Expo

Europa, Oxalá presents the work of twenty-one European artists and intellectuals whose families came from former colonies. These ‘children of empire’, born and raised in a postcolonial context, offer reflections on their heritage, memory, and identity. 

Their parents and grandparents were born and lived in Congo, Angola, Guinea, Benin, Algeria, Madagascar – and these artists inherited not just voices, sounds, and gestures, but also images and memories of their cultures of origin, the starting point for extensive research in historical archives. As a result, their artistic production harbours a fresh approach to racism, the decolonisation of the arts, and the deconstruction of colonial thought. The manner in which some of them combine contemporary language with traditional processes is an essential contribution to the Europe of today. 

Through their work, Europa, Oxalá showcases the creative power of contemporary European cultural diversity, opening new perspectives for the concept of Europe itself.

Europa, Oxalá is a traveling exhibition that was first presented at the MUCEM in Marseille (20.10.2021 > 16.01.2022), at Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal (03.03.2022 > 30.05.2022) and from October 2022 at the AfricaMuseum,
The curators of the exhibition are Antonió Pinto Ribeiro (University of Coimbra, Portugal), Katia Kameli (artist) and Aimé Mpane (artist).

Publications 

The new exhibition Human Zoo. The age of colonial exhibitions highlights the forgotten history of the 'human zoos'. The exhibition presents exceptional images and documents, some of which were never presented.

This traveling exhibition was first presented in 2012 in Paris (Musée du Quai Branly). From 9 November 2021, the exhibition will be on display at the AfricaMuseum in the context of the colonial exhibition of 1897, which took place 125 years ago in Tervuren. The museum invites visitors to think about the impact of 'human zoos'.

Although the exhibition focuses on the 'Congolese villages' of Tervuren, Antwerp (1885 and 1894) and Brussels (1958), it also places the phenomenon in an international context, showing how peoples from all countries were exhibited. Some of them did not survive.

All these exhibitions - between popular entertainment and scientific fascination - welcomed more than one and a half billion of curious visitors who came to see the 'other', presented as 'inferior'.

The artists Teddy Mazina and Romeo Mivekannin have made an important contribution to the exhibition. 

The museum will also offer a broad cultural programme. Monthly lectures will be held on topics such as colonisation, decolonisation and (anti)racism.

The curators of the exhibition are Pascal Blanchard (ACHAC) and Maarten Couttenier and Mathieu Zana Etambala (both associated with the AfricaMuseum).