After having traveled to the most prestigious museums in the world, the private collection of jet-setter Jean Pigozzi makes a stopover on the Croisette. A hundred works of contemporary African art will soon be brought together at the Chapelle Saint-Roch in Cannes.
La marseillaise à pétanque 2022, 61st edition of the world
Dive into the abyss of contemporary Africa, admiring his artistic creations. An exhibition that does not offer to see antique statuettes and objects from another time, but which is dedicated to revealing the present of an entire continent.
This creative swirl questions the place of Africa in the world, its political complexity and its cultural diversity. In the Gare Maritime de Cannes, around a hundred sculptures, paintings, photographs and drawings pay homage to him until the end of the summer.
From Bamako to Johannesburg, artists give free rein to their imagination. During the opening on July 11, we meet Jean-Paul Mika, Congolese painter. His universe is color and patterns, they cover all of his clothes and are an integral part of his paintings, “It’s divine inspiration”he says.
I give the joy of living, I give hope, I bring the good news through my works. I didn’t want to present Africa with problems, I am making Africa dynamic and with a future.
Jean-Paul Mika, Congolese painter
In this work painted in 2014, we see Presidents Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela holding hands. For the artist, it is a way of symbolize the triumph of democracy.
“There are some African leaders who do not want to let go of their throne, I want to remind the people that there are other political models”, he adds.
The exhibition also includes the famous masks made from gasoline cans of the Beninese Romuald Hazoume. For him, it’s a way of remembering “where we come from”, a nod to his community who mixes rituals and customs.
“When a woman had her hair on end, it meant that a bird could land on it and therefore that she was single”confides the artist present on the scene.
Each work echoes a ancestral tradition. Women’s hair pulled down symbolizes the husband’s adultery. “it’s a secret language, it means the snake spent the night outside”laughs Romuald Hazoumé.
Through this exhibition, designed like a labyrinth, we also find the works Senegalese Soly Cissé and Mor Faye as well as Congolese Chéri Samba.
They all have one thing in common: they come from a private collectionthat of the Italian jet-setter and photographer Jean Pigozzi, a great lover of contemporary African art.
Son and heir of the Italian boss of the car brand Simca, sold to Chrysler in 1963, Jean Pigozzi, who grew up between Antibes, Geneva and Paris, first devoted himself to photography. Then, in 1989, after visiting the “Magiciens de la terre” exhibition at the Center Georges-Pompidou in Paris, he developed a passion for contemporary African art.
A year later, hasfter his meeting with the exhibition curator, André Magninit finances the creation of the Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC), the largest collection ofAfrican contemporary art of the world.
All the works are original, these artists are not inspired by the Western world, it comes from the heart, traditions and their imagination. It is for these reasons that I fell in love with this artistic school.
Jean Pigozzi, collector of contemporary African art
Since then he has gathered more than 10,000 works, covering a period from the 1950s to the present day. His collection, currently stored in Geneva, has rubbed shoulders with the most prestigious museums in the world such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the MoMA in New York.
A collection admired, but sometimes criticized, even described as “neocolonial”. After a opening in Houston a demonstration of a group of black activists held up signs which read: “You can’t contain my negritude in your white box”, revealed in 2006 the media Swissinfo.
“We have embarked on an ambitious process of promotion and enhancement of modern and contemporary art”said David Lisnard, the mayor (LR) of Cannes during the opening of the exhibition. “This work is materialized today by the creation of the first museum in the world dedicated to the prestigious collection of contemporary African art of Jean Pigozzi”, he added.
The museum, of which the opening date has not been specified, will offer over more than 600 m2 a permanent exhibition where various works by Jean Pigozzi will take turns. As well as a temporary exhibition space, in the former Saint-Roch chapel in Cannes. La Croisette will now be able to boast of having its little modernized “Quai Branly” on its land.