African Heritage: A Bridge of Cultures

On 25 May 2023, on the occasion of the International Africa Day, a conference titled ‘African Heritage: A Bridge of Cultures‘ will be held at the Campus Luigi Einaudi of the University of Turin, during which three protagonists of the current African cultural scene will talk about the artistic, architectural and urban planning scene in today’s Africa, its connection with the colonial past and its ambition for a sustainable future.

Designed to celebrate the Organisation of African Unity anniversary (25 May 1963), the conference is dedicated to the value and potential of African cultural heritage as a means of promoting international dialogue within and outside of the continent.

African cultural heritage is an extraordinarily rich and ancient repository of aesthetics, ideas, symbols and emotions, essential to African societies’ history and identity and to humanity as a whole. These include oral literature, visual and performing arts, living environments, objects and material cultures. These traditions circulated widely within and outside of Africa for centuries and colonialism led to a massive, traumatic export of African art to western museums.

In recent years, a wide-ranging debate has highlighted the need for strong cooperation between African and European cultural institutions to explore, research, reinterpret, promote this heritage and make it physically and digitally accessible to the widest possible audience.

Guests:

Takele Merid Assefa – University of Addis Ababa
Medhanie Tekle Marian – Asmara UNESCO City Manager
Bekele Mekonnen Nigussu – University of Addis Ababa

Discussants:

Lucrezia Cippitelli – Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
Enrica Pagella – Musei Reali Torino
Cecilia Pennacini – Università di Torino
Alessio Re – Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture
Janet Buhanza – Associazione Donne Africa Subsahariana e II Generazione

The conference is free to attend and open to the public but seats are limited: book a free ticket to secure your seat.

The conference is the first of a series of appointments organised by the Fondazione Santagata in collaboration with the University of Turin, the Musei Reali di Torino and the Direzione Regionale Musei Piemonte as part of the ‘Voices of Africa in the Colonial Legacy’ project.

Updates on the next appointments in the programme will follow soon.