Magician of the Earth, Esther Mahlangu
Turning traditional Ndebele house painting into Modern Art and contemporary design
The exhibition called Magicians of the Earth was held over four months spanning the summer of 1989 in Paris, at the Pompidou Centre and Grande Halle de la Villette. Yet it has been dubbed ‘the most important exhibition no one saw’...
If time travel were possible, I would love to visit it!
It aimed to shift the art world’s gaze from Western culture to the entire ‘transnational’ world. Art has been a human imperative of self-expression and a way to interact with the world around us since prehistoric times — cave paintings have been discovered in Indonesia that are 45,000 years old. Ancient beads, carved jaw bones, and pigments show that decoration was important to our ancient ancestors and even our Neanderthal cousins shared this creative urge.
Magiciens de la Terre / Magicians of The Earth sought to celebrate this natural human creative impulse that unifies us in all its cultural diversity, by offering direct access to contemporary art from around the world. What if art from beyond the point of view of ‘The West’ was just as interesting, vital, and valuable… if not more so?
