Hajj, Journey to the heart of Islam

Name: Hajj, Journey to the heart of Islam
Dates: 26th January – 15th April 2012
Place: Birtish Museum, London (UK)
Ticket fee: 12£
Webpage: www.britishmuseum.org
Comments:
One of the five pillars of Islam central to Muslim belief, Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime if they are able. This major exhibition charts the history of this deeply personal journey.
Examining the extraordinary travel logistics involved and how the wider operation of the event has changed over time, the exhibition compares how pilgrims over the centuries negotiated this often monumental undertaking and how it continues to be experienced by people from all corners of the globe today.
Beautiful objects, including historical and contemporary art, textiles and manuscripts, bring to life the profound spiritual significance of the sacred rituals that have remained unchanged since the Prophet Muhammad’s time in the 7th century AD.
'This exhibition will enable a global audience to deepen their understanding of the significance and history of the Hajj. In particular, it will allow non-Muslims to explore the one aspect of Islamic practice and faith which they are not able to witness, but which plays such a major part in forming a worldwide Islamic consciousness.'
Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum
Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam will be the first major exhibition dedicated to the Hajj; the pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is central to the Muslim faith. The exhibition will examine the significance of the Hajj as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, exploring its importance for Muslims and looking at how this spiritual journey has evolved throughout history. It will bring together a wealth of objects from a number of different collections including important historic pieces as well as new contemporary art works which reveal the enduring impact of Hajj across the globe and across the centuries. The exhibition which has been organised in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Public Library Riyadh will examine three key strands: the pilgrim’s journey with an emphasis on the major routes used across time (from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East); the Hajj today, its associated rituals and what the experience means to the pilgrim; and Mecca, the destination of Hajj, its origins and importance.
It is laid down in the Qur’an that it is a sacred duty for Muslims everywhere, if they are able, to make the journey to Mecca at least once in their lives. This pilgrimage takes place during the last month of the Islamic year, known as Dhu’l Hijja. At the heart of the sanctuary at Mecca lies the Ka’ba, the cube-shaped building that Muslims believe was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. It was in Mecca that the Prophet Muhammad received the first revelations in the early 7th century. Therefore the city has long been viewed as a spiritual centre and the heart of Islam. The rituals involved with Hajj have remained unchanged since its beginning, and it continues to be a powerful religious undertaking which draws Muslims together from all over the world, irrespective of nationality or sect. .
A wide variety of objects will be lent to the exhibition. Loans include significant material from Saudi Arabia including a seetanah which covers the door of the Ka’ba as well as other historic and contemporary artefacts from key museums in the Kingdom. Other objects have come from major public and private collections in the UK and around the world, among them the British Library and the Khalili Family Trust. Together these objects will evoke and document the long and perilous journey associated with the pilgrimage, gifts offered to the sanctuary as acts of devotion and the souvenirs that are brought back from Hajj. They include archaeological material, manuscripts, textiles, historic photographs and contemporary art. The Hajj has a deep emotional and spiritual significance for Muslims, and continues to inspire a wide range of personal, literary and artistic responses, many of which will be explored throughout the exhibition.
This exhibition concludes the British Museum’s series of three exhibitions focused on spiritual journeys.
In partnership with King Abdulaziz Public Library, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
HSBC Amanah has supported the exhibition’s international reach outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.


© Text and image: British Museum

Maori: Their treasures have a soul

EXHIBITION 

Name: Maori: Their treasures have a soul 

Dates: 4^th October 2011 to 22^nd January 2012 

Place: musée du quai Branly, 37, quai Branly, Paris (France) 

Webpage: www.quaibranly.fr
Comments:
The musée du quai Branly presents Māori: Their treasures have a soul, featuring Māori culture through 250 pieces from the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This exhibition, never shown before outside New Zealand, is a testimony to a strong and living culture. It affirms a people’s will to master their own future by emphasising tino rangatiratanga: Māori self determination and control over things Māori.

The exhibition presents a great range of artwork, including sculpture, adornment, daily and sacred objects, architectural elements, photographs, audiovisual documents, and so on. It highlights the links between taonga (ancestral Māori treasures) and contemporary art, shedding light on important issues and debates for Māori today.

The exhibition presents Māori culture as seen by Māori, free from Western views and biases. The heart of the exhibition features art that addresses the political, spiritual, and aesthetic developments that have shaped Māori culture.

The introductory area orientates visitors to the Māori world by presenting a major underlying concept of the exhibition.

* Tino rangatiratangais a phrase synonymous today with the struggle of Māori for greater control over their own destiny and resources. The core word is ‘rangatira’, or ‘chief’ – someone acknowledged as a leader, holding authority over their tribe and geographical dominion. Tino rangatiratanga embodies the ideas of sovereignty and self-determination – the will of Māori to regain control over their culture, identity, and resources, and to participate and contribute to global issues, such as environmental protection.

* In the 1835 Declaration of Independence, Māori clearly asserted their desire to maintain their sovereignty. They reiterated this desire with their later signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) in 1840.

The signing of these documents would, they understood, guarantee the recognition of theirauthority over their land, forests, fisheries, and so on.

© Text and image: Musée du Quai Branly

The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves

EXHIBITION 

Name: Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves 

Dates: January 13, 2012–May 9, 2012 

Place: National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall, Washington, DC 

Webpage: www.americanindian.si.edu 

Comments: 

This exhibition brings together rare works of art as a counterpoint to the supernatural storyline of the popular Twilight films. Interpreted by the Quileute people of coastal Washington, Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves offers an intimate look into the tribe's artwork and wolf creation stories, which are central to the Quileute world view. The exhibition includes two wolf headdresses from different regions, as well as replicas of items used on the Twilight set; a paddle necklace symbolizing the "canoe culture," and a necklace made from Olivella shells. A 12-minute video illuminates the history and oral and cultural traditions through interviews with tribal members and teens as they describe the phenomenon and effect of the Twilight films in their own words.

“Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves” is an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian that brings together rare works of Quileute art as a counterpoint to the supernatural storyline depicted in the popular Twilight books and movies. Opening Jan. 13, 2012, the exhibition will be on view through May 9, 2012, in the museum’s second-level Sealaska Gallery.

The exhibition showcases 23 objects, including elaborate wolf headdresses, rattles, baskets and a whale-bone dance club. Historic drawings created by Quileute teens who attended the Quileute Day School at Mora, near La Push, Wash., from 1905 through 1908, depict activities, including wolf ritual dances and shamanistic performances, house posts that were part of the Potlatch Hall and a whaling scene that shows a crew of eight men coming alongside a whale in their cedar canoe.

Visitors will be able to learn more about Quileute ritual life and the five secret societies that maintained balance between the human and spirit realms, including the Wolf society for warriors, the Fisherman’s society for fisherman and sealers, the Hunter’s or Elk society for land-animal hunters, the Whale Hunters and the Weatherman’s Society, who predicted the weather. Whaling was an important but dangerous endeavor as the giant sea mammals where hunted on the open ocean from 35-foot dugout canoes.

The exhibition also includes a map of Quileute language place names of the modern village and the vast aboriginal territories stretching from the ocean to the Olympic Mountains, a timeline of Quileute history and a 12-minute looped video that illuminates the history and oral and cultural traditions through interviews with tribal members and teens as they describe the phenomenon and effect of the Twilight films in their own words.

Replicas of items used in the Twilight films include a paddle necklace worn by the character Emily portrayed by actor Tinsel Korey, a traditional Quileute hand drum that hangs in Emily’s house, a shell necklace of Olivella shells that was on the wall of her house and the dream catcher that Jacob gives to Bella as a gift.

During the exhibition’s opening weekend, Quileute tribal member and one of only two fluent speakers left in the tribe, Chris Morganroth III, will tell traditional stories for kids and families in the museum’s imagiNATIONS Activity Center at 1:30 p.m. as well as presenting Quileute culture and stories in the Rasmuson Theater at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. during the Native Storytelling Festival, Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 14 and 15.

This exhibition was organized by the Quileute Nation and the Seattle Art Museum, where it was on view August 2010 through August 2011.

© Text and image: National Museum of the American Indian

Warli et Mithilâ

EXHIBITION 
Name: Warli et Mithilâ 
Dates: From 6th July 2011 
Place: 405, Promenade des Anglais, Arenas, Nice (France) 
Webpage: www.arts-asiatiques.com 
Comments: 
Ethnic Paintings. Naive art and colorful women of North India.
These Indian paintings are exhibited on the first floor and are part of the donation of Mr. and Mrs. Hans Herrli. In love with India, they have made this collection during their multiple trips to India. The selected works are representative of a part of the Warli art and other art in the region of Mithila.
The Warli tribe has a population of about 300,000 members and live in Maharashtra, north of Mumbai (Bombay). The name comes from warla, which means a parcel of land. They have their own mode of belief, life and custom.
Their pictorial art was discovered in the seventies. Although there is no precise information on the exact origins of this art, Warli painting is a continuation of a tradition whose origins are between 2500 and 3000 BC. It is the expression of daily and social life of the tribe. The Warli used to paint the walls of their houses, and this was the only means of transmission because their dialect is not written. The paintings are only done on very rare occasions such as marriage or crops.
Iconography is very rudimentary and is based on the circle (the sun), the triangle (the mountain) and the square (the sacred enclosure). The paintings depict scenes of hunting, fishing and cultures, festivals and dances.
The Warli use only white colour, made from a mixture of rice paste, water and gum binder. The paint is applied using a previously chewed stick at its end to give it a flexibility comparable to that of a brush.


The paintings of Mithila or Madhubani derive their name from Mithila region in Bihar. They were traditionally made by village women who decorated the walls of freshly plastered mud houses, at weddings and religious ceremonies.
The paintings represent Hindu deities. We find therefore illustrations of Krishna, Rama, Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. All spaces are decorated with geometric and natural elements like flowers or animals.
The art of contemporary painting of Mithila was born in the early sixties after the terrible famine in Bihar. The paintings on paper or canvas have been used to supplement income. This is how this art was discovered and brought to the West. The paintings use natural pigments and bamboo sticks instead of the brush.


© Text and image: Musée des Arts Asiatiques

'Vaudou' Exhibition

EXHIBITIONS 
Exhibition: Vaudou (Vodun) 
Dates: 5 April to 25 September 2011 

Opening times: daily except Monday, from 11 to 20h. Tuesday evenings until 22h. 

Place: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, 261 Boulevard Raspail, Paris (France) 

Entrance fee: 8,50 € 

Webpage: www.fondation.cartier.com

www.vaudou-vodun.com

About the exhibition:

A great connoisseur of African art, Jacques Kerchache traveled to Benin in the 1960s where he first discovered Vodun art, the source of Vodun itself. He met its priests, was initiated into its rituals and was struck by the astonishing forms invented by its sculptors.

Jacques made it his mission to elevate Vodun art, to situate it among the greatest of human creations. He was determined not to let humanity’s deepest secrets remain in the dark.

During his visits to the Gulf of Benin, Jacques built up an unprecedented collection—a secret passion that consumed him all his life. The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is now unveiling this collection in accordance with the wishes expressed by Jacques before he passed away ten years ago, and as a token of the strong friendship that developed over the years.

Enzo Mari produced the scenography with a masterful hand. Yuji Ono photographed the sculptures.

Vodun is not a coherent and unified whole. It is associated with a large number of societies from Dahomey, southwestern Zaire and western Nigeria, whose liturgies continue to thrive in the Caribbean (Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica) as a result of the massive slave trade that went on for over two centuries.
The practice of Vodun has always been confined to an intellectual elite. Its objects or fetishes can only act once they have been rendered sacred. They are the material signs of divine affirmation and their longevity depends on their use.
“Vodun” resonates with a sense of magic and this magic must remain intact. It is not our intention to indulge in exotic clichés or to unveil any mysteries, but rather to consider, for the first time ever, the purely aesthetic aspect of this art.

Artists have played a key role in all cultures from prehistoric times to the present day. And, in particular, in societies without writing, artists are a support for the spoken word, the very identity of a people, respecting their prohibitions so as to better circumvent them, always finding new ways to enhance the expressiveness of their works without destroying that element of esotericism that gives them their beauty. Artists are the people who ask original questions with regard to an object, no matter what its use (contemplative or active), the people for whom it is not so much the subject that is important as the way in which it will be handled. In all times and all places, artists have always been the great magicians.
Malraux wrote: “The 21st century will be religious or it will not be.” This does not mean that it will be under religious domination, but that it will be endowed with spiritual power, and the act of creation is overwhelmingly invested with such power. Even though it may represent an ideology, art is nevertheless an opening, a demonstration par excellence of freedom. Global, universal, timeless, art is made available to all human beings, to all those who are able to understand it.

To speak about Vodun art is thus, above all, to reflect on the status, the identity of the artist.
Picasso never knew the art of Vodun and yet there are astonishing affinities between his artwork and the works of these committed artists, works that are provocative on an aesthetic as well as a magical level. The contemporary artists that have come into contact with such art have quite naturally been fascinated by the extraordinary questions they raise. Vodun art contains all of these things at once: a constant connection between the aesthetic and the sacred, the perfect creation of a sort of three-dimensional ideogram taken to its extreme, an art of subversion in which everything signifies, a process that is surprisingly modern and highly inventive, an experimentation in form, as well as a stab at humor on an aesthetic level.
Jacques Kerchache, undated
Excerpted from the catalog Vodun: African Voodoo,Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 2011

WHO WAS JACQUES KERCHACHE?

Born in 1942 in Rouen, France

Died in 2001 in Cancún, Mexico

A self-taught galerist and connoisseur known for his exacting eye and profound knowledge of the Primitive Arts, Jacques Kerchache was during his life one of the most passionate and vanguard figures of the French art world. Born in 1942 in Rouen, he had precocious beginnings, opening his first gallery in 1960. From 1959 to 1980 he travelled frequently to Africa, Asia, America and Oceania, venturing in regions few other dealers dared to explore in search of exceptional works of art. It was during his first trip to Benin that he became fascinated by Vodun sculpture. This passion led him to bring together what would become one of the most significant existing collections devoted to African Vodun.

Jacques Kerchache would frequently be called upon to serve as an advisor or curator, working on such groundbreaking exhibitions as the New York MoMA’sPrimitivism in Twentieth Century Art (1984), which explored the influence of Primitive art on the work of 20th century artists, or the Musée du Petit Palais "L’Art des sculpteurs Taïnos" (1994), which presented for the first time to a large public pre-Columbian art from the Caribbean islands. He is also one of the main authors of the seminal work, Art of Africa published in 1993 by Harry N. Abrams. Throughout his career, Jacques Kerchache strongly encouraged French museums to move beyond what was a primarily ethnographic approach to the Primitive Arts in order to consider them for their universal aesthetic value. In 1990 he launched a manifesto entitled “The masterpieces of the World are Born Free and Equal,” promoting with great conviction the entry of Primitive Arts into the collections of the Louvre. It was thus under his initiative that the Pavillon des Sessions—devoted to the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas—was created at the Louvre in 2000. He also promoted the creation of the Quai Branly Museum, which opened its doors following his death in 2006. His wife has since donated many works of their collection to the museum.

The interests of Jacques Kerchache were not limited to the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. His universalist approach to art and aesthetics also led him to support the work of contemporary artists as well, developing close friendships with Sam Szafran, Paul Rebeyrolle and Georg Baselitz. The same open-minded, avant-garde spirit also led Jacques Kerchache to work with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain on many occasions, contributing as an advisor to the thematic exhibitions À visage découvert (1992) and être nature (1998) and as an author for the exhibition catalog of the contemporary Haitian artist Patrick Vilaire, Réflexion sur la mort (1997).

Jacques Kerchache received two of France’s highest decorations, the Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite and the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.

© Text and image: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

Art of the American Indians Exhibition

EXHIBITIONS 
Exhibition: Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection
Dates: 24 April to 4 September 2011 

Opening times: Tuesday and Wednesday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. 

Thursday: 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Friday*, Saturday, and Sunday: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Closed Mondays

Place: Chilton Gallery, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (USA)

Entrance fee: $10

Webpage: www.dallasmuseumofart.org

 About the exhibition:

In the Dallas Museum of Art’s first Native American exhibition in nearly twenty years, 111 works of art from the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, will be on view beginning in April 2011 in the Museum’s Chilton Gallery I. Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection explores the extraordinarily diverse forms of visual expression in Native North America. Organized by geographic culture areas, the works of art in this exhibition date from well before first European contact to the present, and celebrate the continuing vitality of American Indian art.

This four-venue national exhibition reveals the exceptional variety of Native artistic production, ranging from the ancient ivories and ingenious modern masks of the Arctic to the dramatic sculptural arts of the Pacific Northwest, the millennia-long tradition of abstract art in the Southwest, the refined basketry of California and the Great Basin, the famous beaded and painted works of the Plains, and the luminous styles of the Eastern Woodlands, including the Great Lakes.

Organized by the Fenimore Art Museum, Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection opened at the Cleveland Museum of Art in March 2010. Carol Robbins, The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Curator of the Arts of the Americas and the Pacific, is the curator of the Dallas presentation. Other venues on the national tour include the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (October 24, 2010–January 9, 2011) and, after Dallas, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana (December 4, 2011–February 12, 2012). A 120-page full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition, which has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.

© Text and image: Dallas Museum of Art

DOGON Exhibition at quai Branly

Exhibition: DOGON
Dates: 5 April to 24 July 2011

Opening times: Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday 11 to 19h, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11 to 21h

Place: Musée du quai Branly, 37 quai Branly, Paris (France)

Entrance fee:  7 €

Webpage: www.quaibranly.fr

About the exhibition:

The DOGON exhibition presents Dogon culture and art history from the 10th century until today through more than 330 exceptional pieces from international collections and presented together for the first time in France.

Dogon area (Mali) art ranks among the best known art created by African cultures. The art from the Dogon area is considered as one of the best known art created by African cultures. Along with the masterpieces that have brought fame to Dogon art, the exhibition presents cultural and daily life objects that reflect the metaphysical and aesthetic concerns of the populations who made them. The typology of these objects, made with various and complex techniques, has rarely been revealed in light of the main pieces of the statuary ensemble.

Over ten centuries of settlement history, of artistic and cultural influences are thus explored through a unique ensemble of essential masterpieces and unseen daily life objects that reflect the progressive settlement of Dogon area and the richness of its stylistic.

The exhibition created by the musée du quai Branly shows the whole force of sculptural art developed by the Dogon, whether made of wood or metal, or expressed in large impressive pieces or powerful small objects.

In the 2000 m2 Garden Gallery, the DOGON exhibition is set in three great thematic parts representing the culture and art history of the Dogon people through a variety of artistic outputs.

INTRODUCTION: DOGON MIGRATIONS, ORIGINS AND HISTORY

Recent historical research on West Africa has revealed that populations in various areas of the region were not isolated. Migration waves, caravan itineraries, long-distance commercial trade and exchanges with other Bandiagara peoples had left behind an intricate network of contacts long before the arrival of Europeans. This is how the Dogon peoples could benefit from assets brought about by neighbouring civilizations.

FIRST PART: STATUARY STYLES IN DOGON AREA

Beyond the apparent unity of a common identity built over the centuries, the statues in this part of the exhibition reveal the remarkable creativity of Dogon people and the great diversity of its artistic production. It explores the underlying complexity of Dogon area, falsely perceived as a cultural continuum.

Divided in different styles corresponding to diverse groups of people or geographical zones, 133 exceptional sculptures exemplify this wealth of diversity: Djennenke, N’Duleri, Tombo, Niongom and Tellem, Gogon-Mande, Tintam, Bombou Toro, Kambari, Komakan, and the styles of the Séno plain and escarpment.

Upon their arrival in the Bandiagara plateau, the Dogon encountered groups already living in the region and having developed a material culture.

In the cliff’s area, Tellem sculptures and textiles found in the sanctuaries coexist with Niongom and Mande Dogon art, while Djennenke sculptures in the North of the plateau and Tombo pieces in its centre derive from different migration waves.

SECOND PART: ANTHROPOLOGIST FASCINATION: PAINTINGS AND MASKS

In the West, the emerging interest for Dogon art, from the 1893 Bandiagara conquest onwards is, above all, a scientific pursuit, fully expressed by the Dakar-Djibouti Mission (1931-1933). This part of the exhibition explores the institutional methods used during the gathering of the first collections, which were the first step towards spreading knowledge on Dogon art in the West.

Two figures of the anthropological imagination, Louis Desplagnes and Marcel Griaule, exemplify how Dogon art captured European curiosity and taste.

* Rupestral paintings

In 1907, in his book entitled Le plateau central nigérien, Louis Desplagnes tells about how he started the very first research on Dogon area arts and cultures after an expedition in the Bandiagara region. He unveiled cave art, remarkable for the liveliness and energy of its expression. His collections were then handed to the ethnography Museum of the Trocadéro.

About twenty rupestral paintings are presented in this subsection.

* Masks

In Masques dogons (1938), Marcel Griaule introduces a very precise ethnographic typology.

Favoured research subject, the Dogon mask plays a role in laying the foundations of this specific ethnological practice. 35 Dogon masks recall the classification proposed in his book.

THIRD PART: VESSELS OF THE SACRED, COLLECTION ITEMS

Along with scientific endeavours and new field research missions, the fascination for Dogon objects and sculptures is increasing. Collectors are not only seeking statuary Dogon objects, but also unique objects. A 35-minutes montage of excerpts from Jean Rouch’s Dama d’Ambarra (1974) adds to the first part of this sequence.

The 140 objects exposed in the last section reveal that Dogon sculptors tend to express the original myth when creating daily life objects and architectural components such as jewels, bronze and iron objects, pulleys, doors, locks, seats, headrests, animal sculptures, altars, arches, cups and plates. They evoke the same magical and theological subjects as the sculptures displayed in the first part.

At the end of the itinerary, the Pillars of Togu Na, the “House of Words” –open-construction built at the centre of Dogon villages - lead to the musée du quai Branly’s Djennenke statue, essential masterpiece of Dogon area art.

© Text and image: www.quaibranly.fr

Angola, figures de pouvoir

Exhibition: Angola, figures de pouvoir

Dates: 10 November 2010 to 10 July 2011

Opening times: 11h to 19h every day except Tuesday

Place: Musée Dapper, 35 bis, rue Paul Valéry, Paris (France)

Entrance fee: 6 €

Webpage: www.dapper.com.fr 

About the exhibition:

The Musée Dapper exhibits France’s first major collection devoted to the arts of Angola. This exceptional event features around one hundred and forty works, including masks of different styles, statuettes of chiefs evoking the hunter hero Chibinda Ilunga, cult figures and insignia of dignity, impressive magico-religious artefacts and polychrome bas-reliefs.

Many works will be drawn from important public collections, not least :

Museu Nacional de Antropologia, Luanda

Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisbon

Museu Etnográfico, Sociedade de Geografia, Lisbon

Museu de História Natural, Faculdade de Ciências, Porto

Colecção do Museu Antropológico, Museu de História Natural da Universidade, Coimbra

Casa-Museu Teixeira Lopes, Vila Nova de Gaia

Museu Municipal Dr. Santos Rocha, Figueira da Foz _ Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren

Musée d'ethnographie, Geneva

Musée du quai Branly, Paris

Musée Dapper, Paris.

Other, similarly representative works, will be lent from private collections.

The space dedicated to contemporary art will present one of Angola's greatest artists, António Ole.

As a result of its rich diversity of peoples, Angola witnessed the development of myriad culture areas in which prestigious forms of court arts served to glorify the chiefs' political and spiritual power. The worship of ancestors and spirits also gave rise to sophisticated artistic practices, encouraged further by the initiation institutions that provided training for young girls and boys.

The masks, statuettes, emblems and numerous other artworks produced by the Chokwe, Kongo, Lwena, Lwimbi, Mwila and Ovimbundu, to cite the most well-known peoples, occupy a central place in Angolan arts.

This exhibition presents an astonishing repertoire of forms, which not only exemplify specific styles but also afford glimpses of borrowings and influences. Thus, while the masks carved from wood or made from other plant materials may have been designed, like the wooden cult figures, to fulfil a specific role and were unique to a particular group, they frequently hint at links between different peoples.

The most meaningful representations are often those in which several different registers are closely involved. As both figurative modes and symbolic systems are more or less explicitly informed by historical, political and religious fact, the pieces offer insights into a world of interplaying powers.

This selection is intended to be as representative as possible of the output of peoples who helped to build a truly exceptional artistic heritage.

This exhibition is sponsored by Total.

© Text and image: Musée Dapper

Musée Dapper - FR from musee dapper on Vimeo.

L’Africa delle meraviglie

Exhibition: L’Africa delle meraviglie

Dates: 31 December 2010 to 5 June 2011

Opening times: 9-19h Monday to Friday, 9-20h Saturday and Sunday

Place: Palazzo Ducale, Genova (Italy)

Entrance fee: 10 €

Webpage: www.africadellemeraviglie.it

About the exhibition:

Sottoporticato rooms at the Palazzo Ducale, once a stock of food, houses masks and fetishes in an architectural context in which today seems more like a cathedral than a deposit. It 's so great that in the first room with three aisles, including austere medieval pillars of dark stone, are placed African sculptures, presented in order to enhance the aesthetic dimension, taking the eye and the gaze of the art collector.

The collectors themselves do not appear here as mere providers but as one of the figures that mediate our relationship with Africa, collecting aesthetic creations and helping to shape our taste.

Through videos, household items and installations you can share the passion, travels and the experiences of those who live under the empire of the masks, that is to say the fan collectors of traditional African arts. Their stories tell us not only of their lives, often surprising, but also of the relation that Italy has had with the African lands, and of the imagination and reality that shapes our vision of Africa.

Looking at Africa through art is not the same thing as looking through the lens of the famine, tribal wars and humanitarian emergencies: there emerges a whole cultural and human richness.

© Text and image: Palazzo Ducale Genova

Arts d’Afrique, voir l’invisible

Exhibition: Arts d’Afrique, voir l’invisible
Dates: 23 March to 21 August 2011

Opening times: 11-18h, every day except Monday

Place: Musée d’Aquitaine, 20 cours Pasteur, Bordeaux (France)

Entrance fee: 5 €

Webpage: www.bordeaux.fr

About the exhibition:

By bringing together over 200 extraordinary works of art - the biggest ever presented to the public - from major European public and private collections, the Musée d'Aquitaine offers an original reading of African creativity. Its report to the invisible, revealing a unique world view, is essential to understand and discover the wealth of past and present cultures of the African continent.

These objects of extraordinary variety of shapes and functions, including the oldest dating from the 11th century (statue Soninke of Mali) and the production extended to the mid 20th century, are the direct operators of traditional authentic ceremonials, such as initiations (masks nature spirits, some with their ritual costumes), ancestor worship (protective statues, male or female honored on altars), magic or divination (fetishes defense or attack, the body charged with nails and "medicine"), that make them irreplaceable in African thought, as well as masterpieces of universal art.

© Text and image: Musée d’Aquitaine

Face 2 Face

Exhibition: Face 2 Face

Dates: 9 April – 28 May 2011

Opening times: 11-13h 14h-19h, Tuesday to Saturday

Place: Galerie Flak, 8, rue des Beaux Arts, Paris (France)

Entrance fee: Free

Webpage:  www.galerieflak.com

About the exhibition:

Ritual art and industrial objects.

Galerie Flak, established in 1990, is located 8 Rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris 6th arrondissement.

Galerie Flak Art Tribal specializes in ancient tribal art from Africa, Oceania & North America. We pride ourselves in dealing in museum quality pieces with prestigious provenances. The gallery closely works with the major ethnography museums around the world (Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Rietberg Museum in Zurich, museums in Tahiti, Taiwan, Jerusalem, etc.).

Galerie Flak is an official member of ATADA (the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association) and is the official representative of the association in Europe.

Julien Flak is a certified expert of the C.E.C.O.A. (The European Chamber Of Expert-Advisors In Fine Art)

Every year, Galerie Flak stages a major exhibition. The latest events include the following exhibitions and publications: Dogon in 1997, Ibeji in 2001, Kachina in 2003, Lobi in 2004, Mumuye in 2006, Face to Face, Secret Masks in 2007, Mossi Fertility Dolls, and Totems & Shamans in 2008, Ancient Arts of Papua New Guinea in 2009.

© Text and image: www.galerieflak.com

Buddhism across Asia

Exhibition: Images and sacred texts, Buddhism across Asia
Dates: 14 October 2010 – 3 April 2011

Opening times: Open daily 10.00–17.30. Open late* on Fridays until 20.30 (last entry 70 minutes before closing)

Place: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London (UK)

Entrance Fee: Free

About the exhibition:

Through sacred texts, painted scrolls and sculptures from Sri Lanka to Japan, discover the shared traditions of Buddhism – the ‘three gems’.

The exhibition features depictions of the ‘three gems’ from across Asia. The ‘three gems’ consist of the Buddha himself, his teachings (dharma), and the Buddhist community (sangha). Despite regional variations, the ‘three gems’ show remarkable similarities, sometimes across hundreds of years.

Objects featured in the exhibition include exquisite gold sculptures and paintings of the Buddha, beautiful Buddhist texts on palm leaf and paper, and a selection of images of Buddhist monks.

The objects come from across the whole of Asia, including India, China, Mongolia, Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Korea and Japan. The earliest objects are from the 1st–2nd century AD, and the latest date to the 20th century.

Many of these objects have never been on display before, making this is a unique opportunity to view rarely-seen items from the British Museum’s collection. Due to the fragility of the paintings and texts, some items in the display will be changed after three months, halfway through the exhibition run.

This exhibition provides an insight into the key elements which hold the Buddhist world together in Asia and, now that Buddhism is a worldwide faith, across the world as a whole.

Webpage: www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/buddhism_across_asia.aspx

© Text and image: British Museum

Afghanistan, Crossroads of the Ancient World

Exhibition: Afghanistan, Crossroads of the Ancient World
Dates: March 3 to July 3, 2011

Opening times: Open daily 10.00–17.30. Open late* on Fridays until 20.30 (last entry 70 minutes before closing)

Place: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London (UK)

Entrance Fee: £10

About the exhibition:

At the heart of the Silk Road, Afghanistan linked the great trading routes of ancient Iran, Central Asia, India and China, and the more distant cultures of Greece and Rome.

The country’s unique location resulted in a legacy of extraordinarily rare objects, which reveal its rich and diverse past.

Nearly lost during the years of civil war and later Taliban rule, these precious objects were bravely hidden in 1989 by officials from the National Museum of Afghanistan to save them from destruction.

The surviving treasures date from 2000 BC to the 1st century AD and include opulent gold ornaments found at a burial site of a nomadic tribe, to limestone sculptures of a Greek city set up by a former commander of Alexander the Great.

The first exhibition of its kind to be seen in the UK in 40 years, this is a unique opportunity to discover the story of Afghanistan’s ancient culture, its immense fragility, and the remarkable dedication shown to its survival and protection.

Webpage: www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/future_exhibitions/afghanistan.aspx

© Text and image: The British Museum

Threads of Africa

Exhibition: Threads from Africa
Dates: 3 February – 31 March 2011

Opening times: Mon – Sat 9h30-17h00

Place: Gold of Africa Barbier Mueller Museum, 96 Strand Street, Cape Town (South Africa)

Entrance fee: R30

Webpage:  www.threadsofafrica.com 

About the exhibition:

We invite you to view our first collection of bowls and bangles woven by talented weavers from the Thukela (Tugela) Valley in fine 18-carat gold, silver, copper, brass and shakudo wire.

A man in Australia had a dream. He dreamt of a golden bowl. A little bowl, hand-woven. He owned a copper wire bowl woven in the Thukela Valley, KwaZulu-Natal, and his engineering background and interest in metals set him thinking about strands of gold. Who were the weavers? Where did they obtain their wire?

There are difficulties in weaving with 18-carat gold wire, and the first little bowl was an experiment. It began in 2002, when Julia Meintjes was assembling an art collection for a Sydney-based company, RFC Corporate Finance, which offers investment and corporate advice in the resources, energy and industrial sectors. The company has clients in the South African mining industry, and when the MD, Rob Adamson, saw a woven copper bowl by an artist from Mdukatshani in the Thukela (Tugela) Valley, he asked whether a similar bowl could be made in gold wire. The commission was given to Mzonzima Dladla, and because of technical, creative and logistical challenges, it was more than two years before that first little gold bowl was completed.

Other bowls would follow, some in 18-carat gold, some combining gold with various coppers, silver, brass and shakudo. In 2008 the University of Stellenbosch commissioned a special edition of six bowls, which were presented to a select group of their donors - and the project was formally named Threads of Africa.

Nobody knows when the first gold wire was hammered into strips on the South African veld. A thousand years ago? In 1933 the first evidence of handmade gold wire was unearthed in graves at Mapungubwe, a rocky hilltop near the Limpopo River.

Now a world Heritage Site, Mapungubwe would yield spectacular finds of gold artefacts, including gold beans, gold foil, and the famous gold rhino. Gold wire anklets and bangles, however, were the most important from a technological point of view. The wire appears to have been hammered out by hand and then smoothed off with sand or stone, before being wound into a helix.

Who were the goldsmiths, and where did they find the gold? The answers have been elusive. Mapungubwe was briefly occupied between 1220 AD and 1290 AD, a period that was part of the Late Iron Age, when African metalsmiths were already skilled at the art of extracting metal from rock. They had little interest in gold, however. It was too soft for utility, and it had no song. It was copper and iron they were after. They needed iron for weapons and hoes, and copper was used for decoration. Copper was the “red gold” of Africa, the prestige metal, offered to the gods, and buried in the graves of Africa.

Early metallurgists worked with fire and, a thousand years before Mapungubwe was settled, forgotten men had been testing their minds on how to set fire to draw molten iron from rock. You can pick up the slag of their furnaces today. It lies on the surface of our modern landscapes, the scattered debris of ancient fires that mark the radical changes of the Early Iron Age. It was an age of innovation and settlement. By 300 AD a new way of life had spread from the Limpopo south into Natal, and the well-wooded valleys of the Thukela River. Almost every village had a smelting site, and there were shallow pits where village potters used fire to bake earthenware pots incised with pretty decorations.

There are still potters at work in Thukela valley today, digging into ant heaps to scrape shallow pits which are used as simple kilns for firing. The pots are made to order, or sold along the road on pension days – a local trade based on the need to use clay pots for beer in any ritual involving the amadlozi, or family spirits. Some of these potters supply the clay bowls which are used as moulds by the weavers of the Threads of Africa project.

Although wirework has been described as a ‘quintessentially Central and South African craft’ practiced by different tribal people over hundreds of years, there is no evidence of gold wire baskets or bowls in Africa’s archeological record.

© Text and image: www.threadsofafrica.com