Workshop: Benin’s art history from Dahomey to present

February, 27 and 28, 2020

The workshop aims at elaborating the contours of an art history of Benin that takes into account the (art-) historical processes of the precolonial kingdom Dahomey as well as the trans-regional entanglements of the postcolonial state. It will bring together in-depth case studies of different (art) historical periods - reflecting historical, modern and contemporary art in relation to the visual culture of Benin: In a first part, we will discuss art production under mainly (royal and governmental) patronage - as in the kingdom of Dahomey in the precolonial as colonial era (17th-19th century), in times of post-independence (1960-1974), in Benin’s socialist era (1974-1990) and in the state-organized Vodun-Festivals in the context of the country’s democratization (early 1990s). In a second part, we will reflect on more recent independent artist initiatives and their art production (mid-1990ies) as well as on contemporary art in new transnational networks (biennials, independent art spaces) in the era of neoliberalism (since 2000).

Thursday, February 27, 2020

4 pm Verena Rodatus and Romuald Tchibozo: Welcome and introduction
4.30–5.30 pm Gaëlle Beaujean (Paris): Royal arts in Abomey city, kingdom of Dahomey – 17th to 19th century
Coffee break
6­–7 pm Romuald Tchibozo (Cotonou/Berlin): Artistic practices in Benin: from independence to the end of the Marxist-Leninist era

Friday, February 28, 2020

10­–11 am Dana Rush (Strasbourg): Unfinished Aesthetics in Vodun Artistic Expression
Coffee break
11.30 am­–12.30 pm Cléophée Moser (Paris): Performing arts in Benin: traditions and inheritances in practice and body-politics in action
Lunch
2–3 pm Verena Rodatus (Berlin): Transnational art institutions in Benin: art patronage and artistic agency in times of neoliberalism
Coffee break
3.30­–4.30 pm Artist talk with Zinkpè (Cotonou): a perspective from within Benin’s art scene
5­–6 pm Wrap-up discussion

Concept and organization:
Verena Rodatus and Romuald Tchibozo
Kunsthistorisches Institut Abteilung Kunst Afrikas