History is His Story

“History is His Story” is a group exhibition that expands on the mythical world as described by the musician, poet and visionair, Sun Ra. At a young age, he became fascinated by the scientific research of Cheikh Anta Diop: one of the founders of Pan-Africanism, scientist, linguist and politician, who believed he could prove that the Egyptians were black. That there were black thinkers and rulers at the fundament of civilization encouraged Sun Ra – who was born Herman Blount but legally changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra in 1952 — thus naming himself after the Egyptian sun god Ra – to explore cultural heritage. Within the domain of art, performance and music – Sun Ra created a means for people to take possession of a more fair narrative in history and subsequently a future in society. For Sun Ra, history, as it was commonly portrayed in Western cultures, was a lie, an illusion used to exert power over other cultures. He wanted to offer an alternative conception of history and therefore focused on myth. He argued that the Afro-American community needed a ‘mythocracy’ rather than a democracy, that an alternative historical narrative for Afro-Americans might be found in myth. He employed myth to escape western rational thought offering instead a more holistic, magical world view. ‘History is His Story’ reacts to social and political phenomena and allows for mythical knowledge to add nuance to history or visualize a more egalitarian future. In ‘History is His Story’ artists seek an in-between- space: a place of visual language without beginning and end. The ancient past and the distant future unite in a temporary new world. The artists have a shared interest in making new mythologies and reinterpreting those that already exist. More than looking into the future, they orient themselves on the methodology of Sun Ra – the questioning of heritage and its reinterpretation.

Opening February 15, 20:00 – 23.00