November 27, 2025, 6:00 PM (MFR, 2nd floor) – Meeting with the curator and artists
Opening: 7:00 PM
YARAT Contemporary Art Center, Baku
Curated by Alfons Hug
“There is always something new coming out of Africa.”
Gaius Plinius Secundus Maior, Naturalis historia
YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents Ex Africa semper aliquid novi, a major exhibition curated by Alfons Hug, bringing together eleven leading artists from across the African continent. The exhibition explores the extraordinary diversity of Africa’s artistic production – a continent that continues to generate new cultural, political, and aesthetic narratives that shape the modern world.
For centuries Africa has been a catalyst for global transformation – from the cradle of humankind to the complexities of empire, slavery, colonization, and independence. Its cultural echoes have long transcended geography: visible in European art history, in jazz and carnival, in literature and architecture, and now, in the global contemporary art scene.
Today, Africa is once again at the center of profound demographic, ecological, and social shifts. Ex Africa situates these contemporary realities within deeper historical and cultural lineages, inviting viewers to reconsider Africa not as a periphery, but as one of the main engines of world civilization and creativity.
Contemporary African art is experiencing an unprecedented moment of visibility and renewal. Over the past decades, biennials in Dakar, Johannesburg, Marrakech, Bamako, and Luanda – together with major international exhibitions such as Documenta and the Venice Biennale –have positioned African artists at the forefront of global discourse.
Yet beyond international recognition lies a more complex story: one of indigenous modernities, hybrid aesthetics, and artistic resilience that transcends colonial and ethnographic frames. Contemporary African art draws simultaneously from traditional archives, Christianity, Islam, and modern global influences – creating a polyphonic visual language that resists linear narratives and canonical hierarchies.
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi introduces audiences in Azerbaijan to a new generation of African artists whose works, while celebrated internationally, are still little known in the region. The exhibition unfolds through four seamlessly interwoven thematic directions: the echo of history, where artists revisit collective memory and postcolonial legacies; bodies and portraits, reflecting on identity, representation, and the human presence; the urban drama, revealing stories of migration, inequality, and transformation; and vanishing voices, a sound-based exploration of linguistic fragility featuring eight Nigerian languages. Together, these converging narratives reveal the multiplicity and vitality of contemporary African art – spanning painting, photography, installation, and sound – and illuminate both the continent’s profound challenges and its inexhaustible creative force.
Artists
Abdoulaye Konaté
Abdulrazaq Awofeso
Andrew Tshabangu
George Osodi
Mary Evans
Mohau Modisakeng
Nástio Mosquito
Ndidi Dike
Okhai Ojeikere
Pascale Marthine Tayou
Youssef Limoud
Nigerian languages, sound installation
Credit for the sound installation to Fundação Bienal do Mercosul, Brazil
About curator
Alfons Hug is a curator and writer with extensive experience in international art biennials and exhibitions. He has served as curator for several national pavilions at the Venice Biennale and directed the Goethe - Institut in diverse cultural contexts, among others in Lagos, Nigeria. His long-standing research focuses on transnational dialogues and non-Western art histories.
About YARAT
Founded in 2011 by Aida Mahmudova, YARAT Contemporary Art Space is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting contemporary art in Azerbaijan and fostering cultural exchange between local and international art communities. Through exhibitions, residencies, education programmes, and public initiatives, YARAT promotes new ways of understanding art’s role in shaping collective memory and global dialogue.
Exhibition duration: 27.11.2025 – 05.04.2026
Working hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 12 PM -
8PM
Adress: YARAT Center, Bayil District, (National
Flag Square)
Free admission
