The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has benefited, through the Directorate of Cultural Heritage, from funding thanks to a training project for the benefit of visual artists in Togo. Read the press release
As part of the support of the Islamic World Organization for Education, Science and Culture (ICESCO) for culture in Togo, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism benefited, through the Directorate of Cultural Heritage, from a funding thanks to a training project for the benefit of visual artists in Togo.
This is a national capacity building workshop for twenty (20) visual artists (including 10 women) in terms of ideas, materials and techniques.
Chaired by Bakayota Koffi KPAYE, the Chief of Staff representing the Minister of Culture and Tourism, the official launch of this workshop took place this Wednesday, September 13, 2023 in the meeting room of the Ministry of Communication and Media.
This innovative and highly original project is a contribution to the professionalization of the artistic ecosystem to allow participants to be much more creative and original in the field of ideas, materials and techniques.
For three days, for the trainer Assou ASSOU, living human treasure of UNESCO, visual artist, designer, full professor at the African School of Architecture and Urban Planning (EAMAU) in Lomé, it will be a question of to train visual artists in the renewal of ideas and discourse which are the foundations of true creation; lead visual artists to create from raw materials that are local materials as well as imported materials from the moment when it is the artist who ennobles the material; equip visual artists to master the techniques of plastic creation.
During these three (3) days, each daily session will be devoted to creativity. Creativity at the level of ideas; creativity in the field of materials and creativity in techniques.
The 20 artists selected through a call for applications come from all visual arts sectors: painting, sculpture (high-relief, bas-relief, in the round), engraving, drawing, installation, video, photography, performance, mural arts (graffiti, tags, animated image projections on buildings, etc.)
Art reflects and belongs to the period and culture from which it comes. It is necessarily limited to our time and our culture. Described as something beautiful, or a skill that produces an aesthetic result, art could be said to require thought – a kind of creative impulse – but this raises other questions: for example, what is the amount of thought required?
If someone throws paint on a canvas, hoping to create a work of art by doing so, does the result automatically constitute art?
Art is often seen as the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a wide range of human activities, creations and modes of expression. Contemporary visual arts break down barriers between genres. We encounter traditional genres there but other media are invited.
Togo does not yet have a school or museum of Fine Arts. It therefore has very few Fine Arts graduates. Those who benefited from training in art schools did so abroad.
The majority of visual artists in Togo learned the trade from an amateur or a professional. But alongside, there are several other self-taught people who over the years have trained in various ways and have benefited from support, support and multifaceted advice. Many of them are resourceful.
As there is no training institution in the field, many think that being self-taught means moving away from the rules of the art, ignoring them and doing as best you can. Now it is clear that an autodidact is someone who has trained himself by collecting didactic and pedagogical information in all directions.
Training remains a major challenge to overcome in the visual arts ecosystem in Togo.
ICESCO, which has its headquarters in Rabat in the Kingdom of Morocco, began its activities in Togo following our country’s accession in 2002. End
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