FEATURE
African Architecture
very different dimensions, which at first glance appear to have nothing in
common. On the one hand is his personal biography, that of a young man
from West Africa who left his village at the age of seven as the only member
of his family to learn to read and write. At the age of twenty, after a carpentry
apprenticeship, he was granted a scholarship to Germany and – determined to
apply the knowledge on sustainable construction gained there for the benefit of
his African homeland – began studying architecture in Berlin at age thirty.
Regional and international
Concurrently, the previously prevailing Eurocentric paradigm of the
international art scene was expanding into a globalised post-colonial
perspective: in 2002, Documenta 11 in Kassel was curated for the first time
by Nigerian curator and author Okwui Enwezor, who demanded a new take
on what is considered “high culture,” and confronted contemporary art with
so called popular/folk culture. It was due to his influence that, among other
things, initially regional awards such as the Aga Khan Award for architecture
in countries shaped by Islam that has been offered since 1980, are meeting with
increasing interest in the West.
Time and again, Francis Kéré finds sponsors and clients in Germany, through
the Deutsch-Afrikanische-Gesellschaft (German-African Association/
DAFRIG), through contacts at the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (German
Archaeological Institute/DAI), to private persons and foundations, and not least
through the non-profit organisation he founded, Schulbausteine für Gando (i.e.
school building blocks for Gando).
Simple and unpretentious
Francis Kéré loves to bring the message of his work out into the world. In
2013, he presented his work as part of the internationally renowned TED
(Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences. Exhibition designing is also
one of his central interests. As early as 2008, he participated in the exhibition
Updating Germany, the German contribution to the Architecture Biennial in
Venice. In 2016, with Colourscape, he filled the entrance to the Philadelphia
Museum of Art with brightly-coloured cord lanterns. The exhibition Radically
Simple in the Architekturmuseum of the TU Munich in the Pinakothek der
Moderne is the first large-scale overall view of his work from its beginnings in
his native village to his projects in Germany and China.
It was at a German university that Francis Kéré learned how it is possible
to develop and grow realistic projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and in doing
so to offer a future to the people in their own homeland. He teaches us
Germans the art of simplicity and unpretentiousness. He is a bridge-builder
between cultures, and his mission – in view of increasing marginalisation and
discrimination in Germany – will be all the more important in the future. AD
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