Hubert Maga (perruque MAVA-musée d'art de la vie active)

2010 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

60 x 50 x 23 cm

Meschac Gaba


The headdresses, woven from artificial hair braids, symbolize historical icons including Martin Luther King, Kwame Nkrumah, Fela Kuti and King Guézo of Dahomey. The wigs portraying these grand figures also unambiguously recall Africa to mind. By declaring Cotonou, one of Benin’s cities, the Art Museum of Real Life, and by having thirty white-clad figures wearing Gaba’s latest series of tresses cross through it, he draws attention to the urban space and its inhabitants’ strategies of survival and improvisation. In doing this, he enquires into alternative models, and into the tasks and local interpretations of the museum: “The micro-macro economy represents the survival of the inhabitants of this city day after day (…) In the city of Cotonou, you can see installations everywhere – it is like an open-air museum.” In this series Meschac Gaba weaves symbolic crowns that suggest a historical character, suggested through one of her or his realizations. Here in the case of former Beninese president Hubert Maga, the hairstyle headdress is woven in the form of a hospital that was built during his reign and was named after him. The forms and styles of braided hairstyles range from purely functional to complex and symbolic: hair can be an indicator of age, authority, social status, religion or even supernatural powers. In cities across Europe and the Americas, African hair braiders produce extravagant creations based on their traditional braiding skills and styles, uniting capitalist commerce with traditional culture. In Gaba´s work, two seemingly divergent products of humankind, hair and architecture, meet as equally significant symbols of modern culture. In making this work, Gaba assumes the role of the nouveau tresseur or tresseuse (the new braider), a traditional Beninese hair braider, reassigning meaning to architectural forms and cultural experiences.


born in 1961 in Cotonou, Benin. He lives and works between Cotonou and Rotterdam Over the past 20 years, through various bodies of works, Beninese artist Meshac Gaba has attempted to reframe contemporary African artistic identity, asking us to shed our preconceived ideas and re-imagine the African continent with a more valid contemporary image. Meschac Gaba emerged onto the international contemporary art scene in 1999 when he presented the Museum of Contemporary African Art in the exhibition “Mirror’s Edge” at Bilmuseet in Umea, Sweden. It marked the beginning of an expansive conceptual and virtual project based on the subjectivity of museum spaces. Twelve installations constitute his imagined Museum of Contemporary African Art (MCAA), originally created in 1997 and shown individually at other international institutions or events since then. Confronted with one’s cultural centrality, the spectator is asked to reconsider his viewpoint of memory and history. Gaba’s complex and varied artistic practice provides an in-depth examination of cultural appropriation, public space, the role of the western museum, and the changing global economy. His appropriation of tourist imagery –from cinema and souvenirs to magazines and museums– allows the viewer to deconstruct the western iconography and disturb modes of representation in contemporary art.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Christopher Bales Brings Sculptures to La Luz de Jesus
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

The mixed-media assemblages of Christopher Bales come to La Luz de Jesus Gallery for a new show next month...

The Dark Surrealist Paintings of Fred Laverne
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Tattoo artist, painter, and sculptor Fred Laverne has a dark surrealist sensibility, blending in odes to pop culture and pulp tropes into his work...

Abraham Cruzvillegas Part 3
© » KADIST

This interview with Abraham Cruzvillegas takes place in Mexico City, D...

Press Release: Art21 Hosts Its Inaugural “Art21 at the Movies” A Fusion of Film and Contemporary Art
© » ART21

Press Release: Art21 Hosts Its Inaugural “Art21 at the Movies” A Fusion of Film and Contemporary Art | Art21 Our Series Art in the Twenty-First Century Extended Play New York Close Up Artist to Artist William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible Specials Art21.live An always-on video channel featuring programming hand selected by Art21 Playlists Curated by Art21 staff, with guest contributions from artists, educators, and more Art21 Library Explore over 700 videos from Art21's television and digital series Latest Video 7:29 Add to watchlist Interrupting the Broadcast Paul Pfeiffer Extended Play October 4, 2023 Search Searching Art21… Welcome to your watchlist Look for the plus icon next to videos throughout the site to add them here...

A Blank Slate
© » KADIST

Sara Eliassen

2014

Sara Eliassen’s video work A Blank Slate (2014) employs cinematic effect to investigate the relationships between subjectivity, gaze, and memory...

Iris Tingitana Oxalis
© » KADIST

Yto Barrada

2007

This photograph is part of the series titled “Iris Tingitana project” (2007) focusing on the disappearance of the iris...

Memoirs or Moe Satt's Memoirs
© » KADIST

KADIST presents Memoirs or Moe Satt’s Memoirs , a solo exhibition by visual and performance artist Moe Satt...

Character Witness
© » KADIST

Nicoline van Harskamp

2008

The work is a speech composed of excerpts from autobiographies of well-known political characters...

144540
© » KADIST

Yosuke Takeda

2014

Yosuke Takeda gives the viewer brightly colored views, each of which he has searched out and patiently waited for...

Chosen Boys
© » KADIST

Harit Srikhao

Young men are often found together in uniform, already influenced by ideology and bodily and style stereotypes...

Vernissage : Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver
© » SLASH PARIS

Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver — L’ahah Griset — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver — L’ahah Griset — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver Exposition Dessin, edition, film, installations.....

Kohler Heiress's Foundation Announces Inaugural Grants for Non-Profit Cultural Organisations - via The Art Newspaper
© » LARRY'S LIST

The grant-making initiative was launched with a $440m bequest from the late vernacular art collector and patron Ruth DeYoung Kohler...

Opening : Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver
© » SLASH PARIS

Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver — L’ahah Griset — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver — L’ahah Griset — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Chambre à brouillard — Juliette Agnel, Clément Bagot, Nicolas Darrot, Youcef Korichi, Alyssa Verbizh, Anne-Charlotte Yver Exhibition Drawing, publishing, film, installation.....

Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape, Mobilis Alkebulan
© » KADIST

Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape (aka Mo Laudi), Mobilis Alkebulan, performance, KADIST, Paris, 2021 What is the role of the artist if it’s not to make the revolution irresistible, to make hearts and minds vibrate to a higher frequency? Music, as sound, knows no borders; it is a form that crosses invisible borders created by humans to separate races, classes, cultures, sexes...

With Nobody To Impress Companies Are Quietly Selling Their Art Collections - via Forbes
© » LARRY'S LIST

Little by little businesses, and especially banks, are silently getting rid of art collections built up over many years....

Memoirs or Moe Satt's Memoirs
© » KADIST

KADIST presents Memoirs or Moe Satt’s Memoirs , a solo exhibition by visual and performance artist Moe Satt...

Join Our Curatorial Fellows for Talks on Paño Arte, Indigenous Print Design, and More
© » HYPERALLERGIC

Join Our Curatorial Fellows for Talks on Paño Arte, Indigenous Print Design, and More Skip to content From reframing how the art world sees art made in prison to Indigenous print design, we’re excited to share what our five curatorial fellows have been working on over the past several months...

Moser & Schwinger
© » KADIST

Thursday 4 March 2010 at 7pm at Kadist Art Foundation...

Turtle Walk
© » KADIST

Sora Kim

2010

Turtle Walk is a video installation that documents two performers carrying large white disks on their backs as they walk through the urban environment of Seoul...

Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2
© » SLASH PARIS

Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 — Galerie Analix Forever — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 — Galerie Analix Forever — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Guillaume Chamahian — Détritique 2 Exposition Photographie, techniques mixtes, vidéo À venir Guillaume Chamahian, Le baiser, 2023 Impression sur plaque de grès Guillaume Chamahian Détritique 2 Dans 2 jours : Mercredi 20 décembre 2023 15:00 → 21:00 Artiste du réel, de ses représentations, traitements et retraitements, Guillaume Chamahian travaille à la croisée de la photographie documentaire, de l’art conceptuel, de la dénonciation politique et l’art d’investigation...