Triumph Gallery and the Volga-Vyatka Branch of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Nizhny Novgorod — Arsenal) present the exhibition "Inverted Safari: Contemporary Art of Africa," organized with the participation of the Central Exhibition Hall Manege (St. Petersburg) and the Béton Center for Visual Culture. The exhibition is held with the support of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The exhibition opens at the Arsenal on April 23. It is part of the regional cultural program of BRICS. The first large-scale exhibition of contemporary African art in Russia brings together more than 250 works by African and Russian artists. The display also includes artifacts from the collection of the V.D. Polenov Foundation for the Development of Educational Initiatives, as well as archival materials. In the summer of 2023, the exhibition was successfully shown at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, and in the autumn it was presented at the Gallery of Contemporary Art of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan.

Exhibition “Inverted Safari: Contemporary Art of Africa”

Triumph Gallery and the Volga-Vyatka Branch of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Nizhny Novgorod — Arsenal) present the exhibition "Inverted Safari: Contemporary Art of Africa," organized with the participation of the Central Exhibition Hall Manege (St. Petersburg) and the Béton Center for Visual Culture. The exhibition is held with the support of the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The exhibition opens at the Arsenal on April 23. It is part of the regional cultural program of BRICS. The first large-scale exhibition of contemporary African art in Russia brings together more than 250 works by African and Russian artists. The display also includes artifacts from the collection of the V.D. Polenov Foundation for the Development of Educational Initiatives, as well as archival materials. In the summer of 2023, the exhibition was successfully shown at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, and in the autumn it was presented at the Gallery of Contemporary Art of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan.

The project presents contemporary African art as a complex constellation of local art scenes and movements, tracing its development after the countries of the continent gained independence. The title of the exhibition refers to the need to reconsider the established one-dimensional view of African art and to recognize its multiple facets, thematic diversity, and range of visual approaches.

Alessandro Romanini, curator of the project: "Until the mid-20th century, African art was perceived as an ethnographic or anthropological element devoid of aesthetic value, while in recent years it has sometimes been seen as a way to explain the experiences of other cultures to a Western audience. Such a perspective reinforces stereotypes about Africa and leads to viewing artists through the prism of their ethnic identity. By ‘inverted,' we mean our working method: we have given artists the freedom of self-representation."

For a long time, Africa was mistakenly perceived as a single cultural landscape, whereas it is more accurate to view it through the lens of regional formations or cultural groups sharing common history, linguistic similarities, as well as economic and political integration. The central theme of the exhibition is the search for and affirmation of a new African identity. At the same time, works by contemporary Russian artists illustrate the evolving perception of Africa in our country.

Yulia Aksenova, curator of the project: "The tradition of engaging with other cultures—borrowing and aesthetically reworking the languages and codes of different civilizations—has always been characteristic of Russian art, which seeks its own within the чужое and often perceives the foreign as a powerful resource for shaping strategies of self-identification."

The project reflects an aspiration to develop a new approach to African art. The exhibition creates a situation in which artworks enter a new context and acquire new layers of meaning. The goals of the "inverted safari" are to reveal similarities—and at times intersections—between cultural zones that have often been excluded from knowledge production; to avoid any form of predetermined interpretation; and to find, in the reflection of African artistic practices, a mirror of one’s own experience.

Opening hours: 12:00—20:00 (ticket office until 19:00), Monday — closed. The exhibition is located on the 1st and 2nd floors in the right wing of the Arsenal.

Ticket prices: Tuesday — 150 rubles; Thursday and Friday — 200 rubles; Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays — 250 rubles; concession — 100 rubles. Available with the Pushkin Card. Tickets can be purchased online on the museum’s website or at the ticket office.

General partner of the exhibition "Inverted Safari: Contemporary Art of Africa" — Russian Railways (RZD).
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