Meditations on the ‘wrong place’: Europe in Africa; Africa in Europe

Abstract

From the cartographer to the artist, the practice of map-making has largely resulted in a visual output, that of the map. The following article will present the work of art practitioners, specifically the art photographers Svea Josephy (1969 - ) and Omar Victor Diop (1980 - ), as an illustration of the visual mapping of a migrant culture/ diaspora and the transportation of a place and culture from Europe to Africa and Africa to Europe. The premise of the article being that there are many Africas and Europes, as there are pockets of ‘Africa in Europe’ and ‘Europe in Africa’. Thus, ultimately both Africa and Europe exist at times philosophically in the ‘wrong place’. The art historian Miwon Kwon outlines her concept of the ‘wrong place’ in her essay ‘The Wrong Place’ (2004, p. 29 - 41). This theory will be used as an entry into the discussion in the article.