© Meschac Gaba / Photo © Tate (Jai Monaghan)
9 rooms in Materials and Objects
What happens when objects of spiritual and personal significance are displayed in a museum?
Meschac Gaba brings together over 75 objects related to various world religions and cultures. Symbols of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Vodún and other traditional African faiths are arranged on shelves of a cross-shaped wooden structure. This room also includes a table and chairs used for Tarot card readings.
Art has long played an important role in the teaching and dissemination of religion. Gaba comments that in contemporary Benin, where he is from, most people are poly-religious: ‘Catholics brought Christianity, but for my ancestors Catholicism and Voodoo are not different ... You will see sculptures of angels, of Jesus Christ, and the Mami Wata all in the same house.’
In his museum-within-a-museum, Gaba challenges the expectations and boundaries of what’s perceived as art and as religious artifacts. We see empty beer bottles, a child’s plastic toy doll, mirrors, crystals, a piggy bank, reminding us that everyday objects can carry spiritual significance. Removing them from their original contexts and presenting them in a gallery space, Gaba reveals the power museums have to create and dictate value. For the artist, inspiration comes from daily life, ‘because in daily life you find new things, you find traditional things, you find everything.’
Meschac Gaba, Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art &²Ô²ú²õ±è;1997–2002
Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002 is composed of 12 room installations that can be shown individually or in groups. Through the work he invites conversation about how museums in Europe and North America show and collect African art. The work is flexible, representing more of a conceptual museum than a physical one. It is a provocation to acknowledge contemporary African art and its exclusion from the Western art historical canon. Gaba has said that ‘my museum doesn’t exist... it’s only a question.’
In this installation Gaba brings together over 75 objects related to various world religions and cultures. Symbols of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Vodún and other traditional African faiths are arranged on shelves of a cross-shaped wooden structure. It also includes a table and chairs used for Tarot card readings. Art has long played an important role in the teaching and dissemination of religion. Gaba comments that in contemporary Benin, where he is from, most people are poly-religious: ‘Catholics brought Christianity, but for my ancestors Catholicism and Voodoo are not different ... You will see sculptures of angels, of Jesus Christ, and the Mami Wata all in the same house.’
Gallery label, April 2025
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artworks in Meschac Gaba
Art in this room
Meschac Gaba
Art and Religion Room From Museum of Contemporary African Art
1997–2002