Meschac Gaba

Born in Benin in 1961, Meschac Gaba moved to the Netherlands in 1996 to take up resi­dency at the Rijksakademie. There, he conceived Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002, an ambitious work that took five years to complete and cemented his reputation as one of the most important artists working today. Consisting of 12 sections, or actual rooms, the work challenges preconceived notions of what African art is and provides a new discursive space for social and cultural interaction, critiquing the museum’s value both as an institution and as a symbol of cultural capital. The importance of this work, which is being acquired by Tate, has been widely acknowl­edged in exhibitions ranging from Documenta XI, Kassel, in 2002 to Intense Proximity: La Triennale, Paris in 2012. Contributions by leading scholars place the work in the context of the artist’s oeurvre, art history, and museology.