Georges Adéagbo, THE DEFENSE..!

THE DEFENSE…!
“Who would take up defense and come
defend us, if we had not taken up defense and defend ourselves”..!

Lumen Travo is delighted that Adéagbo will present work as an extension to his 2015 show at Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden.
Georges Adéagbo (1942, Cotonou, Benin) produces site-specific installations, in which he creates a relationship between his own personal history and the cultural and political history and current events related to the place where he is working. In preparation for his installation for Global Imaginations (2015), Adéagbo visited Leiden, particularly De Meelfabriek and Museum De Lakenhal, for inspiration. At Museum De Lakenhal, Lucas van Leyden’s “The Last Judgement” made a particular impression.
Textiles are a recurring feature of Adéagbo’s work, symbolising the fusion of local and global, highlighting issues of interdependence seen between tailor and weaver and also through first world and third world labour divisions. Textiles played a key role in Leiden’s industrial heritage, from where – centuries ago – they were shipped to the Benin in West Africa.

Georges Adéagbo lives and works in Cotonou and Hamburg. He has been acclaimed as one of West Africa’s foremost artists ever since his contribution to Documenta in 2002 called, “The explorer and the explorers facing the history of Exploration. The World-Theater…!” . His installations have been exhibited in Europe, the two Americas, and even Japan, but remained virtually unknown in West Africa itself. His commissioned works tackle such subjects as cultural cannibalism, slavery, socialism, religion, war and art. He builds his installations up from artefacts, objects trouvés from everyday cultures, as well as from illustrations and sculptures that he orders from sign-painters and form wood-carvers. His works can be found in major collections, i.e. Museum Ludwig Cologne, Moderna Museum Stockholm and most recent Israel Museum, Jerusalem. His exhibitions are supported and co-curated by Stephan Köhler (Kulturforum Sud-Nord, Hamburg – Cotonou).