Over the centuries, theologians, philosophers, politicians, writers and artists have subjected the sub genre of the great myths dealing with evil and horror to discussion and interpretation and have tried to come to terms with it – in Africa as well as elsewhere in the world. And they all have one thing in common: On the one hand, horror is celebrated as the destruction of taboos whereas, on the other, it is distrustfully regarded as the cause of the derailment of civilisation.

Dominique Zinkpe, Malgré Tout!, 2000

The exhibition “Africa Screams” presents this encounter with the evil, which is socially manifested in the African wars of state destruction and ritual murders, in various ways. From Sokari Doublas Camp’s machine like forms inspired by the Yoruba gelede masks via South African artist Jane Alexander’s ambiguous installation “Danger Gevaar Ingozi” (2004), in which a psychically present watchman oversees a symbolically inhabited cage to the trash iconography and horror appropriation of Nigerian video production.

Kofi Setordji, Scars of Memory, 2003

“We are dealing with an archaeology of the legacies of war”, says curator Simon Njami, “the hypocritical post-colonial development ideologies and the transformation of spiritual motifs into the environment of contemporary media.” “Africa Screams” seeks to counteract the suppression of the evil and instead make the “Scars of Memory” (2003) by Kofi Setordji visible.

Participating artists: Jane Alexander (South Africa), Fernando Alvim (Angola/Belgium), Willie Bester (South Africa), Conrad Botes (South Africa), Candice Breitz (South Africa), Sokari Douglas Camp (Nigeria/UK), Cheri Cherin (Democratic Republic of Congo), Samuel Fosso (Central African Republic), El Loko (Togo/Germany), Abu Bockari Mansaray (Sierra Leone), Kofi Setordji (Ghana), Twins Seven Seven (Nigeria), Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon/Belgium), Dominique Zinkpe (Benin), among others.

Africa Screams
Curators: Simon Njami, Thomas Mießgang, Tobias Wendl
Date: November 5th, 2004 – January 30th, 2005
Place: Kunsthalle Wien
Address: 1 Museumsplatz, 1070 Vienna
Tel: +43 1 521 8933
https://www.kunsthallewien.at