Urban-based artists relate in varied ways to rural backgrounds, experiences, relationships and research interests. This presentation discusses selected examples from South Africa, Uganda and Cameroon in which urban-based artists reflect and practice a relationship with the rural in both, personal and aesthetic terms. Covering a broad range of genres, including photography, painting, community art, and performance, the analysis takes four main aspects into account that shape the artworks in the negotiation of the urban-rural link in contemporary aesthetic practice: Firstly, the relationship of the urban and rural is mostly perceived as a geographical/topographical separation. Secondly, while the city stands for professional networks, rural areas represent the home of family, clan and ancestry. Thirdly, both areas are reflected as two different cultural spaces that however are interlinked in a complex way. Lastly, the spatial polarity often implies temporality, not only in terms of the popular 'traditional/modern' tropes, but also in terms of historical change, for instance with regard to migration histories, family stories, and aesthetic traditions.

It is obvious that these four characteristics by no means are the only ones, and at times empirical findings may even prove them wrong. However, I propose them as a framing device in this introductory paper that offers a reference in the discussion, for comparisons, and in the search for different and novel approaches to the relationship of the urban and rural in contemporary social and artistic practice.

Contrary to conventional academic knowledge, which considers African masked performance as a specifically rural or folkloric manifestation, masquerade has been and is still being invented in Africa's cities. For two decades, scholars have turned their attention towards contemporary urban expressions, but have largely overlooked these tradition-based arts. As such, there have been very few documented urban masquerading traditions in Africa and little discussion of their performance.

This presentation considers the Ordehlay Cultural Societies of Freetown, Sierra Leone to explore the relationship of urban-invented arts and their spread to outlying rural areas of Sierra Leone. This is counterintuitive to the typical spread of masquerades, which, according to scholars, spreads from the rural into the urban zone. Further, while urban-based artists and members are interacting with communities "upline," they are also interacting with international branches of the Societies (from America to Norway, the Gambia to Canada), Both interactions are strengthened by the collapse of time and space characteristic of the techno-global landscape of contemporary Africa.

The Freetown masks are used in the extreme political, economic and cultural landscape of the city as a source of community-based sociocultural and financial support, and also serves as a source of neighborhood pride. How then does it translate to rural areas and why? How has it spread from urban Freetown to outlying rural areas and beyond? How does it differ from Freetown's masquerade aesthetics? What work does the mask and its performance do within and with-out the city?

The binaries of art and craft, rural and urban, artist and artisan have been widely debated, with scholars such as George Kyeyune (2003, 42) arguing that these categories reflect the British colonial legacy in Uganda. Such perspectives have not adequately addressed issues surrounding art production, and the 'idea' of art in local mediation and reception of art objects, rather limiting themselves to education, tourism, and trade. This paper addresses art practice and circulation with special attention to the cultural biography of bark-cloth in order to reveal its historical significance. Specifically, I examine the works of artist Fred Mutebi who keeps a studio in Kampala, Uganda's capital, juxtaposing it against that of the community group of bark cloth farmers and makers (abakomazi) that he initiated in Kibinge, discussing their work in terms of the 'idea' of art, bark-cloth traditions and innovations, in light of cultural changes in society since the re-instating of Buganda's King (Kabaka) in 1993. I argue that the notion of classification separates objects from their histories because of the way it foregrounds hierarchy while ignoring the unstable nature of place, meaning, and technique as revealed in art practice and reception. By closely examining the notional lines between art and craft and how they are produced, this paper sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged complexity and contradictions surrounding bark-cloth as an art form.

the midst of a growing interest in contemporary African art, Ethiopian artists are still relatively under-represented. However, two contemporary Ethiopian artists, Ephrem Solomon and Robel Temesgen, are gaining international acclaim. Based in Addis Ababa and with close connections beyond the city, the artists draw upon rural practices. Ephrem Solomon's solo exhibition at Tiwani Contemporary in London, titled 'Untitled Life', was an intimate portrayal of popular 'tej' (honey wine) houses. Ran by elderly, often widowed women; these informal bars provide space for honest socio-political discussion. Robel Temesgen, who also had a solo exhibition at Tiwani Contemporary presented a body of works that depict 'adbar', an Amharic term that refers to protective spirits found within the natural landscape. Through these two artists visual practices, the paper will provide insights into the intricate construction of social identity and the resilience and transformation that characterizes migration. 

Successive colonial and apartheid governments imposed on black South Africans a life of migrancy from rural homesteads to rapidly industrializing towns and cities. The exploitation of South Africa's natural resources and black labour had drastic consequences for the livelihoods and social dynamics of rural communities. Taxation forced men, and later women, to work on the mines and in urban settings to earn wages for their families. While millions of South Africans consider themselves urbanites today, there are still millions more whose lives integrate the distant yet intimately connected spaces of metropolis and rural village. These migrants have imagined new forms of music, dance, and art that intersect worlds seemingly distinct. This paper focuses on the complex systems of kinship and identity made manifest in the music, movement and gesture of isishameni Zulu dance. These dances are practiced by small groups of men who perform annually at festivals in hostels and in the rural isigodi (districts) of their ancestral homes. I draw on fieldwork conducted at Jeppe hostel in Johannesburg and the districts of Msinga and Weenen in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal province to show how urban and rural sensibilities intersect and are made expressive through music and dance. Audiovisual footage of these dances at weddings and community festivals is used to study the phenomenology of collapsing worlds.

Urbanisation and the ethno-cultural changes thereon typify the melding of ancient vestiges with modern tastes, which manifest as customised diversity of resources to influence forms of traditional arts and recreation. Up until the 1980's in Nigeria, court entertainments were traditionally structured. The norm was a coliseum of palace crew, numbered by royal drummers, court jesters, royal singers and other players of special instruments rendered for recreation and ritual. However, the urbanisation of most of the ancient cities in contemporary Nigeria has initiated a process which lends patronage to modern rural society, whereby the palace crew now include urbanised Juju bands introducing foreign and modern musical instruments such as keyboards, guitars, trumpets, and deploying sophisticated microphones, mixers and loudspeakers and combos. It is against this backdrop that the paper interrogates a contemporary Fuji musician Saheed Osupa's 2009 musical video Eta Oko, performed at the historic celebration of the naming ceremony of a set of triplets born to the Alaafin of Oyo Alaiyeluwa Oba Lamidi Adeyemi. Both artist and royalty have in common the fact of being urban imports to rural community; thus, they iconize postcolonial modernity. The paper, therefore, takes a postcolonial stance in comparatively examining the paradigm shift between ancient and contemporary court entertainment in the Kingdom of Oyo; while particularly expounding on the role-play of the cosmopolite royal character and the sprawling impact of hybridised popular artist on the architecture of traditional court of entertainment.

Since the French colonization, the Republic of Mali has been marked by a fast and strong growth of its population and a remarkable urbanization. During this period, traditional performances were influenced by established French schools and the introduction of occidental drama and prepared the base of an evolution in the development of Malian theatre. In an environment where today still two thirds of the population are illiterate and a society who is historically related to oral transmission, theatre presents an important medium to reach the people.

While the gap between the urban and the rural space seems to increase, dramaturges and comedians tend to establish a sort of a cultural bridge between them. In fact, after the decolonization, traditional Kotéba-Satire, originally coming from the rural villages, has first been influencing the new theatre of the independent nation and its capital (Koteba National) before the modern influences were flowing back to the villages by theatre companies performing in rural districts. Many of these artists, formed at the modern art-school of Bamako, have origins and family in the countryside and though are sensible to the switch between the rural and the urban space and languages. Therefore, theatre groups like Acte Sept, directed by Adama Traoré or Blonba by Alioune Ifra Ndiaye and Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvauroux adapted their plays precisely to this urban-rural switch. This is adapted on levels of content, language, conception and equipment of the plays. In my paper I'll illustrate these examples by relating them to the notions of identity, the modernity-tradition conflict and the rural-urban dialog.

The process of globalization has had impact in Africa. This required countries to accelerate their urbanization to comply with the demographic change that, is necessary to them and the ‟standard" development driven by the United Nations. This begat the rural exodus which causing the increase of the urban population. These newcomers have never formally broken with their origins in terms of cultural reminiscences and in identifying to certain social practices. Among this population, there are artists who, although having obviously grown in urban context are constantly inspired to express themselves, from the realities of these rural areas. In Benin, the State went to the obvious that it could not assure all alone, started the decentralization movement that offers a few possibilities for initiatives at the base. That is the case of Porto-Novo in cooperation with Cergy Pontoise and initiated the project Éclosion Urbaine which has highlighted the urbanization of a pocket of rural space and that has led artists to be inspired by this particular environment to deploy their contemporary production in relation to a secular spatial organization and specific social practices.

The first is the new experience in Benin, which allows showing that the interaction between urban contemporary artists and rural social practices can be done in exclusively urban context. The second is devoted to a long experience of Magou Amédée in his quest to associate the rural context to a contemporary production.