Museum Abbey shows art from Africa

Liesborn (gl) – The Liesborn Abbey Museum is showing contemporary art from six African countries from September 19 to November 28 under the title “Spirit Africa”. You can see paintings, sculptures, objects and photography from the Kunst Transit Berlin collection.

According to the announcement, 45 works in the exhibition give an impression of art from Africa on the threshold of the 21st century. 15 artists from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Benin position themselves in a playful crossing of borders with different media, styles and forms. There are two characteristics that characterize contemporary art in Africa: It is part of the post-colonial situation of a continent in upheaval and positions itself idiosyncratically by self-confidently staging its political, social and religious frame of reference.

The legacy of colonialism and the experience of autocratic systems weigh on almost every country in Africa. Topics that artists like the artist Berry Bickle critically grapple with in the context of writing and language. Her early Assemblage Journal indirectly refers to the social climate that under the rule of Robert Mugabe made it increasingly difficult to breathe in her country of origin, Zimbabwe. As a reaction to oppression and suffering in his home country Uganda, the late John Yoga paints two major masterpieces: “Luwero Ghosts” and “Abstract”. In terms of title and formal language, it ties in with the notion of haunted by ghosts as well as with sculptural traditions in Africa, but defends itself against Western expectations that have long weighed heavily on contemporary art from Africa.