“This exhibition is a way of showing that this work, this imagination, this creativity, has been around for a very, very long time,’’ Lokko said. Okwui Enwezor, the late Nigerian art critic and museum director, was the first African to head the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair, which alternates years with the architectural show, in 2015. The lion, native to Africa and for centuries a symbol of Venice, serves as a reminder of how deeply cultural appropriation runs. Inside, Adjaye’s studio exhibits architectural models created “outside the dominant canon,” like the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in South Africa that takes inspiration from pre-colonial buildings. This new global Africa he imagines is flattened, at the expense of local traditions.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 20, 2023 22:44 UTC