Although the granary of the Roman Empire was already located in North Africa, and numerous independent kingdoms were subsequently created, the African continent has been systematically represented in reduced size on maps since Mercator's time. Even today, it remains underestimated, both in terms of its geographical dimension and its place in global history. And this despite its prehistoric role as the cradle of humanity. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA also signifies the forced dispersal of Africans across the globe, with far-reaching consequences right up to the present day.
Exactly 140 years ago, in November 1884, the Berlin Conference opened, dividing up Africa between the colonial powers without any African participation. Reason enough to take a different look at this immense continent and its people in 2024. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA experiments with approaches that track down traditions of thought, prejudice and stereotypes, and enable new points of view to be adopted - through cultural history and contemporary art, thanks to a constant change of perspective and artistic polyphony.
While a MUSEUM OF MEMORABILITY examines Africa's past and present from the point of view of colonial Europe, African sculptures and objects from private collections in Saarland enter into dialogue with the machines and flywheels of the historic Blower Room.
The idea behind this approach is to methodically reverse the gaze. Industrial modernity, which has never ceased to darken Europe, meets here an enlightening, multi-faceted African culture. Representative works of art from recent decades interact with sound and space installations created especially for the exhibition by artists from Africa and the global diaspora. The result is a dense network of impulses and perceptual possibilities for an enduring, multi-layered experience of THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA, embracing past, present and future.
