Ernest draws on life experiences ranging from early memories of his family’s relationships to the ancestors, to education in the field of journalism and later on in art education in Paris, as well as a deep and rooted artistic practice in Denmark. We encounter an artist with a focused and careful relationship towards artistically researching man’s position here on earth. An artist who is not afraid of debating Europe’s one-sided relationship to the African continent and its artforms in a time of the many breakthroughs of modernism within art. In this exhibition we have created a smaller museum for the works of Ernest Mancoba from the Danish collections of the Ernest Mancoba Sonja Ferlov Estate in Denmark as well as Museum Jorn Silkeborg. We are also showing artworks by the contemporary artists Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Chloé Quenum, Myriam Mihindou, Mathewsie Amidlak, Nkuli Mlangeni Berg and James Webb that are inspired by or related to the legacy of Ernest Mancoba.

Joanna Sandell

Documentation from the 7.th of March, opening Ernest Mancoba – An Artist and His Legacy. Conversation between Joanna Sandell, director, Södertälje konsthall and Alicia Knock, curator Centre Pompidou. Performance by Ageli.