Impossible is Nothing
July 16, 2018 4:35 AM   Subscribe

Beninese artist Thierry Oussou’s multimedia installation Impossible Is Nothing, is currently on show at the Berlin Biennale. It's a multimedia representation of an excavation carried out in 2016 at Allada in Tokpa, southern Benin, with history and archaeology students from University of Abomey-Calavi. They uncovered the 19th-century royal throne of King Béhanzin, the last ruler of the kingdom of Dahomey. Except the throne has been in possession of the French state since the early 1890s when Béhanzin was defeated, and Dahomey (present-day Benin) colonised and it's currently in the stores of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris.

The excavation uncovered a reproduction of the throne, commissioned by Oussou and buried secretly on the site of a former royal palace. In the process, the excavation uncovered contemporary artefacts from the palace.

The throne is the source of a dispute between France, the holder of the original, and Benin, which is demanding its restitution - the first diplomatic mission of it's kind to be instigated by a former African colony. France is currently saying "Sorry, but it's no" (article in French).

Congolese-born art collector Sindika Dokolo has suggested the repatriation of African heritage and art taken during European colonisation is as urgent as returning art looted by the Nazis to the heirs of the original owners.
posted by Helga-woo (7 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is a big conversation, really, bigger than this single artistic stunt. Western museums have a lot of items on display. Many of these were acquired through less than honorable means, by today’s standards.

Should everything be returned? It’s possible to argue no, that some items on display abroad make the culture of an area accessible for those with no means to travel... but certainly it is ridiculous for a country to insist that major pieces cannot be repatriated.

Flip it on it’s head. Imagine the outrage if Louis XIV’s throne were in a museum in Benin, and the French people were told that it was not going to be returned.

It’s incredibly patronizing to keep artifacts that have been requested ... the “owners” are in effect saying that the country of origin is incapable of understanding, valuing, or caring for the item as well or as much as the “owners” are.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:48 AM on July 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


Correction/update: France has confirmed they will return them, announced in Benin a few months ago.

Best to check dates before posting – the "sorry, but it's no" article dates from 2017.
posted by fraula at 6:36 AM on July 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


This is a big conversation, really, bigger than this single artistic stunt.

This strikes me as a strange way to approach this for a couple reasons. One being calling it an "artistic stunt," as opposed to simply "art," the other being an apparent assumption that the artist's goals don't include being a part of that big conversation. That seems pretty dismissive toward the artist. Perhaps I've misunderstood? I feel like I must have, your final point resonates with me so much!

My partner was recently in Nantes, and in one of the museums (I think the Nantes History Museum in the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) there is an exhibit that includes a room that explores a similar theme - it is filled with blank canvases and blank sculpture stands, each with an accompanying plaque that has an image of the (real) object and text indicating the museum to which it is on "indefinite loan" to - ie they got it as a direct result of the history of Europe stealing from Africa and have no particular intention to ever repatriate it. Unfortunately I'm having a frustratingly hard time finding information online about that specific part of the exhibit.
posted by solotoro at 6:36 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Thank you Fraula, that's good news! I should've known better than to trust the Guardian's research.

I'm having a hard time remembering it's 2018 not 2017 at the moment, but that's by the by.
posted by Helga-woo at 6:41 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


solotoro would it be Expression(s) décoloniale(s)?
posted by fraula at 6:44 AM on July 16, 2018


solotoro: "This strikes me as a strange way to approach this for a couple reasons. One being calling it an "artistic stunt," as opposed to simply "art," the other being an apparent assumption that the artist's goals don't include being a part of that big conversation. "

Bigger than simply this one specific item (the throne) and this one specific art-piece-as-protest. Perhaps "stunt" wasn't the best choice of words. I am thinking of the day I spent in the Louvre... it's quite amazing to have so much history around you all in one place, but then I began considering where the items originated, and what we mean when we discuss ownership, and the whole colonial conqueror mentality that lead to the amassing of fortunes and collections in Western museums... it struck me that this is a dialog we should be having on a lot of fronts.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:25 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


I saw this in person at the Berlin Biennale. The whole biennale this year is a statement on colonization and race (more specifically the erasure of blackness and color and the dominance of white supremacy)

The curation as whole really challenged me and I’m glad I was able to see it all in person.
posted by nikaspark at 11:35 AM on July 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


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