Efie. The Museum as Home

In Efie. The Museum as Home, curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim stages her vision of a museum, featuring Ghanaian and Afro-Brazilian artists at Dortmunder U in Dortmund, Germany. The overarching question that Ayim poses is: “Can we bring our understanding of a museum across so that it also expands the idea of a museum here in Germany?”.

This exhibition of historical and contemporary art from Ghana expands the traditional understanding of “museum” by questioning time-honoured forms of presentation. It also offers new perspectives on the art and the realities from which it originates. Contemporary artworks sit next to historical artefacts originating from communities in what is now Ghana, that belong to German museum collections. Thus, the exhibition represents an attempt to become a place of convalescence for these objects, where they can recover from the isolation caused by being torn out of their original context. While film projections create an idea of how similar objects are traditionally used and cared for in Ghana.

As the cofounder of the Institute of Arts and Knowledge (ANO) in Ghana’s capital Accra, Ayim works to incorporate pan-African perspectives through exhibitions and scholarship. She also works with different institutions and collaborates with local communities and governments. With the invitation of Afro-Brazilian artist Diego Araúja, Ayim continues this approach by connecting Ghana to its diaspora in Brazil.

Diego Araúja, who works with traditional Ghanaian architecture and music, is concerned with the question of which narratives are conveyed in a museum. The artist deconstructs the seemingly immovable narratives of evolution, religion and capitalist growth by incorporating Afro-Brazilian work songs, also called vissungo. Through this, a layered dialogue between Ghana and Brazil emerges.