EDITO
3 questions for… Didier Claes
INTERVIEW
How do you explain the growing interest in African art? D.C.: The market has evolved considerably in the last decade. With the first major public sales of African art, for example the sale of the Hubert Goldet collection in 2001, works reached heights sometimes going over the million-euro mark, which was something completely new. Next, let’s not forget that the major auction houses would traditionally organise their sales in Amsterdam, London or New York. Now, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each hold two African-art sales per year in Paris. Fairs such as the Parcours des Mondes or the BRUNEAG, its Brussels twin, have also expanded. But the main triggering phenomenon was the inauguration of the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, a great step for the acceptance of this art. For dealers, the role of these institutions is primordial as they enable offering a less ethnographic view of these collections; the public would now see an African-art object as it would see a painting. And we hope to obtain the same impact in Belgium with the reopening of Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, scheduled for June 2017. What role does BRAFA play in this context? D.C.: BRAFA is uncontestably now the generalist fair with the highest number of African-art dealers in the world. This year, there are around ten of us. In comparison, there were only five of us at the last edition. The only thing we need is a gallery to gather the world’s best in African-art dealers at BRAFA! Big names are present, such as Monbrison, Bernard Dulon and Schoffel de Fabry. Bernard de Grunne, who is no longer just taking part in Maastricht, is making a comeback. We intentionally work with a European clientele. This is a choice that we make wilfully, and my view is that 70 % of this market’s collectors and main players come to BRAFA to meet high-level dealers. It’s a great success. Personally, BRAFA is my best fair of the year, the one at which I work the best and also the one at which I meet the most people. Traditional art, tribal art, early art… How would you define the vast field of African arts today? D.C.: This is always a bothersome question. We’ve also spoken about Negro art, primitive art… Behind each denomination, there is an era, a political vision. Personally, I speak about classic African art, a simple notion on which all agree. This issue is related to the history of the arrival of objects in Europe. The first were souvenirs brought back by explorers. Next, from 1870 to 1920, the colonial administration and the army confiscated them to put an end to rites. The Jesuits in particular wanted to eradicate beliefs by collecting most of the pieces, which went into museums or were sold. Starting from the 1950s, against the backdrop of independence and wars, as in Nigeria and Congo, a whole wave of dealers and enthusiasts ventured to Africa. This was the era of traveling dealers whose techniques were not always, it should be said, very above board, and who were ready to do anything to organise the massive exit of the last great pieces up to the 1970s. Ever since, the market has been organised around objects already in collections. Today, dealers are no longer really familiar with the field. Thanks to my father, I had the chance to experience the emotion of the bush and these discoveries, but I stopped because I realised that there were no longer any ancient pieces on the spot. 98 % of African cultural heritage is no longer in Africa. A certain elite originating from the continent is interested in its heritage but it will take years to build up collections. This is goes for Europe as much it goes for Africa.
SHOW Ancestors & Rituals Curator: Daud Tanudirjo Advisors: Pieter ter Keurs, Francine Brinkgreve An immense archipelago of more than 13,000 islands spanning no less than 5,000 kilometres from east to west, Indonesia has nearly 255 million inhabitants, 300 ethnic groups and more than 700 languages. These figures alone give an idea of the diversity of this country and the variety of cultures composing it. Nevertheless, the majority of these cultures share one thing in common: the importance they ascribe to ancestors. From Sumatra to Papua, via Java, Borneo and Sulawesi, to the tiny Lesser Sunda and Maluku Islands: ancestors played and often still play a leading role in Indonesia. Whether genealogical or mythical, ancestors fulfil three crucial functions relating to the past, present and future. The first function of ancestors is to serve as a direct link between Indonesians and their past, allowing the living to claim a place within a lineage and thus define their status and social position. Next, ancestors are the guarantors of a social harmony and through their support and protection ensure a harmonious present. Finally, they are the source of fertility and assure the future of peoples and cultures. The exhibition Ancestors & Rituals also focuses on exchanges with other cultures and religions down the centuries that have influenced the arts, identities, and even the worldview of Indonesians. Most of the cultures of the archipelago find their roots in Austronesian culture, brought by migratory peoples who left Taiwan more than 5,000 years ago. The splendid Dong Son culture of North Vietnam, known for its mastery of bronze, was also influential. Trade was often the source of these exchanges. In the 5th and 6th centuries, Indian merchants, monks and traveling students introduced Buddhism and Hinduism to Sumatra and Java. The famous temples of Borobudur and Prambanan testify to the importance these two religions quickly gained on Indonesian territory. Trade also brought the first visitors from China and as early as the 7th century, from the Middle East. The latter introduced Islam to Indonesia, but it was not until the 13th century that this religion flourished in Java and Sumatra. Later still, it was Portuguese colonialists followed by the Dutch who arrived in search of precious spices and who respectively imposed Catholicism and Protestantism. All these cultures have shaped the relationship of Indonesians with their ancestors, enriching them with their particular tonalities or, by contrast, attempting to destroy them. Thus in Indonesia, we find Buddhist and Hindu objects and stories that underline the importance of ancestors, a form of Islam that is open to pre-existing ancestral cults, and the scars of European religious conversion, which when it did not destroy works of art, influenced local artistic production. Lastly, an important section of the exhibition is dedicated to funerary rites. Performed in different stages, sometimes spread over several years, these fascinating rites enable the deceased to attain the status of ancestor. The living spare neither expense nor effort to accompany the departed to superior worlds and in doing so, preserve balance and harmony within the community. Most of the 160 archaeological and ethnographic treasures have been loaned by the National Museum of Indonesia and are being shown for the first time in Europe. Some thirty other works come from European museums and private collections. The ensemble is placed in context via photographs, videos, drawings and paintings, while resolutely avoiding a Eurocentric approach.
https://vimeo.com/239961063
SHOW Kingdoms of the Sea Archipelago Curators La Boverie & Museum Nasional Indonesia An area of confluence and encounters, the Indonesian archipelago has always been one of the most important crossroads of world trade, where Austronesian ships, Arabian dhows, Chinese junks, Iberian caravels and vessels of the East India Company once dropped anchor, long before the container ships and oil tankers of today. The history of the archipelago is one of a multitude of links and connections, where the near and distant rub shoulders, set in competition by an omnipresent maritime world. The sea gathers more than it separates, and the monsoon winds have made this crossroads an obligatory stop for merchants, religious people and foreign diplomats whose presence has left traces in the myths, monuments, art and traditions of contemporary Indonesia. Superimposed, mingled, reinterpreted by rich and complex societies, these external influences have forged multiple worlds, which the relationship with the sea has finely coloured and chiseled. This exhibition-event, the fruit of collaboration between Indonesian, Belgian, French and Dutch institutions and scientists, retraces the history of a region of the world that is rich in spices, gold and precious wood, and yet often misunderstood. Extraordinary Austronesian adventures, Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, the first Sumatran and Javanese empires, early globalization in the first centuries of the modern era, the sustained and continuous relationship with China, India and the Muslim world, the emergence and growth of sultanates, the first contact with Europeans, the expansion of Islam, independence and the subsequent development of the country are all chapters of an exciting narrative to which the visitor is invited. Most of the works come from the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta, exceptional national treasures of which many are making their first ever journey outside Indonesia. They are complemented by rarely exhibited works from the Musée Royal de Mariemont and the Musée national de la Marine in Paris, as well as from private collections. On the occasion of this exhibition, carpenters from Makassar will construct a life size traditional boat according to the ancestral method of sewn planks. General Commissioners Museum Nasional Indonesia (Dr. Ibu Intan Mardiana & Dr. Sisnanto) & Musées de la Ville de Liège (Jean-Marc Gay) Scientific Committee Pierre-Yves Manguin, Catherine Noppe, Alexis Sonet, Bruno Hellendorff Scenography Jean-Marc Huygen
https://vimeo.com/243276250
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