Meschac Gaba

Colorful aesthetics and social critique merge in the installations, objects and performances of Benin-based artist Ekué Woekedje Meschac Gaba (born 1961). Gaba tackles sociopolitical questions such as the current effects of colonialism in the context of globalization and the art industry. The banknote is a central motif of his art; manipulated bills symbolize an abstract currency system that makes abstruse judgments about social exclusion and integration. Declaring himself a product of his heritage but resisting the arbitrary mechanisms of the market, Gaba defies the Eurocentric thinking of the international art world and stages African art as an equivalent axis of influence. His Museum of Contemporary African Art (1997-2002), for instance, was a laboratory in which the collective effects of the market were not only apparent, but could also be varied. Thus icons of Western culture enter into a creative dialogue with historical figures from African tradition.