63
FIG. 3 (right): Reliquary
fi gure. Kota-Sango, Gabon.
Wood, metal. H: 29 cm.
Private collection, Belgium.
Photo: Studio Asselberghs.
ferred to as “cubist,” “abstract,” or “realistic.”
In other words, it was described using a Western
system of classification intended to integrate
it into our common imagination. In reality, as
should be obvious, African objects don’t need
to be part of a system like this to exist. They
are simply art, art that deserves a co-equal place
among other arts. This is also one of the focal
points of the exhibition, a point that is summed
but by Bassani in the exhibition catalog:
types, and to the legitimization of the domination
of blacks by whites. This suppression was
also reflected in the representations of Africans,
who were likened to animals and were characterized
as abhorrent beings with no self-control
that practiced black magic and cannibalism. The
beginnings of the story of Euro-African relations
were terrible and continue to require reflection.
Strictly speaking, the first part of the exhibition
was conceived of by Pezzoli and Bassani
in collaboration with Elio Revera. Called “Art
tout-court” (“Just Art”), it provides context for
the adjective “universal” in the exhibition’s title.
For a long time, African art was erroneously re-
FIG. 2 (below): Man Ray,
Noire et Blanche, 1926. Print,
1980.
Private collection. Reproduction
authorized by the Fondazione Marconi,
Milan. © The Museum of Modern Art,
New York; Scala, Florence. © Man Ray
Trust by SIAE, 2018.
the contemporary character of the subjects we
are dealing with. This is about a process that is
unfolding, and about situations that exist in the
present and are not just stories from a period in
the distant past.
The exhibition’s goal is clearly stated: It proposes
to reinterpret the past as seen through the
unique prism of twenty-first-century Italy.
The installation opens with a series of photographs
selected by Pezzoli that allow the viewer
to retrace the early contacts of the modern era
between Europe and the peoples of the African
coasts, which initially occurred during the
course of exploratory missions. As such, the
result was not predetermined, but curiosity and
economic perspectives gradually gave rise to the
horrendous trade in African slaves, to stereo-
EX AFRICA