Zohran Mamdani Visited MoMA’s West African Modern Architecture Survey and Loved It
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has continued his social media campaign to stump for exhibitions staged by the city’s museums, this time focusing on a survey of West African modernist architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, whose praises he sang on Instagram early this morning. MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and M+ Will Treat Their Holdings as One Collection in Unprecedented Alliance Titled “Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa,” the 400-work show surveys architectural projects in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon produced during a period of decolonization that began in some countries in the late 1950s. Curated by Martino Stierli and Ikem Stanley Okoye, the show features architectural models and archival imagery, as well as some contemporary artworks. “visited @themuseumofmodernart this weekend and am still thinking about their exhibition ‘architects of liberation: modernism in western africa,’” wrote Mamdani in his post. He specifically singled out Kader Attia’s 2014 sculpture Indépendence Tchao , a sculpture composed of rows of rusting index card boxes that the Algerian French artist obtained from a French colonial police headquarters. They are topped with a sign reading “HOTEL INDÉPENDENCE,” a reference to a similarly named hotel in Dakar, Senegal. MoMA to
