It may be a challenge to read Dante's masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, but this great philosophical poem recounting the journey of its protagonist through the realms of the Otherworld remains a fascinating, engaging and inspiring work with political, elegiac, humorous and ironic undertones. It seems only apt then to employ Dante's work as the starting point for an exhibition like the one currently on at the SCAD Museum of Art.
Entitled "The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists" and organised by internationally acclaimed independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist Simon Njami (co-founder and editor-in-chief of cultural magazine Revue Noire), the event could be considered as a visual reinterpretation of Dante's tour of the cosmos and the moral universe it embodies.
Over 40 contemporary artists from 19 African countries and the African diaspora explore thematic sequences of Dante Alighieri's epic poem through a variety of media.
The event was originally presented by the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt/Main (MMK) in Frankfurt, Germany, and this is the first U.S. showcase of this travelling exhibition.
The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art presentation of the exhibition actually includes also works that were not shown in Germany, but the best thing about this event is not just the different means chosen by the artists (almost a reminder to the visitor that Dante turned to a wide range of disciplines - including science, philosophy and theology - while writing his poem), but the way the main themes and meanings of Dante's poem transcend Western traditions and can be applied to explore contemporary culture and issues such as life and death.
Works on display include neon installations by Kendell Geers, an artist who has explored and strongly opposed the apartheid system since the early days of his career; "Prism 10" by Wim Botha, a sort of futuristic and parametric reinterpretation of the statue of Laocoön and His Sons; books by Cameroonian artist Bili Bidjocka, part of his "L'écriture infinie" collection of handwritten volumes, a reaction to new technologies pushing our writing systems towards extinction; "Repair Analysis" by Kader Attia, broken mirrors that the artist stitched back together as metaphors for wounds and fractures that shouldn't be hidden or denied; large-scale intricate works on paper by printmaker Christine Beatrice Dixie and an outdoor calligraphy garden by Egyptian multimedia artist Moataz Nasr.
Photography fans will be spellbound by the hand-coloured gelatin silver prints by Egyptian photographer Youssef Nabil who has been influenced by and has worked for David LaChapelle and Mario Testino; by the visual compositions of Ethiopian photographer and artist Aida Muluneh who presents beautifully arranged compositions in vivid colours, while they will be able to question key life issues and themes via Kiluanji Kia Henda's powerful images.
Some of the artists involved employ materials that could be linked to fashion: Yinka Shonibare's headless gentlemen are clad in Dutch wax fabrics; Nicholas Hlobo uses elements such as rubber, leather and ribbons to create abstract sculptures characterised by a tactile quality; Frances Goodman - more famous for her "Vajazzling Series" and sculptures made with false nails - explores instead social interactions and everyday routines via an immersive sound installation that incorporates bridal fabrics cascading from the ceiling.
Wangechi Mutu, who usually tackles cultural identity, colonial history, fashion and contemporary African politics piecing together images cut out from magazines with painted surfaces and found materials, used a mass of synthetic hair erupting from the body of a mysterious creature in her work "The storm has finally made it out of me Alhamdulillah"; in Zoulikha Bouabdellah's "Silence" the artist looks instead at a woman's relation to Islam. The piece consists in prayer mats with circular openings and a pair of high-heeled pumps resting on them, referencing limits, boundaries and the edges between the sacred and the profane, and therefore hinting at the position of Muslim women at the threshold of these two worlds.
The Divine Comedy continues to have even in our days a universal appeal: through it Dante commented on the political, economic and social developments of his times blending poetry and philosophy, religion and allegory, symbolism and metaphysical truths in a universal message. These artists do exactly the same, comforting, scaring or making the visitors smile, laugh and cry, providing joy and strength or afflicting us with more doubts and fears.
The exhibition will travel to the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view in April 2015. As the seventh centennial of Dante's death will take place in September 2021, it would be interesting to see if it this travelling event could be stretched for a few more years to continue the discourse and the narrative thread of Dante's cosmic and historical drama of the world.
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists @ The SCAD Museum of Art, 601 Turner Blvd., Savannah, Georgia, until 25th January 2015. Featuring: Jane Alexander (South Africa); Ghada Amer (Egypt); Joël Andrianomearisoa (Madagascar); Kader Attia (France); Bili Bidjocka (Cameroon); Wim Botha (South Africa); Zoulikha Bouabdellah (Russia); Mohamed Bourouissa (Algeria); Edson Chagas (Angola); Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe); Christine Beatrice Dixie (South Africa); Dimitri Fagbohoun (Benin); Franck Abd-Bakar Fanny (Ivory Coast); Jellel Gasteli (Tunisia); Kendell Geers (South Africa); Frances Goodman (South Africa); Nicholas Hlobo (South Africa); Mouna Karray (Tunisia); Amal Kenawy (Egypt); Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola); Jems Robert Koko Bi (Ivory Coast); Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali); Ndary Lo (Senegal); Ato Malinda (Kenya); Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon); Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia); Myriam Mihindou (Gabon); Nandipha Mntambo (Swaziland); Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopia); Hassan Musa (Sudan); Wangechi Mutu (Kenya); Mwangi Hutter (Kenya, Germany); Youssef Nabil (Egypt); Lamia Naji (Marocco); Moataz Nasr (Egypt); Cheikh Niass (Senegal); Maurice Pefura (France); Zineb Sedira (France); Yinka Shonibare, MBE (England, Nigeria); Guy Tillim (South Africa); Andrew Tshabangu (South Africa); Minnette Vári (South Africa)
Image credits for this post
Aida Muluneh, The 99 Series, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.
Yinka Shonibare, How to Blow Up Two Heads at Once (Gentlemen), 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Colecçõ Sindika Dokolo, Luanda.
Wim Botha, Prism 10 (Dead Laocoön), 2013. Courtesy of the artist and the Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.
Wangechi Mutu, The storm has finally made it out of me Alhamdulillah, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects; Photo credit: Robert Wedemeyer.
Nicholas Hlobo, Tyaphaka, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and the Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.
Kiluanji Kia Henda, Othello's Fate, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Nuno de Lima Pimentel Collection.
Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Silence, 2008-2014. Courtesy of artist.
Kader Attia, Repair Analysis, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments