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This is a past display. Go to current displays
The corner of a room with a black and white chequered floor, large cut out figures in bright colours are in the room.

Photo © Tate (Sam Day)

Anna Boghiguian

A close observer of the human condition, Anna Boghiguian draws on the past and the present, poetry and politics to interpret our interconnected world

A chess game is very interesting because it deals with strategy. It also deals with music, with poetry and the development of thought.

Boghiguian is based in Cairo, Egypt but travels extensively across the world. These journeys bring knowledge of ancient and contemporary world cultures and politics to her work. Displayed here is her large-scale installation Institution vs. The Mass, as well as books she has made throughout her decades-long career.

Conceived as a dynamic chess set, Institution vs. The Mass builds on Boghiguian’s interest in the cycles of revolution and sociopolitical change throughout history. The figures of the ‘Institution’ evoke ancient and contemporary power structures that are distanced from the lives of everyday people. The ‘Mass’ is comprised of activists, demonstrators and thinkers aspiring towards fundamental human rights and freedoms. At a time when oppressive regimes that infringe upon individual freedoms are globally active, Boghiguian’s work highlights collective efforts to confront power. As the artist says, ‘I think there are always periods of great change – that human beings come to the ultimate point of dissatisfaction and frustration, and they want change’.

Each time the work is installed the pieces on the board can be rearranged, thereby re-shaping the power relations and the multiplicity of meanings the work can offer.

Boghiguian created the figures in encaustic, an ancient technique made by burning beeswax mixed with coloured pigments, giving the painted surfaces a living materiality. Reminiscent of the cut-out paper figures used for popular theatre and storytelling in various traditions, they link back to the books at the centre of Boghiguian’s practice.

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Tate Modern
Natalie Bell Building Level 4 West
Room 9

Getting Here

13 November 2023 – 6 October 2024

Free

Meschac Gaba, Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art  1997–2002

Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002 is composed of 12 room installations that can be shown individually or in groups. Through the work he invites conversation about how museums in Europe and North America show and collect African art. The work is flexible, representing more of a conceptual museum than a physical one. It is a provocation to acknowledge contemporary African art and its exclusion from the Western art historical canon. Gaba has said that ‘my museum doesn’t exist... it’s only a question.’

In this installation Gaba brings together over 75 objects related to various world religions and cultures. Symbols of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Vodún and other traditional African faiths are arranged on shelves of a cross-shaped wooden structure. It also includes a table and chairs used for Tarot card readings. Art has long played an important role in the teaching and dissemination of religion. Gaba comments that in contemporary Benin, where he is from, most people are poly-religious: ‘Catholics brought Christianity, but for my ancestors Catholicism and Voodoo are not different ... You will see sculptures of angels, of Jesus Christ, and the Mami Wata all in the same house.’

Gallery label, April 2025

1/1
artworks in Anna Boghiguian

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T14969: Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art - Official View
Meschac Gaba Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002
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