratives, and the transformative power of art and archives. Matsipa’s “African Mobilities” challenges conventional representation, while Byrd explores diaspora narratives. They discuss the impact of mobility and knowledge, innovative archiving, and the broader implications of Pan-Africanism in shaping diverse voices within the art and architectural archive. 

 

Mpho Matsipa, an educator, researcher, and curator, and Antawan Byrd, an Assistant Professor of Art History and Associate Curator of Photography and Media, delve into the complexities of Pan-Africanism, identity, and the power of counternarratives within art and archives. Matsipa’s “African Mobilities” project challenges conventional socio-spatial norms and representation, while Byrd explores themes of diaspora, connection, and narrative in his curatorial work. They examine the impact of mobility, voices, and knowledge on counter-cartographies, highlighting innovative archiving and cataloging approaches, with a reflection on the broader implications of Pan-Africanism, particularly its role in embracing diverse voices and identities within the art and architectural archive. 

Full Transcript

About Mpho Matsipa and Antawan Byrd

Antawan I. Byrd is a College Fellow and Assistant Professor in Art History at Northwestern University and an Associate Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago. He edited (with Felicia Mings) the catalogue, The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster 1979-1985, based on an exhibition he co-curated in 2019 at the Art Institute. At the Art Institute, Byrd also curated Mimi Cherono Ng’ok: Closer to the Earth, Closer to My Own Body (2021). He co-curated the 2nd Lagos Biennial of Contemporary Art (2019), Kader Attia: Reflecting Memory at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art (2017) and was an associate curator for the 10th Bamako Encounters, Biennale of African Photography (2015). From 2009 to 2011, he was a Fulbright fellow and curatorial assistant at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos. In 2017, he received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association. Byrd completed his PhD in Art History at Northwestern University in 2022. He is currently co-curating a major exhibition that surveys the art and cultural dimensions of Pan-Africanism from the 1920s to the present. This exhibition is slated to open at the Art Institute of Chicago in the fall of 2024, before traveling to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, and later to the KANAL-Centre Pompidou in Brussels.

Mpho Matsipa is an educator, researcher, and curator. Matsipa holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, pursued as a Fulbright Scholar. She has taught at The Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the University of the Witwatersrand, The Cooper Union for Art and Science and Columbia University. She has written critical essays on art and architecture and curated several exhibitions, discursive platforms and experimental architectural research, including the Venice International Architecture Biennale (2008; 2021); chief curator of African Mobilities at the Architecture Museum, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2018); and Studio-X Johannesburg, in South Africa (2014-2016).

Mpho Matsipa was previously a researcher at Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), a Loeb Fellow (2022) at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 2021-2022. Matsipa has written critical essays on art and architecture and curated several exhibitions and discursive platforms, including African Mobilities at the Architecture Museum, Pinakotheque Moderne, Munich, the online version and African Mobilities podcast (2018-2020); Studio-X Johannesburg, and the 11th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

Her curatorial and research interests intersect with decolonial urban studies, experimental architecture and visual art. Mpho is an associate curator for the LOO-bOOm-bashi Biennale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2024).

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