I went to the opening of the Paris Art Fair on Wednesday to check out the scene ahead of the students. It was everything one fears about art fairs: chaotic, crowded, hot, and sloshing with money.

Our trip today was very different, thankfully. The atmosphere was quite calm and leisurely. Contemporary African art is a major theme of this year’s fair. (The image above is a 2012 work by Youssef Abdekle.) Although the fair is dominated by the predictable styles of European and American art, the selections from across the African continent, while uneven like every art fair, proved nonetheless to provide an interesting overview and even some notable discoveries. Much of the work is very political, but in ways both varied and subtle. (Visit our Instagram page for more images.)

For me, one of the most fascinating discoveries was the booth of the non-profit organization based in Italy, AtWork. AtWork describes it mission in the following way:

“AtWork is an itinerant educational format, conceived by lettera27 and Simon Njami, that uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking and debate among the participants. It contributes to build a new generation of thinkers. The key element of AtWork is a workshop conducted by an artist or a curator on the chosen topic. The topic stimulates the collective discussion and a personal self-reflection on issues such as identity, culture, community, etc.  As a final output of the workshop each student produces a personalized notebook, which fixes the process of self- reflection triggered by the workshop. Each notebook takes on its own character and is the reflection of a thought at work. The produced notebooks are exhibited in an art show, co- curated by the students themselves. The participants may then choose to donate their works to lettera27 collection of ‘artist notebooks’, unique pieces of work created by different artists on Moleskine notebooks, among which Bili Bidjocka, Antonio Marras, Maurice Pefura, Sigur Rós, Marina Spadafora, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Giorgio Vigna and many others. The collection is used to help support lettera27’s activities. All the workshop participants become part of the AtWork Community, a group of international artists, students, curators, cultural organizations, intellectuals, who believe that art can be a tool for social transformation.”

Below is an image of the students in conversation with Elena Korzhenevich from lettera27. More images are viewable on our Instagram page.