 My favorite source for material to write about, other than the aesthetic triumph of 17th, 18th and early 19th century furniture has to be the NY Times, a paper I love and that I love to hate. I can say the same about most newspapers, of course, but what I wish to talk about is an op-doc in the Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/aime-cesaire-congo-art.html which is a short (8 minutes) movie on colonialism and its negative affects on the colonized and the colonizers, i.e. Western Europeans. I watched and read the subtitles and feel for the victims of colonialism, but the script goes far beyond Africa to India, Viet Nam and more. I understand the screed, I really do. Colonization was no picnic for the colonized and the victims of injustice never had any recompense let alone an apology.
I am not a fan, however, of people who use art that they didn't create, to make a political point. If you don't have time to view the video, it is a monologue about the evils of colonization with images of African art, sculptures (totems) mostly, as the backdrop. The text of the screed is one thing--it could be edited to be more incisive--but linking African art to the text doesn't make sense to me. And, at one point, there is a denial of museums themselves as being a Western European idea that shouldn't even be necessary. Museums matter in this world, as no matter how much we may resent or not like the fact--we are all human and art reveals that and museums display it. (Thank goodness.)
The difficulty, of course, is that almost everything that we do has a political cast which is next to impossible to eliminate. People are rabidly pro and con, which I firmly believe can be ameliorated by both better information, an open mind, a willingness to compromise and the conscious decision to let the past subside. I doubt that the Dutch director of the film would agree with me, or my assessment of his work--he is, after all, making a valid point, but a point that, when hammered at, loses its effectiveness. As for the art of Africa, whether you like it or not, it is in the world--you can't ship it all back to Africa--it's just not possible. And what would that achieve? Would the African governments of the future care, or would the art be left in a basement of some government building? That, of course, is happening right now in some countries. It is the place where art goes to die.
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