Erica Watum
About
Biography
My name is Erica Watum, and I am a South African-Congolese artist-curator who will be awarded my MA in Curating Contemporary Art (CCA) during September 2024. My RCA Independent Research Project (IRP) is entitled Reflections on the Curatorial: Négritude, (Pan-)Africanisms and the Self, and is an exploration into the curatorial through an auto-ethnographic approach. In May 2023, I completed my BFA in Art, Media, and Technology (AMT) at Parsons School of Design, with honours.
I will be joining the team for the 2025 Congo Biennale as a curatorial assistant and production assistant, in October 2024.
Curatorial Statement
I am developing a curatorial approach which seeks out non-traditional practices and practitioners, existing outside of Western hegemonies and ontological frameworks. With a specific interest in Sub-Saharan Africa and then the wider “Global South,” I seek to adopt curatorial approaches being tested outside of the conventional systems in place. (I use the term Global South as a hyper-generalisation: referring to nations liberated from colonial rule, spanning multiple geopolitical regions, and who are non-aligned to the Western power bloc.) This places an emphasis on community-based approaches to organising, and working with marginalised individuals, groups, or communities – while valorising their cultures and practices, customs, contexts, and histories.
My curatorial practice must reflect a constant enrichment of my curators ethics, framed by an intersectional thinking. I want to be routinely introspective and self-reflective. Whether I am undertaking a curatorial project, or critiquing one, it is imperative that I look inwards and unpack the personal conjuncture from which I am approaching the work. Authenticity must be at the nexus of my practice. If I am unable to subjectively resonate with a curatorial rationale and the ideas it seeks to promote, then I must question whether or not I can be critically engaged, and therefore authentically generate, the required curatorial output(s). This desire for intersectional approaches found through introspection, uncovers socio-political, socio-cultural, and historical themes which are explored in my thinking, researching and writing.
CCA Bodies of Knowledge team website: https://bodiesofknowledge.cargo.site/About
Past Work
Parsons Paris Galerie D – A Seat at the Table: 2023 Thesis Exhibition
Parsons Paris Galerie D – OBSESSED: 2023 Group Show
The Sowetan Live Podcast – “Making Sustainability a Staple in Fashion”
Bag Factory Art Studios – That’s What She Said, Final Exhibition
In Conversation with Rudy Samuel – “What it Takes to Run a Magazine at 20”
60/60 Instagram Interview – “Erica Watum, Founder of BUFFER Magazine”
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