After Benin, Morocco and Martinique, the exhibition "Révélation ! Contemporary Art from Benin" exhibition makes a stopover at the Conciergerie (Paris, France), from October 4, 2024 to January 5, 2025.
Initially presented at the Palais de la Marina in Cotonou in February 2022 as part of the diptych exhibition “Art du Bénin d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, de la restitution à la révélation: Trésors royaux et Art contemporain du Bénin”, this exhibition was an opportunity to reveal the classical art of Benin, the twenty-six royal treasures returned by France, and the contemporary art scene of Benin and its diaspora. The contemporary exhibition will tour to the Mohammed VI Museum in Rabat, Morocco, in January 2023, then to the Fondation Clément in Martinique in December 2023.
“Revelation! Contemporary Art from Benin” offers a panoramic tour of contemporary art from Benin.
Through a diversity of media and supports (painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, installation, performance, design, fashion design... ), the vitality and originality of the art scene in Benin and its diaspora are revealed through a selection of works curated by Yassine Agniké Lassissi, director of the visual arts department at ADAC, and co-curator of the “Art contemporain du Bénin” exhibition in Cotonou, Rabat, Fort- de-France and associate curator of the Benin Pavilion at the Venice International Art Biennale in 2024, and Emmanuel Daydé, art historian and curator of the Ousmane Sow exhibition on the Pont des arts in 1999 and of the Madagascar Pavilion with Joël Andrianomearisoa at the Venice Biennale in 2019.
Conceived in three chapters: Goddesses and Gods, Queens and Kings, Women and Men; the exhibition first presents the metamorphosis of the goddesses and gods who animate the Vodun cult, then the power and earthly glory of the long-remembered queens and kings of Abomey, before turning to the women and men who live and struggle today in a globalized world.
