Meschac Gaba

Prague Biennale

Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art

Gaba is best known for his Museum of Contemporary African Art, a project in which he installed 12 ‘rooms’ of a nomadic museum in various institutions over a period of six years starting in 1996, culminating with his presentation of a ‘Humanist Space’ at Documenta11 in 2002. Gaba’s project mirrored and arguably anticipated curatorial debates about contemporary art from Africa, and the increasingly nomadic nature of the international art world in the 21st century.

Meschac Gaba’s “Adji” game is an adaptation of the famous traditional African game “awélé”. In Gaba’s version, you play against the computer and the usual tokens are replaced by coins.

In his art, Meschac Gaba focuses on issues around intercultural balance and imbalance. In his Museum of Contemporary African Art he presents 12 different rooms which were produced separately for different institutions in several countries: for example, the Library for the Witte de With in Rotterdam, the Game Room for the SMAK in Ghent, the Wedding Room for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Humanist Space for the documenta 11 in Kassel, the Salon for the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Museum Restaurant for the W139 in Amsterdam…