an unusual journey through African identities

This exhibition takes us on an unusual journey, of great interest: a journey through time and through various human spaces. Focuses on representations of the head in Central and West Africa, with about 300 pieces, dating from the 6th century BC. C. until the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Additionally, an important set of documents and books are presented in several showcases that help us contextualize what we see. The title, metamorphosis of beingIt is an excellent synthesis of what we can observe, of the differences, modifications and changes in the representations of humanity in cultural contexts very distant from ours.

The curation is shared by a renowned Belgian anthropologist and art historian, Francisco Neytand Spanish art critic and theorist Sergio Rubira. This is a subject of great importance, as anthropology and history were able to accurately locate the functions and meanings of the selected pieces, and from a current artistic vision the presentation was excellently articulated.

Synthesizing a geographical and historical perspective, the exhibition is organized into three sections: Nigeria and Cameroon, West Africa and Central Africa, with the great diversity of ethnic groups that are located in these geographic areas. The core is the representation of various identities with figurations of bodies and masks, giving special emphasis to the head. Most of what we see are medium or small-format sculptural pieces made with the most diverse material supports: terracotta, bronze, wood, stone and plant fibers.

What these representations correct are identity guidelines, differentiating the masculine and the feminine, as well as a whole diversity of beliefs whose meaning, inscribed in the pieces, was raised and shared in rituals and daily activities. The use of masks was very important, most often used by men, but also by women, especially in initiation rituals. We can also see in some pieces how the feminine was associated with motherhood and, in one specific case, the “fertility dolls”, women used them from childhood until they became mothers.

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Some are also present animal traits, also used to establish identities and roles in human groups: the antelope's horns, the head of a feathered bird, or the head of a bull. The small altars, the miniatures with their transportable nature and a small selection of combs and combs that document a social and aesthetic tradition attract attention due to their synthetic nature.

The pieces collected, with their specific character and meaning, transport us to different contexts of African cultures and traditions where what we today call art had no presence.

Well, all this we see, where and how is it located? Of course, the pieces gathered have great relevance and expressive intensity, but can they be placed in art, speaking of “African art”, as it is quite common to say? In my opinion, no. The pieces gathered in the exhibition, with their specific character and meaning, transport us to different contexts of African cultures and traditions where what we today call art had no presence.

The first step that must be taken to delve into what is before our eyes is that We are not in what is sometimes described without further ado as “African art.”. What we today call art, articulating the plural scope of the various artistic disciplines, emerged as a cultural discovery in ancient Greece, whose beginnings can be placed around the 5th-4th centuries BC. C., when a deep connection was established between words, sounds and visual representations, expressed with the formula “téchne mimetiké”, which literally meant the ability or knowledge of sensitive representation.

Subsequent translations of mimesis as imitation, from the Latin term, have been highly reductive. Because what the concept of sensitive representation leads us to is a different plane from the pragmatic or theoretical one that also opened up in that cultural context such as philosophy-science. What is decisive is that sensible representation was considered a way to acquire knowledge and pleasure through the elaboration and transmission of forms in their different sensitive and conceptual planes. This paved the way for what we still call art today, with all its intensity and variety…

Obviously, although the pieces collected are not in their origin and conception exactly works of art, what we can do is approach them with our artistic vision, configured over time and in cultural contexts so different from those where these pieces were produced. And the truth is that with that look of attention and dialogue what emerges is the breath of beautysomething decisive on a broader human level than that of art, and which has an excellent level in these representations of African identities.

With all this, with the deep intensity From these African variations around the metamorphoses of being, arises the need to value and care for all expressions of the great diversity of traditions of sensitive representation that is one of the central roots of the extraordinary multiple richness of humanity's cultural heritage. Excellent exhibition, don't miss it.

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