Paradise, or unpredictable, menacing jungle, escape or place of damnation? This exhibition investigates the myth of “the tropics” through the juxtaposition of contemporary and pre-modern artworks. Contemporary artistic involvement with the myth of “the tropics” is juxtaposed with historical objects from the geographically defined belt of the tropics. Exhibits from Africa, Asia, Oceania and tropical America on loan from the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin − some of the most important worldwide − enter into a dialogue with the works of 15 contemporary artists from Germany, Spain, Brazil, Great Britain, Vietnam, Indonesia, Peru and South Africa.

With the exhibition at Iziko South African National Gallery from Wednesday 1 April until Sunday 14 June 2009 (Tuesdays to Sundays 10:00 until 17:00), it is the first time that artefacts from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s collection are being shown in sub-Saharan Africa. The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe has in an extended version been presented in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Berlin. It was hugely acclaimed and in Brazil alone more than half a million visitors came to see the show.

The exhibition is accompanied by a cultural programme of Iziko South African National Gallery as well as the Goethe-Institut.

The exhibition The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe is a joint project of the Goethe-Institut and the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and was funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Press Information Contacts

Iziko Museums of Cape Town
Merle Falken
+27 (0) 21 481 3811
mfalken@iziko.org.za

Goethe-Institut:
Dagmar Wittek
+27 (0) 11 442 3232
pr@johannesburg.goethe.org

Image

Commemorative statue of a king, Cameroon, Bamenon & Marcos Chaves © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

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