THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA - Transcontinental perspectives

THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA looks to take a different artistic and cultural approach to this huge continent through continual shifts of perspective and a multitude of curatorial voices.

A “museum of memorability” would reflect on Africa’s past and present from the perspective of Europe as a colonial power; here, by contrast, artists from DR Congo and Namibia cast their gaze on private European collections of African sculptures and objects and curate them between the machines and flywheels of the blower hall. Their guiding principle is to reverse the traditional perspective – here, Europe’s dark industrial modernity now meets the diverse, luminous culture of Africa. Major artworks from recent decades are paired with sound and spatial installations created especially for the exhibition. This creates a dense network of impressions and modes of perception that, ideally, enables a sustained and multi-layered encounter with THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA in its past, present and future.

Invited artists include Kader Attia (Berlin, Germany / Algiers, Algeria), Memory Biwa (Windhoek, Namibia), Kaloki Nyamai (Nairobi, Kenya), Emeka Ogboh (Berlin, Germany / Lagos, Nigeria), Zineb Sedira (Paris, France / London, UK / Algiers, Algeria) und Géraldine Tobe (Kinshasa, DR Congo).

In cooperation with the Käte Hamburger Research Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University, Saarbrücken.