Five essays on MASP – Arts from Africa Exposition collective

The exhibition brings together more than 40 works from the museum’s collection, mainly from the twentieth century, from West Africa. Curated by Amanda Carneiro, curator, MASP, and Leandro Muniz, assistant curator, MASP, they have selected pieces made of wood, especially those related to the body or its representation. The set includes statuettes of Exu and Xangô, everyday objects, dolls, drums, furniture and masks used in festivals, initiation rituals, celebrations or funerals. Although there have been other presentations of these works, this is the first exhibition that seeks to establish a critical and propositional reading of the museum’s African art collection.

The works come from 17 different cultures, mostly from West Africa, from groups such as the Guro, Senufo, and Baulê of present-day Ivory Coast; the Dogon and Bamana of Mali; the Mossi and Bobo of Burkina Faso; the Baga of Guinea; the Axante of Ghana; the Guere-Wobe of Liberia; the Hemba of Congo; the Mumuye, Ibibio, Igbo, and Yoruba of Nigeria; and a Chokwe piece from Angola.

In dialogue with the historical pieces, Brazilian artists biarritzzz (Fortaleza, Brazil, 1994) and Cipriano (Petrópolis, Brazil, 1981) address the legacies and transformations of African traditions in Brazilian culture in works commissioned for the museum. biarritzzz shows three videos: digital collages of fragments of the masks in the exhibition, accompanied by phrases questioning their presence in museum collections. The artist uses the language typical of social networks to convey ideas or make humorous criticisms, calling this resource “meme pedagogy.” Cipriano, meanwhile, presents two abstract paintings that superimpose chants from Afro-Brazilian religions linked to Bantu traditions, a linguistic root from Central Africa. One of the works refers to the Chokwe drum from Angola, which was added to the MASP collection in 2023.