THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA

THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA
November 9th 2024 – August 17th 2025
World Heritage Völklinger Hütte

Press conference: Thursday, 7 November 2024, 11.00 a.m.
Opening ceremony: Friday, 8 November 2024, 6.30 p.m.

“Here rests in God my dear n***, Chim Bebe, deceased 1912 at the age of 26 years.” This epitaph on the gravestone of a man born in the West African colony of Togo at the old cemetery in Saarlouis illustrates just how close Africa is to Germany, also here in Saarland.

Although North Africa already served as the breadbasket to the Roman Empire and numerous independent kingdoms subsequently emerged, the size of the African continent as a whole has been systematically underrepresented on world maps since the time of Mercator. To this day, its geographical scale and global historical significance have been underestimated, despite its prehistoric role as the cradle of humanity.
Besides all this THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA also refers to the mostly forced migration of Africans across the globe, with far-reaching consequences to this day.

Exactly 140 years ago, in November 1884, the Berlin Conference was opened, which divided up Africa among the colonial powers without any African participation: Reason enough to take a different look in 2024 at this huge continent and the people who come from it. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA tests approaches that identify traditions of thought, prejudices and stereotypes and enable new perspectives - by means of cultural history and contemporary art, through constant changes of perspective and artistic polyphony.

While a MUSEUM OF MEMORABILITY reflects on Africa's past and present from the perspective of colonial Europe, African sculptures and objects from private collections in Saarland enter into a dialogue with the machines and flywheels of the historic blower hall. The central idea of this exhibition structure is a methodical reversal of perspective. Industrial modernity, which has repeatedly darkened Europe, meets a multifaceted, illuminating African culture. Major artworks from recent decades are paired with sound and spatial installations realised especially for the show by artists from Africa and the global diaspora. This generates 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 Dele Adeyemo (Kaduna, Nigeria / London, England / Lagos, Nigeria), John Akomfrah (Accra, Ghana / London, England), James Gregory Atkinson (Frankfurt, Germany / Seattle, USA), Sammy Baloji (Lubumbashi, RD Congo / Brussels, Belgium), Arébénor Basséne (Dakar, Senegal), Memory Biwa (Windhoek, Namibia), María Magdalena Campos-Pons (Matanzas, Cuba / Nashville, USA), CATPC (Lusanga, DR Congo), Omar Victor Diop (Dakar, Senegal / Paris, France), Sokari Douglas Camp (Buguma, Nigeria / London, England), William Kentridge (Johannesburg, South Africa), Kongo Astronauts (Kinshasa, DR Congo), Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo (Havana, Cuba / Enschede, Netherlands), Roméo Mivekannin (Bouaké, Ivory Coast / Toulouse, France), Zanele Muholi (Kapstadt, South Africa / Umlazi, South Africa), Josèfa Ntjam (Metz, France), Kaloki Nyamai (Nairobi, Kenya), Emeka Ogboh (Lagos, Nigeria / Berlin, Germany), Zineb Sedira (Algiers, Algeria / Paris, France / London, England), Sandra Seghir (Lomé, Togo / Dakar, Senegal), Yinka Shonibare (London, England), The Singh Twins (Richmond, England), Géraldine Tobe (Kinshasa, DR Congo), Kara Walker (New York, USA) and Carrie Mae Weems (Syracuse, USA).

A richly illustrated catalogue (Hirmer Verlag) in English will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, edited by Ralf Beil, Markus Messling and Christiane Solte-Gresser, with contributions from Ralf Beil, Elara Bertho, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Till Förster, Franck Hofmann, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Markus Messling and Christiane Solte-Gresser, source texts from Teju Cole to Binyavanga Wainaina as well as text-image inserts on all the artists in the exhibition.

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

Downloads

All images (zip | 335 MB) Captions (pdf | 32 MB)

Catalogue THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA, English Edition, Authors and texts (to be published in February 2025)

Download (docx | 24 KB)

Images

The use of the press photos is permitted in the context of reporting on the exhibition THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA at the World Heritage Völklinger Hütte.

Artists and Installations

Kongo Astronauts, Lisu likolo ya lisu (multiple vision or more literally "eye on eye"), 2024 © Kongo Astronauts. Courtesy Axis Gallery, New York
Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Achievement, 2024 AI-generated image, courtesy Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo
Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Achievement, 2024 AI-generated image, courtesy Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo
Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Achievement, 2024 AI-generated image, courtesy Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo
Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Achievement, 2024 AI-generated image, courtesy Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo
Kara Walker, Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, 2021 © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Kara Walker, Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, 2021 © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Kara Walker, Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, 2021 © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Kara Walker, Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, 2021 © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Kara Walker, Prince McVeigh and the Turner Blasphemies, 2021 © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Carrie Mae Weems, The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, 2020 Inkjet on paper, close-up image
© courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Thumm
Carrie Mae Weems, The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, 2020 Inkjet on paper, close-up image
© courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Thumm
Carrie Mae Weems, The Push, The Call, The Scream, The Dream, 2020 Inkjet on paper, close-up image
© courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Thumm
Josèfa Ntjam, Marthe, matter gone wild, 2024 5 min, Video HD. Written and directed by Josèfa Ntjam, in collaboration with Sean Hart and Nicolas Pirus. Co-produced by Aquatic Invasion Production, Fonds [SCAN], Fondation Pernod - Ricard.
© ADAGP, Paris, 2023 Courtesy de l'artiste
Josèfa Ntjam, Marthe, matter gone wild, 2024 5 min, Video HD. Written and directed by Josèfa Ntjam, in collaboration with Sean Hart and Nicolas Pirus. Co-produced by Aquatic Invasion Production, Fonds [SCAN], Fondation Pernod - Ricard.
© ADAGP, Paris, 2023 Courtesy de l'artiste
Josèfa Ntjam, Marthe, matter gone wild, 2024 Video HD. Written and directed by Josèfa Ntjam, in collaboration with Sean Hart and Nicolas Pirus. Co-produced by Aquatic Invasion Production, Fonds [SCAN], Fondation Pernod - Ricard.
© ADAGP, Paris, 2023 Courtesy de l'artiste
Sandra Seghir, I am a river whose source has been forgotten and whose end will never come, 2024 © Courtesy of the artist and Selebe Yoon, Dakar
The Singh Twins, Indiennes: The Extended Triangle, 2018 (Slaves of Fashion Series) © The Singh Twins: www.singhtwins.co.uk
Géraldine Tobe and her collaborator Jeanpy Kabongo creating a work with oil lamp smoke in the guest studio of the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte, 29 August 2024 © Ralf Beil / Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte
Sammy Baloji, Aequare. The future that never was, 2023, Filmstill © Courtesy of the artist Sammy Baloji and Imane Fares gallery / KANAL - Centre Pompidou
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019 Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes; Installed in The Unintended Beauty of Disaster, Lisson, Gallery, London, 2021
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019 Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes; Installed in The Unintended Beauty of Disaster, Lisson, Gallery, London, 2021
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019 Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes; Installed in The Unintended Beauty of Disaster, Lisson, Gallery, London, 2021
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019 Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes; Installed in The Unintended Beauty of Disaster, Lisson, Gallery, London, 2021
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019, Filmstill Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.
John Akomfrah, Four Nocturnes, 2019, Filmstill Three channel HD colour video installation, 7.1 sound; 50 minutes
© Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery.

Museum of Memorability

Drawing of the participants of the Berlin Conference, 1884 Source: Allgemeine Illustrierte Zeitung, Adalbert von Rößler (†1922)
A mosque for the Moroccan soldiers of the French occupying forces It stood on the large parade ground in Saarbrücken in 1919.
© Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken
Lettow-Vorbeck-Straße in Völklingen A street in Völklingen is named after the Saarlouis-born colonial military officer Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964), who was involved in the genocide of tens of thousands of Herero and Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika from 1904.
© Karl Heinrich Veith / Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte
Robert Lebeck, Ein Kongolese entreißt König Baudouin von Belgien den Degen, Leopoldville, Kongo 1960 © Archiv Robert Lebeck
Robert Lebeck, In Salisbury, Rhodesien 1960 © Archiv Robert Lebeck

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THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA