El Anatsui - Maya G

An installation view of Yinka Shonibare’s “Safiotra.” Photo: Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintsoa © Fondation H

This past April, scores of art world insiders from institutions, organizations and galleries—MoMA, Serpentine Gallery, V&A East and Goodman Gallery, to name a few—trekked to Madagascar for an exhibition billed as Yinka Shonibare CBE RA’s first major show in Africa. Organized by Madagascar’s Fondation H in partnership with Shonibare’s Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, “Safiotra [Hybridités/Hybridities]” presents close to two decades of work by the British-Nigerian artist in the Malagasy contemporary art foundation’s 2,200-square-meter space in Antananarivo.

Among the works on view in the self-curated show are Alien Man on Flying Machine (2011), Refugee Astronaut X (2024) and The African Library (2018), a monumental installation of 6,000 books wrapped in African wax print fabric. That particular work, which is in Fondation H’s permanent collection, highlights the achievements of Africans, including Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela, for their roles in the independence of African nations from colonial rule.

The show also has works from the Fondation H collection by nineteen artists from across Africa and its diaspora, including El Anatsui (Ghana), Billie Zangewa (Malawi), Zanele Muholi (South Africa), Sokey Edorh (Togo), Leilah Babirye (Uganda), Malika Agueznay (Morocco), Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana), Abdoulaye Konate (Mali) and Zoarinivo Razakaratrimo (Madagascar).

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Beyond marking a career milestone for Shonibare, the exhibition stands as a significant moment for what local artist Joey Aresoa calls the “vibrant” Malagasy art scene. Aresoa, a poet and multidisciplinary self-taught artist, works across media to explore narrative, identity and life as a woman in Madagascar. Later this year, she will begin a residency at the G.A.S. Foundation in Nigeria through its partnership with Fondation H. “I am thrilled,” Aresoa told Observer. “I am really excited to discover other techniques and narratives, and for opportunities to exchange ideas with other African artists.”

Fondation H in Madagascar. Photo: Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintsoa © Fondation H

In Lagos, she plans to expand on her 2023 work Antsangano, an installation of aluminum eggs that serve as a library of roughly 200 non-existent books that “need to be written” to tell Madagascar’s history. (Antsangano can be accessed via an app.) She will utilize, among other resources, the G.A.S. Library and the Picton Archive, which contains 1,500 volumes collected over six decades, but she added that she’s especially looking forward to “very personal and human” experiences.

The non-profit behind Aresoa’s residency, Fondation H, is Madagascar’s first private contemporary art foundation. Established by entrepreneur and art collector Hassanein Hiridjee in 2017, the foundation has been at the forefront of shaping the arts ecosystem in a country that lacks an art school and where most artists are self-taught.

Yinka Shonibare, The African Library (2018). Photo: Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintsoa © Fondation H

Fondation H presents free-to-access exhibitions like “Safiotra” that speak directly to Malagasy issues and offers dynamic programming that attracts some 15,000 monthly visitors—about 80 percent of whom are under 25, director Margaux Huille told Observer. The foundation hosts school visits four times a week and runs HAY—“to learn” in Malagasy—a free program with tours and workshops focused on contemporary art discovery, critical thinking and creative experimentation for children aged 6 to 14.

“It’s a mind-blowing experience for all of these young people to come into the building and discover what we are presenting,” Huille said. “We’ve seen children change from their first visit and talk openly about topics that they would never speak of on the first visit. And we’ve seen them bring their parents in and be their guide during the weekend.”

The foundation also supports Madagascar’s artists through residencies, grants, training, commissions and introductions to international institutions, organizations and galleries. One of Fondation H’s early initiatives was the launch of the Prix Paritana in 2017, a contemporary art prize supporting Malagasy artists living in the country and abroad. Each year, three winners are selected. The top award includes a grant, a residency—complete with plane fare, visa and per diem—at Cité internationale des arts in Paris, and exhibitions at Fondation H’s Paris space and the Institut Français de Madagascar. The two runner-ups receive grants and Fondation H-backed exhibitions.

Prix Paritana winner Richianny Ratovo. Photo: Fabio Thierry Andriamiarintso © Fondation H

The 2021 winner, Richianny Ratovo, told Observer that the prize turned around her career. “It was a great moment,” she said, adding that she’s been able to sustain herself as an artist ever since. Based in Antananarivo, Ratovo is a self-taught artist who works primarily in paint and mixed media, layering materials such as paper and wood, and incorporating pyrography and lithography techniques. Citing Madagascar’s lack of formal art schools, Ratovo emphasized that Fondation H’s support helped instill a sense of professionalism and confidence in her practice and the broader Malagasy art scene.

The foundation, said Aresoa, is opening doors—offering training, funding, international connections and visibility both locally and abroad. Her upcoming residency at G.A.S. Foundation in Nigeria will be her first experience working outside the country.

While Madagascar’s art scene may not be as developed as some of its African counterparts, it hosts a growing diversity of practices. Housed in the former colonial-era mayor’s residence in Antananarivo, the Musée de la Photographie de Madagascar, established in 2013, is dedicated to preserving the nation’s visual history. Its mission includes archiving and digitizing more than 70,000 images taken in the country between 1860 and 1960. The main exhibition, “EAU,” explores Madagascar’s history through the lens of water and features around twenty ceramic works by Malagasy artist Gloria Rabarison, who began her career as a painter.

Work by ceramicist Gloria Rabarison in the exhibition “EAU” at the Musée de la Photographie de Madagascar. Gameli Hamelo for Observer

Hakanto Contemporary, co-founded in 2020 by entrepreneur Hasnaine Yavarhoussen and internationally recognized Malagasy artist Joël Andrianomearisoa, is also shaping Madagascar’s art landscape. Andrianomearisoa, who serves as artistic director, curated several new projects this May at a renovated warehouse in Antananarivo, showcasing works by artists including Mirado Ravohitrarivo, Xhi sy M’aa, Mickaël Andrinirina, Felana Rajaonarivelo, Mbolatiana Raoilison, Emilie Andriamahefa, Richianny and Mat Li. A solo show of Andrianomearisoa’s own work, “Please Sing Me My Song Before You Go,” closed in mid-May at the nonprofit’s smaller gallery.

Another notable venue is Flow Gallery, described on its website as “dedicated to contemporary art and design.” In April, Observer visited its exhibition “Objects with Soul,” a solo show by interior designer Kiady Ratovoson, whose practice draws from his Malagasy heritage and studies in Shanghai and Milan. His studio, KR. Atelier, focuses on woodwork that champions Malagasy craftsmanship and aims to promote local excellence in furniture design.

While European influence has long shaped Malagasy design aesthetics, this is beginning to shift. Designers are increasingly exploring heritage materials and indigenous craft traditions. “They’re trying to show this rich heritage [of] craftsmanship and materials specific to Madagascar,” Domi Sanji, a multidisciplinary designer and researcher, told Observer. Sanji also manages Ndao Hanavo, an innovation and training lab for social design in Madagascar.

An installation at the 2023 edition of Tana Design Week. © Tana Design Week

Sanji is also the founder of Tana Design Week (TDW), which returns on June 28, 2025. Now a biennial, TDW positions itself as “Madagascar’s unmissable design event” and features fashion shows, exhibitions, a masterclass, conferences and guided tours at eight venues including Fondation H, the Museum of Art and Archaeology and the Institut Français de Madagascar. Originally staged in 2018, TDW began as Sanji’s graduation project with a mission “to show that design is pivotal for development.” Previous editions focused on excellence in craftsmanship and encouraged designers to collaborate with artisans using new techniques and materials.

Meanwhile, Fondation H is preparing to present a solo exhibition by Beninese-French artist Roméo Mivekannin, following a residency and research period in Madagascar this October. The foundation is supporting the production of a new body of work that responds directly to the country’s cultural context. “One of our biggest missions is to work with artists in the long term,” said Huille. “We are very driven by human encounters and relationships. And that’s the way that we really want to work… We don’t want to have online relationships for everything. We care very much about and want to continue growing relationships, human-to-human. That matters to us quite a lot.”

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Kara Walker, Fons Americanus, 2019. Photo © Tate (Matt Greenwood)

The first time Maman appeared at the Tate Modern gallery in London, she wasn’t supposed to be the central attraction. Louise Bourgeois’s enormous bronze spider was part of a larger installation entitled “I Do, I Undo and I Redo,” commissioned to mark the opening of what has become one of the world’s most visited fine art galleries. Twenty-five years on and, while her creator may have gone—Bourgeois died in 2010—Maman is back with a sinister vengeance to mark Tate Modern’s quarter-century birthday.

Maman and the other elements of “I Do, I Undo and I Redo” were set up in the gallery’s Turbine Hall, so named because the original building was a power station and what is now the Tate Modern’s massive atrium and entrance hall once housed a water-driven turbine. Like London’s Fourth Plinth series, the Turbine Hall’s ongoing commission calendar has become a steady fixture of the U.K.’s art calendar. As with the Plinth artwork, the Turbine Hall commissions are temporary, staying in place for around six months. The main element of the “I Do, I Undo and I Redo” installation was actually a group of spiral staircases, but the sheer size and spookiness of the Bourgeois spider captivated cross-generational visitors. The most effective ensuing commissions were those that hit just as hard.

Take Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s 2003 Turbine Hall commission, The Weather Project. Eliasson’s installation kit was simple: a bunch of mirrors, a sizeable half-circular screen, some lights and one of those machines that spray out artificial mist. The lights directed at the screen bounced off the mirrors to produce an intense, orange sun. The mist added a steamy, tropical vibe, and visitors took to spreading themselves out to bathe in the mock sun’s intense glow. Over two million people saw the piece, and one highlight came courtesy of a group of activists who lay on the floor and arranged their bodies into letters to spell out the phrase “Bush Go Home” in protest against George W.’s 2003 U.K. state visit.

Carsten Höller’s slides in 2006 continued the interactive larks. Named Test Site, the Swedish artist’s Turbine Hall installation consisted of five transparent, floor-to-ceiling slides that members of the public joyfully whizzed down, shrieking and waving to friends and family on the way. The following year, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth introduced a sense of disconcertion. Visitors entering the Turbine Hall spotted a hairline crack in the space’s concrete floor. The further the crack traveled into the hall, the longer, wider and deeper it became, until it revealed its entire 167-meter length and was big enough to swallow up anyone who wasn’t watching what they were doing.

Ai Weiwei’s 2010 commission, Sunflower Seeds, was a testament to his ability to use art to communicate ideas in accessible ways. The 100 million sunflower seeds that covered the Turbine Hall’s floor were made of porcelain in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, and visitors were encouraged to walk across the shifting carpet the seeds created. Unfortunately (and unintentionally), the seeds arrived covered in dust, and the gallery decided to cordon off the installation to stop visitors from inhaling porcelain motes.

The original Tate gallery was founded with money donated by Henry Tate, a nineteenth-century sugar trader and one-half of the sweetmeat manufacturer, Tate and Lyle. In 2018, several British institutions came under scrutiny for their potential involvement in the slave trade, and the Tate organization was put under the microscope. Research led to absolution—a statement noted Henry Tate and Abram Lyle were twelve and fourteen years old, respectively, when slavery was abolished in 1833. However, the scrutiny shone fresh light on just how many of the Turbine Hall commissions were addressing human rights and environmental issues. Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth was a comment on migration and immigration, for example, the depths of the crack revealing the darkness of racism. Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds addressed mass consumption and racial stereotypes. Far from the commonly-held perceptions of cheapness and poor quality associated with the “Made in China” label, the installation’s seeds were handmade by gifted craftspeople living in an area of China renowned for its exquisite porcelain pottery.

When Cuban artist Tania Bruguera was invited to create a Turbine Hall commission in 2018, she also used the chance to confront attitudes around immigration. Bruguera placed a heat-sensitive layer over the hall’s floor; the longer people laid upon it, the more a blown-up portrait of a young Syrian refugee called Yousef began to emerge beneath them. Yousef had fled Syria for London, and the presence of corporeal warmth unveiled the potential organic empathy of human kindness—a lesson on how to make a fellow mortal feel seen. Anyone left unmoved by the piece could visit a crying room, wherein a harmless vapor was pumped into a space next to the floor, forcing tears from visitors’ eyes as if they were peeling an onion. The title of Bruguera’s commission—10 148 451—came from the number of people who migrated from their country in 2017 added to the number of migrant deaths in 2018 at the time when the project was installed. That number has been increasing ever since.

U.S. artist Kara Walker’s 2019 Turbine Hall commission elegantly addressed the horrors of the British Empire. Entitled Fons Americanus, the installation’s central focus was a thirteen-meter-high fountain based on the Victoria Memorial stationed in front of Buckingham Palace. British colonialism accelerated under Queen Victoria’s reign, and the original memorial is a pompous, overblown statue intended to honor the period. For Walker’s remix, the memorial became a fountain, and the water gushing out of the figure at its top (and various others around its sides) referenced the seas traveled by nineteenth-century British slave traders as they dragged their human cargo into the hell of new worlds. Details sculpted into the fountain’s structure included a noose hanging off a tree’s branch and a military captain representing the brave Black individuals who fought against the slave trade.

Last year’s commission, El Anatsui’s Behind the Red Moon, also centered around interrogations of slavery. The Ghana-born, Nigeria-based artist and his team linked, knitted and entwined old bottle tops and discarded ephemera into huge flapping banners and meshes. By using the kind of flotsam that washes up along coastlines worldwide, El Anatsui was also underscoring how our oceans were (and still are) used to transport and abandon trafficked human beings.

The next Turbine Hall commission will be taken on by Máret Ánne Sara. Born in the ancient Sápmi territory that stretches across Norway, Finland, Sweden and parts of Russia, Sara’s work confronts the obliteration of traditional cultural values in the face of present-day colonialism. Much like the citizens of Greenland, the people of Sápmi never asked for their lives to be changed without their permission. Long may the good work enabled by the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall commissions continue.

Twenty-fifth anniversary events are taking place at the Tate Modern throughout 2025. Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall commission runs from October 14 this year through April 6, 2026.

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Maya G

Tag Archives: El Anatsui

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