78 Par Antonio Aimi ART on view The Land of the Spirits in Milan “Do not look for Phidias, his name is Tribe”1 is the title of a July 16, 1989, review by Giovanni Testori of La Grande Scultura dell’Africa Nera (The Great Sculpture of Black Africa), the fi rst major exhibition of African art ever held in Italy, which—and this fact is signifi cant—was displayed at the Centre di Mostre in the city of Florence, the capital of Renaissance art. The title expressed not only the opinion of the author, himself a collector of “other” art, but also the position of most anthropologists and scholars. The exhibition was organized by Ezio Bassani, a scholar who subsequently fought a long and personal battle for the recognition of the pure aesthetic values of African art, without implying (and he was adamant on this point) a negation of ethnographic values. Twenty-six years have passed since the Florence exhibition and much has changed since then. Perhaps most notably, the opening of the Pavillon des Sessions at the Louvre made the evolution of Europe’s—and indeed much of the world’s— perceptions of non-European art “offi cial.” Another clear realization of this change is Africa, terra degli Spiriti (Africa: The Land of the Spirits), an exhibition that opened at MUDEC (the Museo delle Culture) in Milan on March 27, 2015. A temporary show produced by 24 Ore Cultura, it places African art in a completely different context than have previous Italian shows. This exhibition is of special importance for Milan and for Italy as a whole insofar as it is the fi rst to be presented by the new institution, which is entirely devoted to non- European arts. The museum’s permanent collection will go on view this autumn. As were the 1989 exhibition and the subsequent major international exhibitions about Africa seen in Italy (Africa: capolavori da un continente Africa: Masterpieces of a Continent in Turin, 2003, and Quando Dio abitava a Ife When God Lived in Ife in Florence, 2005), the present show was organized by Bassani, this time with FIGS. 1–3: Installation views of the galleries during the opening reception. © MUDEC, Milan. Photo: Vincenzo Bruno. By Antonio Aimi
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