Bruce Clarke (South Africa / United Kingdom, 1959)
A visual artist and photographer, Bruce Clarke was born in London in 1959 from South African parents. He has been living and working in France since the early nineties.
It was in the 1980’s at the Fine Arts School at Leeds University that Clarke was introduced to the Art & Language movement by Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge, Terry Atkinson, and Harold Hurrell. In the continuity of these pioneering conceptual artists, Bruce Clarke’s work engages with contemporary history, the writing and transmission of that history, while aiming to stimulate thought about the contemporary world and its representations. Deeply anchored in a school of critical figuration, his artistic research integrates codes to better use them against structures of power and injustice.
Bruce Clarke became politically and artistically engaged early in his career, during the struggle for change in South Africa. He was one of the people in charge of the Rencontre Nationale contre l’Apartheid in France.
In parallel, the artist followed the evolution of the situation in Rwanda and the warning signs of the impending murder machine. In 1994, after a photo reportage he made a few weeks after the genocide, Clarke proposed the creation of a monumental installation on a site near Kigali, the Garden of Memory. This has been an on-going project since 2000, in close collaboration with the families of survivors, civil society, and Rwandese institutions, as well as UNESCO.
In 2014, he worked on a large-scale mural project for the 20th Commemoration of the Genocide in Rwanda. Titled Upright Men, this project first took place in Rwanda, but later travelled as an exhibition to some 20 other locations (Geneva, Lausanne, Brussels, Paris, Montreal, Ouidah etc.)
As resident artist invited by the Conseil Général de Guadeloupe (French Caribbean), Clarke produced an exhibition titled Fragments of tomorrow’s History, exploring the bridges between the slave trade, colonialism, and globalisation. A close collaborator of Fest-Africa at Lille (France) for the Rwanda project: Write, Film, Paint to Keep the Memory Alive, the artist has also worked with the Afrika Cultural Centre in Johannesburg (South Africa), and led visual arts workshops in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Benin, Tanzania, Zambia, and France.
As a photographer, he has published photo reports on South Africa, the reconstruction of Rwanda, the return of Liberian refugees, and Palestine. He also published Dominations (Homnisphères, 2006) and Fantômes de la Mer (ARTCO, 2016), which documents the life of economic and political refugees and victims of the trans-Mediterranean human trafficking.
In 2022, Bruce Clarke was invited to exhibit in two European capitals of culture: Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) and Kaunas (Lithuania). His work is regularly shown in Europe, Africa and the United States of America.
BRUCE CLARKE
1959
S.A. / U.K.
Changing Memories III
55 x 110
Photograph, Collage & Watercolor on Paper
2008
BRUCE CLARKE
1959
S.A. / U.K.
Feel (Suspensions Series)
116 x 81
Acrylic on Paper
2018
BRUCE CLARKE
1959
S.A. / U.K.
Ready for This (Migrants Series)
55 x 90
Collage & Watercolor on Paper
2016
BRUCE CLARKE
1959
S.A. / U.K.
Le Nègre docile est un Mythe (Icons Series)
Toussaint Louverture
70 x 50
Collage & Watercolor on Paper
2018
Selected Exhibitions & Collections
Solo exhibitions (selection)
2023 E Pluribus Unum, Kloser Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
2022 Ecce Homo, Those who stayed, IX Fort, Kaunas, Lithuania
2022 Ecce Homo, Musée national de la Résistance, Esch, Luxembourg
2022 Un Etat des Choses, Galerie Art-Z, Paris, France
2021 Walking the Line, ARTCO gallery, Berlin, Germany
2020 Invisible Memories, Centre d’Art de Bonneuil, France
2019 En Suspension, Maison Rouge, Cotonou, Benin
2019 Voices, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Paris, France
2019 Fantômes de la Mer, Alliance française Johannesburg, South Africa
2019 Predators and Other Friends, Galerie Art-Z, Paris, France
2019 Lifting the Veil, Théâtre royal de Marrakech, Morocco
2018 Birth of an Icon, Kloser Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
2018 Front Line, Espace Anis Gras, Arcueil, France
2018 Alliance française de Lusaka, Zambia
2017 Living Memory and Upright Men, Coutances Museum, France
2016 Sea Ghosts, French Institue, Nouakchott, Mauritania
2015 Daily Violence, Multimedia centre Lormont, France
2014 Humanities Gallery Out of Africa, Sitges, Barcelona, Spain
2014 En toute impunité, Gallery Les Naufragés du Temps, St Malo, France
2014 Upright Men, Simultaneous exhibitions (Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, Brussels, Luxemburg, Kigali, Limoges, Liège…) 20th commemoration of genocide in Rwanda
2013 Precarious Lives Gallery Julio Gonzalez, Arceuil, France
2013 Janus Gallery, Montreux, Switzerland
2013 M.I.A. Gallery Seattle, United States
2013 Body and Souls, Maison de l’International, Grenoble, France
2012 Artium Gallery, Luxemburg
2012 Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin
2011 Who’s Afraid , Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2010 Neumünster Abby, Luxemburg
2010 Artium Gallery, Luxemburg
2010 Bekris Gallery, San Francisco, United States
2010 Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2009 Geneva Book Fair, Switzerland
2007 Other(s), l’Art et la Paix Gallery, France
2006 Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2006 Arcima Gallery, Paris, France
2006 Troubled identity, mixed identity, Plein Sud Festival, Cozes, France
2005 Arrêt sur Image Gallery, Bordeaux, France
2004 I’m writing to you from the Garden of memory - installation, Dak’Art off, St Louis, Senegal
2004 Les Naufragés du Temps Gallery, St Malo, France
2002 Fragments of tomorrow’s History, L’Artchipel, Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
2001 Centre Rémy Nainsouta, Guadeloupe, French Caribbean.
2000 I’m writing to you from the Garden of memory - Installation, Gallery Porte 2a, Bordeaux, France
2000 Château de St-Ouen, Saint-Ouen, France
1999 French Cultural Centre, Kigali, Rwanda
1999 Fragments of History, Grenoble International, Grenoble, France
1997 Rayon Vert Gallery, Nantes, France
1997 South African Embassy, Paris, France
1997 Museum of Romans, Romans, France
1996 Marina Gallery, Avignon, France
Group exhibitions (selection)
2023 Ce que la Palestine apporte au Monde, UNESCO/Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2023 Bénin en Majesté, Espace Cosmopolis, Nantes, France
2019 Beirut Art Fair, Beirut, Lebanon
2019 Urban Art Fair, Paris, France
2018 Art Paris, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2018 Fusions, avec Migrations Culturelles 2a (MC2a), Bordeaux, France
2017 Galerie Vallois, (avec l'artiste Aston) Paris,
2017 Fantômes de la Mer, Gorée Island, in the festival « Regards sur Cours »
2016 AKAA Art Fair, Paris
2016 Tribute to Dak’Art, Martigny, Switzerland
2016 Sea Ghosts, Subabiennale, Dak’Art Off, Senegal,
2016 Targets, ArtCo Gallery, Aachen, Germany
2016 Cape Town Art Fair, Le Cap Johannesburg
2015 Africa/Africains, Museu Afrrobresil, Sao Paolo, Brazil
2015 Global Topics, ArtCo Gallery, Aachen, Germany
2014 FNB Art Fair, Johannesburg
2013 Etonnants Voyageurs Festival, Saint-Malo, France
2012 Iwalewa Haus – Bayreuth, Germany
2012 Boxe Boxe, Fondation Blachère – Apt, France
2010 Couleur Café Festival, Bruxelles, Belgium
2009 Africajarc Festival, Carjac, France
2008 Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2008 Contemporary Art Fair, Espace Pierre Bergé, Bruxelles, Belgium
2007 East African Biennale, Dar es Salam, Tanzania
2004-5 La Galerie.be, Bruxelles, Belgium
2004-5 Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2004 Ephémère Gallery, Montigny-le-Tilleul, Belgium
2003 L’Essor Gallery, Le Sentier, Switzerland
2002 Dak’art Biennale, Dakar Senegal
2001 Belfort Art and History Museum - with Edith Convert, Belfort, France
2001 The Artist and the Real, Maison de la Culture de la Nièvre, Nevers, France
1998 Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg
1995 Africanités, Saintonge Gallery, Paris, France
1995 art’CRA, Accra, Ghana
1994 De l’Afrique à l’Afrique, Gallery Yahia, Tunis, Tunisia
Public collections
Tilder Foundation, France
Zinsou Foundation, Cotonou, Benin
Contemporary Art Museum, Ouidah, Benin
Blachère Foundation, France
Artocarpe, Guadeloupe contemporary art museum, France
Cities of Paris, Bordeaux, Bègles, Arceuil, Vénissieux, France
Museum for Palestine, UNESCO, Paris
Musée national de la Résistance et des Droits humains, Esch, Luxembourg
IX Fort, Kaunas, Lithuania
Musée La Contemporaine, Nanterre, France
The Pas-Chaudoir Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art from Africa and the Diaspora, Antwerp, Belgium
Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva, Switzerland
Gervane+Mathias Leridon Collection, Paris, France