CAPE TOWN – Moody, brooding and floating, Malagasy artist Joel Andrianomearisoa's "The Five Continents of All Our Desires” is transforming the towering atrium of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town.
Malagasy's sculptures in black silk paper are suspended in the museum's multi-story central atrium. The constructions form a massive, slowly moving mobile that suggests geographical archipelagos and play off the building's massive concrete curving walls.
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The structure originally served as grain silos at Cape Town's port, and the museum was created by scooping out several of the interior walls and this installation was made specifically for the atrium.
“It is a revelation and honor to host an artwork of this scale and ambition, Koyo Kouoh. the Zeitz Museum's executive director and chief curator said in a statement about “The Five Continents.” "To hold, to speak, to listen and to love — sentiments and values that echo our mission are brought center stage with this incredible work.”
The site-specific installation the museum commissioned from Andrianomearisoa includes a sound element and the artist's drawings.
Andrianomearisoa, born in 1977, works in Madagascar and France. In 2019, he represented Madagascar at the Venice Biennale and his work has been exhibited in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and at the Pompidou museum in Paris (2005).
His work is also in The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York and the Collection Yavarhoussen in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
“The Five Continents of All Our Desires” will be on show in Cape Town until June 25, 2023.