by Jon Lackman | 4 June 2007 | Africa, Museums
Academic journals often fall comically behind in their publication schedule. For example, we recently received the latest issue of Présence Africaine, by no means the worst offender, dated “1er semestre 2005.” A good read all the same, this issue is devoted to “African Aesthetics and Philosophical Discourses.” Jean-Luc Aka-Evy contributes an article on “the resistance of traditional black African arts to museumification.” Quoting J. Laude, he notes in his final paragraph that “In the space of the museum, masks and objects are inevitably presented ‘reduced to a single piece of sculpted wood and hence they’re perceived as immobile and inert reliefs by a gaze that drags them into the misleading abstractions of the art world.’” In truth, they belong to ‘complex ensembles where they are associated with music … dance, mythological storytelling, and other social activities.’” Fortunately, “black Africans, despite certain differences arising from their particular situations, have developed and circulated [their own] esthetic concepts, with the concept of beauty being perpetually created in accordance with the fundmental rhythms of life itself.”
