African arts in museums: Collecting and exhibiting "Africa"

Interdisciplinary Elective Course

This course introduces students to the relevant role that exhibitions have played in the conceptualization of African arts and African art history during the 20th century, as well as how these exhibitions have in turn contributed to a reconceptualization of core concepts/issues in Western art history in the recent past. Students will start from a critical analysis of the politics of exhibiting cultures in museums and gallery collections through some of the most representative exhibitions of African arts during the 20th century. In the second half of the course, students will create their own virtual exhibitions of African arts as a means to experience the complexity and relevance of curatorial work and to reflect upon the implications of their own representations of Africa.