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or a contemporary African art curator – zero! “It’s amazing – it’s as if Africa doesn’t exist, art wise! No one has been interested. It’s incomprehensible – a huge void. What is equally amazing, even more startling, is that none of the big multinational companies working in Africa – the Shells, the BPs, the Coca Colas, Unilevers and the Nestléés – not one of them have come to me and said ‘you know Jean, we’ve been working in Africa all these years, let’s do something together – let’s put something back; let’s sponsor a show, let’s build a museum. Whenever we’ve done a big show, I’ve been waiting for them to give me a call, to suggest something. It’s never happened.” Pigozzi hopes that after this New African exposure of some of the remarkable African works in his collection and reading his comments, the boardrooms of these international companies might wake up to the rich opportunities that are currently passing them by. Why Africa? has attracted thousands of visitors to the Pinacoteca Giovanni Marella Agnelli gallery since it opened last October within the remarkable Lingotto complex in Turin, Italy. Constructed in 1923, the Lingotto building was where, for more than half a century, Fiat cars were built. The Lingotto stopped producing cars in 1982 and now houses a luxury hotel on its ground and lower floors; offices and a shopping mall on its upper floors, and a conference centre and the Pinacoteca Giovanni Marella Agnelli gallery itself on the top floor, set in the middle of Fiat’s famous roof-top test track. Why Africa? has exhibited some 100 selected works by 16 artists from the world’s most important modern African art collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, models, ceramics and a site-specific installation, many on public show for the first time. In an exclusive interview with New African, Pigozzi explained just how his fascination with modern African art began. He had been collecting Western contemporary art in a modest way when he went to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris to view a 1989 exhibition called ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ (Magicians of the World). This was described as “a systematic exploration of the ‘forgotten’ continents – Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania”, and the African content, in particular, left a lasting impression. Determined to start an African collection,

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he enlisted the services of Andréé Magnin (who had a hand in organising the Magiciens de la Terre exhibition) as his curator. Magnin now travels the continent on Pigozzi’s behalf, searching, photographing and reporting back on new artists to add to the Pigozzi collection. Remarkably, Pigozzi never travels to Africa himself. “I like to imagine that Africa is what my wonderful artists show me,” he says. “I want to keep on dreaming – but everything that comes into my collection is approved personally. Andréé [Magnin] has a huge input, but I have the ultimate word.” Although a businessman with a formidable reputation as a highly successful venture capitalist, Pigozzi insists that, for him, buying African art is very much a passion, even an obsession, and has never been a financial investment. He never sells any of the works he acquires. Nevertheless, he sees some similarities between collecting art and the investment industry. He has works by some 100 artists in his collection but only 20 to 25 of them have matured into world-class artists. As he says, that is like investing in companies – you win some, you lose some. But his attitude is to collect in depth. On finding an artist that interests him, he enters into a longterm relationship, buying their work on a regular basis. But he does have certain rules – four in particular. His collection is never lent for ethnological exhibitions – rather, pieces are only lent as art works in their own right, to stand next to the Picassos, the Duchamps, the Rothkos etc, the masters of modern Western art. The artists he collects are all living; must be black Africans; and they must live in Africa, not the diaspora. Some of his artists have attained worldrecognition, such as the Malian photographer Malick Sidibéé who was awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the International Venice Biennale in 2007. When asked how much money he has spent on his collection, Pigozzi explains: “It’s not just on buying the works themselves but I employ six or seven people full time; and the works have to be shipped over from Africa, have to be conserved, insured, photographed, stored properly, catalogued and of course I lend work out all over the world. It’s a huge amount of labour-intensive work. But over nearly two decades, I have spent more than US$10m.” Pigozzi says he finds it enormously heart

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ening that the money he spends goes so far in Africa. He realises that when he buys a piece of art, the money always goes direct to the artists themselves rather than through galleries, and filters down to support many people through extended networks of family and friends. “I do not remember a single instance of one of my artists squandering the money I spend on their art, visiting the casino or buying a fancy car or other luxuries,” he says. But he is not in favour of charity per se. If one of his artists needs money in an emergency, perhaps a relative needs a medical operation or school fees, he will send the money immediately but on the understanding that the artist will send a piece of art in return. They have never let him down.

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Malick Sidibéé (left), winner of the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the International Venice Biennale 2007, and his photo – Christmas Eve, Bamako 1963. Opposite: Kirikanta, one of a series of masks crafted from plastic jerry cans by Romuald Hazouméé

Seven of the artists – Chééri Chéérin (DRCongo), Romuald Hazouméé (Benin), Titos Mabota (Mozambique), Esther Mahlangu (South Africa), Chééri Samba (DRCongo), Malick Sidibéé (Mali) and Pathy Tshindele (DRCongo) – were at the opening of Why Africa? which also received a visit from the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi. At the glittering opening night, with music provided by Sekouba Bombino and his Bouréé Band from Guinea, dinner was served to some 300 guests drawn from the West’s modern art world for whom this exhibition of African contemporary art must have been something of a revelation. The other nine artists featured were Pierre Bodo (DRCongo), Frederic Bruly Bouabréé (Côôte Ivoire), Seni Awa Camara (Senegal), Calixte Dakpogan (Benin), Seydou Keita (Mali), Bodys Isek Kingelez (DRCongo), George Lilanga (Tanzania), Abu Bockari Mansaray (Sierra Leone) and Richard Onyango (Kenya). The five-month-long exhibition has definitely left its mark on European soil. g NA

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