Africa Now! At the World Bank

Posted by Susanna at 11:54 PM, Dec 9, 2008 (Comments)

Category: Design & Art

Swedes Maria Ekman and Frida Sellman

THE WORLD BANK is famous and infamous for a lot of things. But great art usually doesn't come to mind when the subject of The World Bank comes up.

BUT THEY DID get the art thing right this week with their "Africa Now!" Exhibition. Featuring 150 artists and 10 designers from across the continent, in media that included photography, fashion, clay, prints and drawings, the show was simply wonderful, spilling across the executive 12th level of the headquarters building on H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., as well as the first and second floors.

"AFRICA NOW!" was conceived and organized by the World Bank Art Program in partnership with the World Bank Vice Presidency for the Africa Region and the Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal.

NORWEGIAN Pia Dahl was a leader on the team that brought the exhibition to fruition, and the talented photographer and filmmaker Aida Muluneh had her works included in the show. Aida has worked and given workshops in Stockholm and elsewhere in Sweden, when she is not living in her native Ethiopia and in New York.

Bruce McNeil and Pia Dahl