The Courier

For the first time the Pigozzi’s collection, one of the most important collection of contemporary African artworks, is exposed in Italy!

The collection started in 1989 thanks to Jean Pigozzi and André Magnin, curator of the exhibition “Les Magiciens de la Terre”, which at that time was held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and contributed to the international acknowledgement of artists he discovered, inserted in the collection and promoted internationally.

The exhibition, which includes 16 artists and about one hundred artworks, shows very famous artworks and some classics, in a selection which perfectly reflects the strong identity of Magnin’s choices: a taste for self-taught artists operating in big town of the sub-Saharan Africa where artists usually tend to use the same techniques, styles and topics for which they have been initially appreciated and which allow them to build a strong recognizability, which enforces the placement in the market. These artworks have a strong political content clearly visible in figurative representations, sometimes even written, as in the paintings by Chéri Samba and in postcards by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré.

In the presentation texts the promoters say that these works show how contemporary African art goes over post-colonial folkloristic and decorative art and gets in relation with western art developing a personal and autonomous language. Most of their figurative works, inspired by current events, are expression of a reality, which is local and global at the same time.

Actually, it must be said that the approaches of some anglo-afro-american curators have opposed the taste for “primitive” and “caricatural” styles, for usage of recycled materials, for references – more or less ironic – to traditional culture; this is the case of Clémentine Deliss in “Africa95”, Okwui Enwezor in the Johannesburg Biennale ’97, Salan Hassan and Olu Oguibe in “Autentic-ex-centric” in Venice Biennale 2001, exhibitions where more international languages, as video-installation and performance, were thought in order to reach artists of the diaspora and to show an anti-colonialist approach.
André Magnin states that “the most recurrent theme of the works exposed is the deep bond with the territory to which the artists direct their attention proposing a personal experience of reality; this is therefore an “inclusive” art, rooted in the present and past history, counter to each form of racial division.

An art that comes from the people, that is addressed to the people and that go back to the people.” And from our point of view in this characteristic lies the market and critics success of the popular style of authors as Chéri Samba or Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Malick Sidibé and Kingelez. These artists are in fact perfectly capable of dialoguing, in a profitable way, with art dealers and collectors. They are not placed in a vanguard space, a space of conceptual challenge, with a renewed language, but they have coherently gone through their ways, criticising and expressing African typical problems that are “passed”, thanks to their inclusion in international exposition. The statement of the curator Magnin confirms that the question about the identity of African contemporary art continues to be the main issue of these exhibitions. Hence, each exhibition seems to restart every time from the beginning, from the need to define the legitimacy of its existence. Are we still obliged to make statement like “a big continent that has an unexpected identity and richness” or “what’s the meaning of African art?”? Does it make sense, even after many exhibitions in the best showrooms all over the world, after biennals and collective exhibitions, now that various African artists are extremely powerful within the international market?

Why do we always have to question “Why Africa”?

We can start from the answers, which are much more interesting. Curators, art historians, anthropologists and diplomatic representatives who have worked with African artists during these years, have answered from time to time to these questions, contributing, with their different positions, to the creation of a multifaceted and polyphonic image of African contemporary art.

The stories of the exhibition’s artists are success stories: the seventy-two years old photographer Malick Sidibé won the Golden Lion for his career at the 52nd Venice Biennal; Romuald Azoumé was awarded at Documenta 12; Kingalez’s works have very high quotations. In the African countries it doesn’t exist a normal “system” of contemporary art with a certain number of qualified galleries that represent a sort of guarantee both for artists, regarding their promotion and profits, and for buyers, regarding the originality and quotation of the works.

Within this context, Magnin has had the merit to discover a certain number of artists, who have seen their condition changed thanks to their inclusion in the collection: from artists who operated just for tourists and a small market within the embassies (condition in which a lot of other artist are still remained), to artists who have now a powerful position and a great importance due to their presence in museums, international collections and within the art market. The situation of relative anarchy in which some authors have affirmed their position has brought violent contentions and legal problems with respect to the authenticity of the works of already dead artists like Seidou Keyta and Jorges Lilanga. On the one hand, in fact, Magnin, has had a privileged relationship with these artists, but on the other hand, other curators and associations have claimed the authenticity of the works.

After many years of passionate discussion about the identity of African contemporary art, it now seems more important to reason and work on the art system and market and on the cultural industry; in this context in fact the art collection’s theme seems to be crucial. To do this, the collection of Giovanni and Marella Agnelly, which has brought to Italy a portrait of what it is the most important private collection of contemporary African art, seems to be a good starting point.

WHY AFRICA? The Pigozzi’s collection
6th October 2007– 3rd February 2008
Lingotto – Giovanni and Marella Agnelli’s picture gallery
Torino, Italy