Road to Justice

Gallery 5
curated by Anne Palopoli

The wounds and the violence present in African society and the search for possible solutions.

In today’s world there is ever increasing disparity in the distribution of resources and ever greater numbers of people subjected to political-economic privations. MAXXI is pursuing two parallel projects; the major exhibition African Métropolis which, structured around the concept of the city, features the works of African artists, and Road to Justice, an experimental project that integrates works from the museum collection with others chosen for this specific occasion.

In the history of the African continent, the deportation of entire populations and the successive colonization have led to the progressive destruction of ancient cultures and the alteration of political, religious and social equilibriums. Over the centuries, the presume superiority of the whites with respect to the native peoples has been used to justify the oppression, exploitation and impoverishment of the territory. Contemporary artists are the keepers of these events and the exhibition recounts this imbalance, this trauma and investigates whether its healing is possible to imagine.

The artists: John Akomfrah, Marlene Dumas, Kendell Geers, Bouchra Khalili, Moshekwa Langa, Wangechi Mutu, Malik Nejmi, Michael Tsegaye, Sue Williamson

Stills of ‘Peripeteia’ (2012) by John Akomfrah © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery