Africa in Herzliya
Photo: El Anatsui
Herzliya Museum honors African art
'A Collective Diary: An African Contemporary Journey' exhibit to host 12 modern African artists
The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art will host a new exhibit honoring African art beginning January 9.
The exhibit, titled: "A Collective Diary: An African Contemporary Journey", includes photos, video art, sculptures, collages, and paintings by 12 modern artists from sub-Saharan Africa.
Picture by William Adjete Wilson
The inspiration for the exhibit comes from the "Africa Remix" exhibit at Dusseldorf's Museum Kunst Palast, which displayed the works of 88 African artists. Some of these works will also appear in Herzliya.
Many of the works are aimed at giving the viewer a taste of the African "I" within the globalized, modern world. The artists handle many difficult questions such as identity and belonging, especially the national, familial and individual aspects of these issues.
Work by Zwelethu Mtetwa
The curator of the original Dusseldorf exhibit as well as the one in Herzliya, Simon Njami, explained the show:
"Through this kaleidoscope, (the show) intends to remind the audience that there is no such a thing as an African. There are individuals, with their dreams and anger, theirs hopes and struggles. Each of them represents a world in itself and, by seeing them all together, maybe we shall be able to grasp, if not the definition, at least the essence of what a contemporary African artist could be: an artist like any other one, but whose story is yet to be told."
An additional exhibit, hosted by Comme il Faut in Tel Aviv, will display privately the works of two of the African artists displayed in Herzliya – Ingrid Mwangi Robert Hutter and Joel Andrianomearisoa.
