At Antwerp’s Kunsthal Extra City art space, a new solo expo delves into a topic too often brushed under the rug in Belgium and other wealthy nations worldwide: what about those monuments left standing glorifying gruesome Western colonial history? A subject tackled head-on by artist Ibrahim Mahama in ‘On Monumental Silences’, running till March 4.
A controversial sculpture stands in Wilrijk, Antwerp. It depicts a white missionary towering over a half-naked slave bowing gratefully before him while the cleric rests his knee on the back of the subjugated man. This supposedly symbolised the advent of ‘civilisation’ to the Congolese people and is some of the most heinous propagation of colonial ideology standing today. Monuments like this left upright without any clear historical context or counter-reaction still send out clear messages of racism and white dominance. Only last summer, the Charlottesville riots proved the relevance of this discourse on a major scale. Do these dark remnants of history need to be toppled and destroyed or relegated to museums? Is a little plaque providing context enough?
The debate continues but what's evident is the need to assert the voices that have always been left out, those of the victims. ‘On Monumental Silences’ is a public art intervention, part of a three-year collab between Extra City and Middelheim Museum, that re-evaluates monuments and their function in the city today. As a first instalment, Ibrahim Mahama created two sculptures: a copy of the missionary statue in rubber (symbolising the colonial atrocities of the age) and one in clay, which represents the malleability of history. A thought-provoking expo not to be missed.
‘On Monumental Silences’
A new project by Ibrahim Mahama
Until March 4 2018
Kunsthal Extra City
Eikelstraat 31
2060 Antwerp
http://extracitykunsthal.org/
