The exhibition, curated by Giosuè Allegrini and Sarenco, promoted and organized by the Municipality of Pavia - Culture and Tourism Sector and by the Sarenco Foundation, with the support of the Pavia International City of Knowledge Association, the collaboration of the Civic Museums of the Visconteo Castle, and with the contribution of UBI, will present, in some cases for the first time, 70 paintings, sculptures, photographs and installations by 35 of the most representative exponents of contemporary African art, such as Mikidadi Bush, George Lilanga, Esther Mahlangu, Cheri Samba, Breasts Camara, Efiaimbelo, Paa Joe, Graeme Williams, Guy Tillim, Ricardo Rangel and others.
The exhibition will explore the complex and articulated African creative panorama which, unlike the archaeological and ancient one, well represented in museums around the world, has often been confined to private collections and rarely accepted by public institutions. Today African art moves between a colonial past that has not yet been overcome, a postcolonial present with many facets and the rigid laws of the art market; a problematic reality, but in some respects extremely intriguing due to the intellectual nomadism related to it. As Achille Bonito Oliva writes, in his text in the catalogue, “It is clear that starting from nomadism one naturally comes to intercept contemporary African art due to the fact that it is a storehouse of ideas, I would even say involuntary, of languages that we have skimmed off in a secular way".
The birth of contemporary African art can be traced back to the middle of the last century, when the various countries of the continent began their struggle for independence from European colonialism. It was in these years that the technique of painting - if not even drawing - first confined to a merely decorative connotation of sculpture, asserted itself. There is no doubt that the major innovations in recent decades are above all pictorial. Artists such as Cheri Samba, Lilanga, Ester Mahlangu, Mikidadi Bush, are the spokesmen of an art that has managed to assert itself independently of Western influences and the native figurative tradition.
As far as sculpture is concerned, the panorama is characterized by an extreme variety of forms and techniques adopted or invented by contemporary African artists – from Seni Camara to Paa Joe, from Simon Dastani to Efiaimbelo – to the point of making any attempt to collect them in one unified perspective.
Deep differences between artists and ateliers also existed in the past, resulting from the historical vicissitudes to which various ethnic groups and regions have been exposed. However, if globalization has multiplied the effects of hybridization introduced by European colonialisms, the art market has boosted the diffusion of very heterogeneous artistic directions.
Another form of expression widely used and much represented in the Pavia exhibition is that of photography. What can be admired in the rooms of the Castello Visconteo is a selection of author shots, which trace a unique testimony of the work of African artists, both the forerunners of photography on the continent and today's authors - from Graeme Williams to Guy Tillim , from Ricardo Rangel to Ousmane Ndiaye Dago – who have developed a unique way of reading reality and telling it. What emerges is the image of an Africa that proudly claims the difference of its identities, its cultures, its traditions, its past, as well as the languages and misfortunes of the peoples that compose it.
"Since the beginning of this mandate – declares Giacomo Galazzo, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Pavia – we have privileged cultural initiatives of international scope: the experience of the exhibition on African art will undoubtedly be the most relevant and fascinating of this first glimpse of our administrative period.
An exciting journey in one of the artistic frontiers of the new millennium and an unmissable opportunity to raise the gaze of our city on that part of the world so tormented but so fascinating".
"The municipal administration – continues Giacomo Galazzo – is proud to welcome these masterpieces, with the history of their land that accompanies them and that will truly enrich us. For us these days will be a stimulus to continue our cultural journey in the future, from Pavia to the world".
CONTINENT AFRICA. Contemporary African art
Pavia, Visconti Castle (viale XI February 35)
October 24 - November 29, 2015
