Long love affair with African art

A Beijing couple are on a mission to make their compatriots more familiar with the brilliant Makonde woodcarvings

In Songzhuang, Beijing's biggest artist community in the eastern suburbs of the city, there is a special art center that stands out from the other galleries because of its exotic artworks.

Bright blue walls surround the center. After walking past a construction site, the view suddenly brightens, with numerous exquisite woodcarvings scattered around a large space. Their colors, lines and contours reflect a faint glow from the lamplight, creating an artistic world full of mystery.

The owners of the center are a retired Chinese couple, the 72-year-old Li Songshan and his 69-year-old wife Han Rong. Building such a gallery was the realization of a long-held dream for the two.

With 13 buildings covering 1,000 square meters, the center, which is called African Tribe, has hundreds of Makonde carvings the couple have brought back from Africa over the past 30 years. It will be completed and open to the public in May, and will be the first privately owned non-profit organization in China dedicated to promoting African culture.

"Our purpose in building this center is to promote African culture and art in China, and to build a platform for China-Africa cultural exchanges," Li says.

"As far as I know, in recent decades Chinese people have expanded their activities from trade and investment to cultural exchanges in more and more African countries, making African people gradually learn more about China and its people.

"But the exchange is not equal. In contrast, opportunities for Chinese people to learn about Africa are relatively rare. People in China don't know much about African culture and art. I hope we can do something to correct this by opening this African cultural center in Beijing, China's culture capital."

The couple says they started working in Africa in the early 1970s and became obsessed with Makonde sculptures, as they thought those imaginative carvings were endowed with a sense of optimism that only African people possess.

"Each work is unique," Han says. "No two are the same, and it's impossible to copy them. Makonde art is the most representative output from Africa in the art scene."

She says Makonde carving is probably the best-known art produced in Tanzania, where the Makonde people create delicate carvings in African ebony. The local craftsmen use their tribal myths and stories as inspiration for the pieces, but the carvings also feature a modern response to contemporary life.

"Not many people have heard of Makonde art, but people may look at it with new eyes once they learn that many of the great modern artists in Europe saw it as a new art language. Even Pablo Picasso drew inspiration from it. Those sculptures have greatly influenced international modern art."

Han says, with their exaggerated appearance and sometimes contorted postures, the sculptures embody the fantasies of artists, and each one is endowed by the artists with different meanings.

"Some say it is hard to understand them, but I think art is about feeling, inspiration and imagination, rather than obscure theories. Every artwork is worthy of appreciation."

The establishment of African Tribe has attracted attention from high-level officials in both China and Africa.

Bernard Membe, Tanzania's minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, attended the center's foundation-laying ceremony in 2012. He spoke highly of Li and Han's contribution to introducing African art, especially Tanzanian art, to Beijing and China, and said they are "the real Tanzanian ambassadors to China."

The complex has already received groups of African guests from many countries, most of them officials or diplomats.

"My wife and I feel very happy every time when we hear visitors say they felt at home at the center," Li says.

African Tribe is composed of four parts: African Art Experiencing and Exhibition Hall, African Artist Workshop, African craft shops run by Africans, and the African Makonde Art Institute.

In addition to art appreciation, Li hopes he can cultivate interest among more Chinese people in this particular art form through organizing workshops and seminars, and also expand Chinese people's knowledge of Africa to wider areas such as politics and the economy.

"We hope through what we have done, we can make African people feel that their Chinese friends respect and appreciate their arts and culture, it may help them boost self-confidence in their cultural legacy," Li says. "Our ultimate goal is to promote China-Africa friendship."

Prior to the establishment of African Tribe, Li and Han had donated more than 12,000 exquisite African woodcarvings and paintings they had collected from Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and other southeast African countries to the Changchun municipal government. Then a Songshan Hanrong African Art Collection Museum was built to display the collection, allowing local people a close look at these masterpieces.

The museum is the first of its kind to specialize in foreign art and the collection was the largest donation of foreign art since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Those artworks mean that China now has the largest collection of contemporary Makonde sculptures outside Tanzania.

"To put these works in a museum allows more people to learn about African culture and art," Li says, adding that the public museum can also better maintain the collection.

"Some people thought I was out of my mind, because they didn't understand why I donated those precious sculptures instead of selling them."

The couple have decorated their home with the few remaining pieces from their collection they chose to keep.

"Many years have passed since we first set foot in Africa," Li says. "As members of China's first generation of intellectuals devoted to Africa-related work, my wife and I have forged a long and abiding love for the continent and its people. To promote communication between the two regions has become my responsibility and being able to make that donation was very satisfying."

Li says Makonde carving is an important part of the world's art treasures and by becoming familiar with it Chinese artists will be able to use it as inspiration for their own creative endeavors.

"Our enthusiasm and determination to promote the art of Makonde carving has never been dampened by any difficulties we've faced." Li says.

"We hope this will attract more Chinese young people to embark on this hard journey of promoting art and cultural exchanges between China and Africa."

liulu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/28/2014 page29)