IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy

Since its inception in 1929, the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels, or BOZAR, has woven Africa into its cultural patchwork. Just one year after its opening, in the midst of colonialism in full bloom, the Palace organized the large-scale exhibition Art Nègre: Arts anciens de l'Afrique noire (Lavachery 1930). It was one of the very first times that African sculpture was allowed entry into a bastion of “high art.” The ethnographic samples, carefully displayed throughout the Art Deco halls, were the colonial treasures of some of the most renowned collectors, such as Félix Fénéon, Léonce and Pierre Guerre, Charles Ratton, and Paul Guillaume. Now, almost ninety years later, the Palace's rooms are home to another vision: that of Africans staring back and cannibalizing what once tried to curb them. For the occasion, BOZAR has set the stage for yet another illustrious collector: Sindika Dokolo, a Congolese businessman...