Tanzania (United Republic of)

A Flight in Reverse Mirrors consists of four imaginary rooms, each representative of an era in the history of Tanzania: from the late 19th to the first two decades of the 21st century, and on to a decontextualised future/present. The rooms, in specular dialogue, culminate in the transformation of the last one into an invisible spirit, symbolised by a moth, in metaphorical flight through the other three, concluding its journey in a cyclical process of death and rebirth. The exhibited works – paintings, woodcuts, site-specific installations – explore themes of travel, migration, nomadism, and the transformations imposed by environmental changes.
The pavilion investigates the origins of the concept of the “Other”. One the “Cradles of Humanity”, Tanzania provides a privileged vantage point to the earliest relationships between humans and nature. Later, the Trickster was developed as an archetype of mediator between these two realms, embodying hybrids between man and God—and eventually identifying with the priestly castes. Concepts of diversity, and conflict, and a sense of belonging and exclusion arose then.
Today, this crucial role of mediators can be entrusted to artists, who, like our ancestors, will communicate their own past to the “Other”, share the present, and anticipate the future.