Simon Njami

The perception of Non-Western art in the 90s was articulated around three major concepts: otherness, centrality and authenticity. The Art World, which is still largely dominated by the Western gaze, would consider the rest of the world as a terra incognita upon which it felt free to transfer all sorts of fantasies. This phenomenon, based on the notion of art history, would look at (with a certain dose of exoticism inherited from the ethnographic attitudes) all productions excluded from the European definition of art as minor. The situation evolved in the early 20th century with a claimed strategy of inclusion. But, at the end of the day what really happened during those critical 20 years and does the West has anything to do with the changes we were able to witness?