Museum is a Colonial Master
Fri Sep 6, 12:30 - Fri Sep 6, 13:45
Greenmarket Square
ABOUT
Jelili Atiku | Museum is a Colonial Master
In May 2018, the Nigerian artist Jelili Atiku screamed for help in the lobby of the Musée d’Aquitaine, in Bordeaux. “I want to go home,” he cried. “Benin. Edo . . . Take me back home!” Dressed as a bronze warrior, with limbs bound and a British flag trailing at his heels, he mimed the desperation of an artifact trapped in the museum—which he fled stripped to the waist, revealing metallically painted skin. The performance dramatized Nigeria’s long-frustrated efforts to recover the Benin Bronzes, a collection of several thousand sculptures seized, in 1897, during the British sack of Benin City. Today, they’re dispersed among more than a hundred collections, with the greatest number kept at the British Museum.” Julian Lucas, The New Yorker.
Globally renowned, Jelili Atiku is an award-winning performance artist and activist who engages audiences about politics, climate change, and social justice through his intriguing and often provocative performances.