THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA

“Here rests in God my dear n***, Chim Bebe, deceased 1912 at the age of 26 years.” This epitaph on the gravestone of a man born in the West African colony of Togo at the old cemetery in Saarlouis illustrates just how close Africa is to Germany, also here in Saarland.

Although North Africa already served as the breadbasket to the Roman Empire and numerous independent kingdoms subsequently emerged, the size of the African continent as a whole has been systematically underrepresented on world maps since the time of Mercator. To this day, its geographical scale and global historical significance have been underestimated, despite its prehistoric role as the cradle of humanity.

Besides all this THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA also refers to the mostly forced migration of Africans across the globe, with far-reaching consequences to this day.

Exactly 140 years ago, in November 1884, the Berlin Conference was opened, which divided up Africa among the colonial powers without any African participation: Reason enough to take a different look in 2024 at this huge continent and the people who come from it. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA tests approaches that identify traditions of thought, prejudices and stereotypes and enable new perspectives - by means of cultural history and contemporary art, through constant changes of perspective and artistic polyphony.

While a MUSEUM OF MEMORABILITY reflects on Africa's past and present from the perspective of colonial Europe, African sculptures and objects from private collections in Saarland enter into a dialogue with the machines and flywheels of the historic blower hall. The central idea of this exhibition structure is a methodical reversal of perspective. Industrial modernity, which has repeatedly darkened Europe, meets a multifaceted, illuminating African culture. Major artworks from recent decades are paired with sound and spatial installations realised especially for the show by artists from Africa and the global diaspora. This generates a dense network of impressions and modes of perception that, ideally, enables a sustained and multi-layered encounter with THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA in its past, present and future.

Invited artists include John Akomfrah (Accra, Ghana / London, England), James Gregory Atkinson (Frankfurt, Germany / Seattle, USA), Kader Attia (Algiers, Algeria / Berlin, Germany), Sammy Baloji (Lubumbashi, RD Congo  / Brussels, Belgium), Arébénor Basséne (Dakar, Senegal), Memory Biwa (Windhoek, Namibia), CATPC (Lusanga, DR Congo), Omar Victor Diop (Dakar, Senegal / Paris, France), William Kentridge (Johannesburg, South Africa), Kongo Astronauts (Kinshasa, DR Congo), Roméo Mivekannin (Bouaké, Ivory Coast / Toulouse, France), Zanele Muholi (Kapstadt, South Africa / Umlazi, South Africa), Josèfa Ntjam (Metz, France), Kaloki Nyamai (Nairobi, Kenya), Emeka Ogboh (Lagos, Nigeria / Berlin, Germany), Thomas J. Price (London, England), Zineb Sedira (Algiers, Algeria / Paris, France / London, England), Sandra Seghir (Lomé, Togo / Dakar, Senegal), Yinka Shonibare (London, England), The Singh Twins (Richmond, England) and Géraldine Tobe (Kinshasa, DR Congo).

A richly illustrated catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, edited by Ralf Beil, Markus Messling and Christiane Solte-Gresser, with contributions from Ralf Beil, Elara Bertho, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Till Förster, Franck Hofmann, Nadia Yala Kisukidi and Christiane Solte-Gresser, source texts from Teju Cole to Binyavanga Wainaina as well as text-image inserts on all the artists in the exhibition.

In cooperation with the Käte Hamburger Research Centre for Cultural Practices of Reparation (CURE) at Saarland University, Saarbrücken.