History of Benin Benin exhibition at Museum Rietberg recognizes colonial injustice
Igun Street in Benin City in Nigeria is the home of the foundry guilds and the center of art production there. Visitors to the exhibition "In dialog with Benin. Art, Colonialism and Restitution" at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.
Image: Keystone
The relief plate of the Royal Guild of Bronze Casters shows King Oba Ozolua (ca. 1483-1503). Under his rule, Benin was transformed from a regional kingdom into a large empire with numerous vassal states. (detail)
Image: Keystone
Igun Street in Benin City in Nigeria is the home of the foundry guilds and the center of art production there. Visitors to the exhibition "In dialog with Benin. Art, Colonialism and Restitution" at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.
Image: Keystone
The relief plate of the Royal Guild of Bronze Casters shows King Oba Ozolua (ca. 1483-1503). Under his rule, Benin was transformed from a regional kingdom into a large empire with numerous vassal states. (detail)
Image: Keystone
Benin in present-day Nigeria stands for a dark chapter in colonial history. In an exhibition, the Museum Rietberg in Zurich is now also looking at history from a Nigerian perspective - and is not ruling out the return of art objects.
For the exhibition "In dialog with Benin. Art, Colonialism and Restitution", Museum Rietberg has collaborated with partners from Nigeria and the diaspora. The four curators Josephine Ebiuwa Abbe, Solange Mbanefo, Michaela Oberhofer and Esther Tisa Francini come from Nigeria and Switzerland.
"World view in Benin"
The collaboration with Swiss-Nigerian architect Solange Mbanefo in particular is a first, according to the museum's documentation for the exhibition. For the design, she was inspired "by the world view in Benin". Accordingly, the interior is based on the courtyards of the palace in Benin. The color coral red stands for royal appearances and ceremonies. The presentation reflects the original arrangement of the objects on the columns of the palace or on the sacred ancestral shrines.
In the outdoor areas, the exhibition provides information on the biographies of the objects and on contemporary history. The predominant color there is blue-green, the color of water and the sea god Olokun. With this, the architect wants to refer to the trade of the Benin kingdom with the Portuguese from the 15th century onwards and Benin's foreign relations in general.
Mbanefo also draws on a design principle based on folded, lenticular architecture. Fragmented images, for example of street scenes in Benin City, only reveal themselves to visitors when they adopt the right perspective. "This makes it possible to experience the complex history of Benin and the diversity of voices in the space," writes the museum.
Looting in the year 1897
The exhibition is based on the year 1897, a catastrophe for the kingdom of Benin at the time. After the conquest, the British army reduced the palace to rubble and drove King Oba Ovonramwen into exile.
Thousands of elaborately crafted objects, fine ivory carvings, memorial figures and brass relief plates were looted and torn from their original context. As a result, the war trophies became commodities and eventually exhibits in European museums. The Museum Rietberg collection also contains looted cultural artefacts from this period.
These objects are now the focus of the exhibition. The sixteen Benin objects from the Museum Rietberg are complemented by works from the Africa Collection and loans from the Bernisches Historisches Museum and the Musée d'ethnographie da la Ville de Neuchâtel.
"In Dialogue with Benin" places Benin in the context of Africa's art history, addresses the historical events, shows the present of the cultural heritage and, above all, asks about its future. A film produced in Nigeria shows 1897. A new brass sculpture and mourning songs by Josephine Ebiuwa Abbe illustrate the continuing pain of Edo society.
Possible return of cultural assets
When the Museum Rietberg asks about the future, it is also about acknowledging injustice and, if necessary, returning cultural property. This so-called restitution is one of the issues that the museum has addressed over the last four years as part of the Benin Initiative Switzerland (BIS). Supported by the Federal Office of Culture, eight Swiss museums are examining their Benin collections together with colleagues from Nigeria.
After the four-year process as part of the BIS, a "final decision" on restitution is to be made on October 26 at a restitution forum, Esned Nezić, Head of Marketing and Communication at Museum Rietberg, told the Keystone-SDA news agency. "We make recommendations, but the decision is then up to the politicians," Nezić continues.
The exhibition "In Dialogue with Benin" at Museum Rietberg is taking place as part of the BIS. It can be seen from August 23 to February 16, 2025. At the same time, the partner museums, such as the Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève and the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich, will be hosting exhibitions and events on dealing with cultural heritage from Benin in Switzerland.
