ACTUALITÉ MUSÉES
ABOVE: Mask.
Krou, Côte d’Ivoire.
Wood, pigment. H: 30 cm.
Collection of the Société des Missions
Africaines de Lyon.
Photo © SMA.
BELOW: Cult fi gure. Fanti,
Ghana. Before 1900.
Wood, beads, kaolin, vegetal fi ber.
H: 39 cm.
Collection of the Société des Missions
Africaines de Lyon.
Photo © SMA.
64
MADE IN AFRICA
LEIPZIG—Africa is an immense and extremely varied
continent that is too often referred to as a single entity.
Its 30 million square kilometers are home to more than
fifty countries, and the reductionist and inaccurate notion
that they can all be lumped together is what the
Made in Africa exhibition at the Grassi Museum für
Völkerkunde seeks to dispel. On view until September
30, 2018, It offers a teeming presentation of designs and
inspiring creations from all over the continent, with an
emphasis on the utilitarian objects of daily life. The brilliant
creativity that African artists and craftspeople evince
goes beyond their borders, and the things they produce
find their way into all facets of Western life. The exhibition
strives to trace origins and honor the autochthonous
and avant-garde creators, whose work is a far cry from
the factories that churn out the prefabricated objects we
associate with the “Made in China” label.
ABOVE AND BELOW LEFT:
Installation views of Made
in Africa.
© Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde zu
Leipzig. Photo: Mo Zaboli.
LEFT: Stool. Mwera,
Tanzania. 19th century or
earlier.
Wood.
Collected by Cornelius Vogl.
© Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde zu
Leipzig. Photo: Erhard Schwerin.
BELOW: Suitcase, “cot-cot.”
Senegal. 2017.
Recycled wood, newsprint.
© Grassi Museum für Völkerkunde zu
Leipzig. Photo: Ute Uhlemann.
MISSIONARY COLLECTIONS
VICHY—The regrettable closing of the Musée Africain
de Lyon at least has allowed the collection of the Société
des Missions Africaines to travel a bit. Some of the works
from this collection are being displayed at the Musée des
Arts d’Afrique et d’Asie de Vichy until October 31, 2018.
The question of how they got to France is the subject
being addressed. The Catholic missionaries sent to Africa
were the first European collectors, owners, and caretakers
of African art. They were witnesses to a unique period
in history and they would greatly influence Western perceptions
of the objects and artifacts from the continent.
The exhibition seeks to reverse the stereotypes that still
haunt these artworks today by giving them their rightful
voices and places. It focuses on so-called fetishes, the
cult objects used in traditional religious rites that Europeans
perceived as superstition and sorcery. The failure
of these very different cultures to understand one another
became a driving force behind major cultural shocks
and resulted in the large-scale and sometimes forced
collection of African art objects. However, the fact that
they were removed from their societies of origin was the
guarantee that those objects would be preserved. Such
are the contradictions that those who are interested in
African art must face and deal with today.