The Brooklyn Rail

For the first time since its inception in 1895, the Venice Biennale unveils a pavilion presented by the Republic of Benin. Curator Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of the African Artists’ Foundation and LagosPhoto Festival, has crafted a unique dialogue in his project Everything Precious Is Fragile. The Benin Pavilion is designed to be paradoxical—to showcase the balance between vulnerability and resilience, with works from Moufouli Bello (b. 1987), Romuald Hazoumè (b. 1962), Chloé Quenum (b. 1983), and Ishola Akpo (b. 1983) on immaculate display. The Pavilion is an exercise in vulnerability and strength, and a reflection of the fragility of ecological, epistemological ideas—of history, memory, and other elements that can be restored through Guèlèdè, a Yoruba philosophy that highlights precarity.

Post-colonial restoration lays the foundation for Everything Precious Is Fragile. In 2021, twenty-six artifacts taken by French colonizers were returned to Benin, while the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in the US announced plans to repatriate the Benin bronzes it had in its possession. Fast-forward three years, and Beninese art is on full display—contemporarily, and on its own terms in Venice. Nwagbogu, in his thoughtful curations, reinforces the need for decolonization through activism, paired with topics including gender, slavery, repatriation, and spirituality.

All four Beninese artists leverage photography in some fashion to develop their works—as a means of documentation or for research. Akpo explores the representation of women in positions of authority, while Bello celebrates Guèlèdè feminist philosophy—complete with a so-called Library of Resistance that unveils the history of women’s thought via publishing. Quenum, in line with the events of recent years, found her work in objects taken from Africa and placed in museums throughout Europe. Hazoumè, meanwhile, has created a remarkable cathedral, inviting audiences to come together in celebration of Benin. The centerpiece of the pavilion, this cathedral is composed of the artist’s signature masks, both inside and outside; lined with fuel canisters, Hazoumè notes that his native Benin has long considered others’ cultures while neglecting its own. To this end, his works are a means of cultural preservation—of staying top-of-mind for future generations. The impact is profound, with works like Carpe Rouge (2019)—a feathered mask made of recycled materials—contrasting garbage and beauty. Here, containers are at the core of the work, photographed and documented before sculpturally coming alive. Hazoumè’s Yoruba lineage inspires his artistry, with each recycled material reflecting the consequences of colonization and identity.

Quenum’s contributions echo these themes. The Franco-Beninese artist, who studied anthropology of writing in Paris, began her process by visiting the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, where she observed historic Beninese musical instruments. For Everything Precious Is Fragile, she used metal, concrete, and glass—her preferred material—to unveil the political issues around mixed-race and female visibility. Opaque or transparent depending on the application, Quenum’s contributions reproduced these objects, tracing how they were brought to France from Benin and telling their stories of fragility and heritage. The venue’s associations with the Venetian slave trade, and Beninese history around the transatlantic slave trade, add further significance to the works.

Akpo uses photography to blend reality and fiction. Thoughtful and provocative, Traces of a Queen IV (2020) honors the African women who have slipped through the proverbial cracks of history—celebrating female royalty through a digitally-manipulated portrait, collaged and sewn atop a black and white image of dozens of female Benineise soldiers. Removing the heads of the African kings initially posing at the center of these images, he reimagines them as women; his multimedia tapestries underscore female power, mixing modernism and African tradition in a celebration of femininity.

And then there’s Bello, whose batik-blue canvases examine the desires and limitations women experience in Beninese society. Basing her work on photographs of “ordinary women,” who work near her studio—tailors, hair stylists, and family members—Bello spoke to each subject about her hopes, encouraging them to bloom in front of the camera and become the main characters in their own lives before creating her paintings. Inspired by a spiritual Yoruba-Beninese dance based on motherhood, Bello’s Night Birds (2022) honors in lovely blue and verdant green the women of her surroundings.

Each artist offers a unique take on Benin’s history. The nation’s inclusion in the Venice Biennial follows an influx of African countries to the Venetian event, with the Republic of Madagascar and Ghana making their debut in 2019, and the Republic of Cameroon, Namibia, and Uganda following suit in 2022. Putting the spotlight on Guèlèdè—founded in indigenous knowledge systems that rely on the concept of the return to the mother, or Iya—Nwagbogu has curated a so-called return to Benin, a form of rematriation and an environment where everything precious is fragile. In each work, Beninese wisdom is nurtured, artists share their insights with audiences from around the world.