Ethnologisches Museum Berlin.

Over the last decades the acquisition policies of the African Department of this museum concentrated mainly on traditional African art. In the planned renovation of the permanent exhibition, which should be finished in five years, the focus will shift to contemporary works that reflect the present-day cultural situation in some African societies. Besides objects showing the consequences of globalization in everyday life, and the change in traditional handicrafts, a major theme of the new permanent exhibition will be contemporary art. A first step was taken last August with the integration of the "township wall," an installation by the Angolan artist Antonio Ole. This work reflects three decades of civil war and its effects on the Angolan population.

One consequence of the globalization process in Africa is the growing emigration to European countries. A number of African artists are living in African communities within European capitals like Paris or Berlin. This cultural contact between Europe and Africa, as well as African art produced in Europe as a part of this process, should be one topic of the museum's new exhibition, and of its acquisition policies as well.

Contemporary art from Africa covers a wide spectrum that includes works in a local art tradition, narrative painting such as Cheri Samba's which has roots in popular or commercial painting, and works which are oriented to mainstream modern art from North America and Europe. This wide range may be attributed to the different cultural forms found mainly within contemporary African urban centers. Exhibitions in ethnological museums tend to present more traditional or narrative arts, whereas modern art galleries choose arts that are more in the international mainstream. This division could be attributed to the background of curators, who on the one hand may be anthropologists without a particular education in art history, and, on the other, art historians who are educated in European or American art history. Focusing only on one side of the spectrum gives an erroneous impression of the cultural and artistic reality in African cities. A cooperative effort between art historians and anthropologists would be a more reasonable way to curate exhibitions of contemporary African art.

Peter Junge

Head, African Department

Ethnologisches Museum Berlin