The Gallery presents the contemporary African art exhibition Tanzania VS Congo curated by Massimiliano del Ninno with George Lilanga, Maurus Mikael Malikita, M. Charinda, M.sagula, (Tanzania) Cheri Cherin, Cheick Ledy, Jean Paul Mika (Congo).
When it comes to African art there is a general tendency to standardize it into a unique way of making art disregarding the vastness and diversity of styles and artistic techniques specific to each country, the exhibition Tanzania VS Congo is therefore not meant to be a clash, but on the contrary a cross-cultural confrontation between two sub-Saharan African states.
Contemporary African art entered the international scene with the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre an exhibition organized at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1989 and curated by Jean-Hubert Martin. The exhibition brought contemporary African art into the limelight for the first time, equated in glamour and importance with the other four continents involved in the project. From this burst of energy, a real cultural debate on African art developed, stimulating research into the knowledge of contemporary artists living in Africa, an identity and autonomy of thought that profoundly enriched the international art scene.
The artists of Tanzania VS Congo represent in their specificity and singularity their country, have left aside the Western aesthetic tendencies that have been raging in African academies since the colonial era, and have developed their own personal and free model.
For Tanzania, the leader is Edward Saidi Tingatinga who invented a very colorful spontaneous genre used to illustrate the local flora and fauna and which would be taken up with autonomous characteristics by Maurus Mikael Malikita and Charinda.
Undoubtedly, however, it is George Lilanga who is the most successful artist internationally and who by reworking the Makonde tradition and learning the drawing techniques of the Tingatinga school has created a unique style. Of the traditional Makonde sculptures he takes up the sense of humor and caricature, the expression of a mythical imagery, of a tortured world inhabited by good and bad spirits, they are the Shetani ironically evil figures who mingle with the villagers interacting with their everyday life .
Undoubtedly, however, it is George Lilanga who is the most successful artist internationally and who by reworking the Makonde tradition and learning the drawing techniques of the Tingatinga school has created a unique style. Of the traditional Makonde sculptures he takes up the sense of humor and caricature, the expression of a mythical imagery, of a tortured world inhabited by good and bad spirits, they are the Shetani ironically evil figures who mingle with the villagers interacting with their everyday life .
On the opposite side we find an entirely different artistic language, the Congo ravaged by wars and internal power struggles is skillfully illustrated by one of the founding fathers of the Congolese School of Popular Painting, Cheri Cherin who together with Cheri Samba, Bodo, Moke and Cheïk Ledy communicate with their very colorful figurative style the social and political dramas that afflict their country not neglecting the international political situation.