The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection
Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou – Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France
from 18/05/1989 to 14/08/1989
[FR] Cette exposition s'est déroulée du 18 mai au 14 aout 1989 à Paris. L'objectif a été magique, celui de pouvoir offrir aux regard du visiteur des arts non occidentaux sur une scène mondialement connue de l'art contemporain.
La magie de cette exposition à Paris était de pouvoir présenter 101 artistes. Le cloisonnement de l'art contemporain a été sujet à certaines controverses et le dialogue interculturel a été très enrichissant.
Blog
[EN] exhibition held 18 May-14 August 1989 at the Centre Pompidou and La Grande Halle-La Villette, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin with the assistance of Jan Debbaut, Mark Francis, Jean-Louis Maubant, Aline Luque, André Magnin and Jacques Soulillou.
“An exhibition loved and hated in equal measure, Martin curated the show to address the fact that there were, as he put it, “one hundred percent of exhibitions ignoring 80 percent of the earth.” He attempted to engage critically with certain aspects of neo-colonial mentality in the West, particularly a resurgent interest in ‘primitivism,’ which Martin felt aestheticized exotic cultures without destablilizing western definitions of fine art, modernism, or identity. The exhibition included works by 100 artists (50 from the so called ‘West’ and 50 from the ‘margins’), attempting to show all on equal footing. The success of this attempt is still disputed and discussed in terms of the exhibition history of the past twenty-odd years, but it remains undeniable that the exhibition enacted an important break with some of the conventions of exhibition-making and strictly defined notions of modernism.
La magie de cette exposition à Paris était de pouvoir présenter 101 artistes. Le cloisonnement de l'art contemporain a été sujet à certaines controverses et le dialogue interculturel a été très enrichissant.
Blog
[EN] exhibition held 18 May-14 August 1989 at the Centre Pompidou and La Grande Halle-La Villette, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin with the assistance of Jan Debbaut, Mark Francis, Jean-Louis Maubant, Aline Luque, André Magnin and Jacques Soulillou.
“An exhibition loved and hated in equal measure, Martin curated the show to address the fact that there were, as he put it, “one hundred percent of exhibitions ignoring 80 percent of the earth.” He attempted to engage critically with certain aspects of neo-colonial mentality in the West, particularly a resurgent interest in ‘primitivism,’ which Martin felt aestheticized exotic cultures without destablilizing western definitions of fine art, modernism, or identity. The exhibition included works by 100 artists (50 from the so called ‘West’ and 50 from the ‘margins’), attempting to show all on equal footing. The success of this attempt is still disputed and discussed in terms of the exhibition history of the past twenty-odd years, but it remains undeniable that the exhibition enacted an important break with some of the conventions of exhibition-making and strictly defined notions of modernism.
Link to the exhibition website
