Until recently, Kevin Ramarohetra, a 28-year-old Malagasy architect turned photographer, did not make what purists might consider ‘fine art photography,’ nor had his work been exhibited in a gallery. He took gorgeous, warm photographs of Antananarivo, the city he lives in, of its religious monuments, of sleepy kittens or a chocolate donut with sprinkles. He photographed events. He had a keen eye for manipulating natural light.
Then he participated in a workshop held by Hakanto Contemporary, a non-profit, experimental art center. After the workshop, Ramarohetra was invited to show in the Hakanto exhibition ‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’ (until November 18, 2023), a multidisciplinary meditation on Madagascar's beloved textile garment, the lamba. Usually woven with cotton, silk, or raffia, the lamba has a thousand and one uses: it is worn draped over shoulders, used as a tablecloth or blanket, or wrapped around the dead on their final journey home. Ramarohetra’s ‘Doria’ is a stirring photo series that reflects how ingrained the lamba is in the everyday space, time, life, and death, of the Malagasy.
Ramarohetra's career turn reflects an ongoing renaissance in Antananarivo's art scene, where spaces like Hakanto Contemporary have set up with a double-pronged agenda. First, to foster, generate, and sustain artistic production in a desert of art activity: there are barely any commercial galleries, non-profit spaces, residencies, auction houses, art schools, patrons, or other characteristics of a robust art ecosystem. Public funding for the arts is also scant. Second, these spaces produce work that aims to complicate and interrogate Malagasy identity, first and foremost for a Malagasy audience.
Founded in 2020 by Joël Andrianomearisoa, one of Madagascar's best-known artists in the Global North, Hakanto Contemporary aims to champion young artists and help jumpstart their careers, bringing local engagement and international visibility. Andrianomearisoa represented Madagascar at the Venice Biennale in 2019, the country’s first participation, and he decided he had to build on this momentum, and build something at home.
‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’ brings together a diverse (and multigenerational) group of artists. Ramarohetra, the young photographer; Sandra Ramiliarisoa, a weaver; Gad Bensalem, a comedian and poet; and Nazaria Tooj, a dancer, are all under 35. They feature alongside Malagasy art icons such as Ramilijoana and Madame Zo.
The exhibition surprised Ramarohetra. Over breakfast at Grand Hotel Urban, a day before the exhibition opened, he revealed that he had never stopped to consider that the cloth in front of him – the national Madagascan identity made material – could be the subject of artistic inquiry.
‘The existence of a space like Hakanto Contemporary contributes to the development of art [...] in a country where art is not particularly valued, where difference is not encouraged, and where exploration and thinking outside the box are not welcome,’ Ramarohetra told Art Basel.
Ramarohetra follows in a rich tradition of Malagasy photography from a time when the country had a robust art scene. Early daguerreotype photography took off in Madagascar as it did elsewhere in Europe and the US. But this scene would falter after Madagascar gained independence and, in a nationalist streak, expunged everything related to French colonialism, including art schools. Successive presidents also then failed to nurture the art scene.
But now, a renaissance is afoot. ‘Suddenly, the artists are becoming busy. They have openings, collectors, dinners; their careers are changing,’ Andrianomearisoa explained, between cigarettes, in his home. ‘They are now desirable in a society where they are usually last on the list.’
A few months prior to the opening of ‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’, two other local art spaces opened exhibitions interrogating the same subject, albeit through different lenses.
In April, Fondation H, opened with a retrospective dedicated to the work of Zoarinivo Razakaratrimo (1956–2020), better known as Madame Zo, a master textile weaver and icon of the Malagasy art scene. Across 80 mixed-media works where textile meets wood shavings, rubber, bones, and copper, we see Madame Zo's decades-long development of the lamba as an artistic language.
‘Lamba’ at Musée de la Photographie de Madagascar, includes photographs by a father of Malagasy photography, Ramilijoana, alongside ethnographic-minded visitors to the nation such as Emilie Pierre, Jacques Faublée, and Joseph Razafy. The pictures capture the lamba's loftier place in Madagascan society before it was relegated by cheaper second-hand clothing from Europe, driving down demand.
A peculiar feature of this renaissance (not just moment!) in Antananarivo's art scene is the patronage, interests, and ambition of the multi-millionaire business tycoons that drive it. Forbes-listed Hassanein Hiridjee, CEO of Axian, an energy, telecommunications, and financial services group, started Foundation H as a small exhibition space in 2016. It has grown to include a gallery in Paris, in partnership with the artist residency Cité internationale des arts, where artists of African descent can exhibit and sell their works. In Antananarivo, the foundation intends, it seems, to rival the ambitions and programming of the likes of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town or the Museum of Contemporary African Art Al Maaden in Marrakesh.
Hasnaine Yavarhoussen, the 36-year-old CEO of Groupe Filatex – a renewable energy, real estate, and free zones business, and Madagascar's largest employer – is the sole funder of Hakanto Contemporary. In 2019, he set up the Yavarhoussen Fund to support artistic and cultural initiatives in Madagascar and develop the sector's visibility locally and globally. The fund financed Madagascar's debut pavilion at the Venice Biennale. It is also sponsoring the exhibition ‘From A to A: Antananarivo to Arles’ being staged at the Aux Docks d'Arles gallery during the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival in the south of France.
While crucial to building a scene, such singular investment, and patronage begs the question of sustainability. One also wonders if artistic production in the country might bend towards the will of the funder rather than artists.
Andrianomearisoa insists the opposite is the case. He believes this could be a financial model for building art institutions, slowly, steadily, and at scale, or at least for sustaining the ecosystem. Yavarhoussen not only funds Hakanto Contemporary, but he also commissions and collects artworks. The non-profit art center, Andrianomearisoa stresses, doesn't just sell works but rather puts artists in a position to grow. It uses its resources to connect artists with opportunities to receive commissions, residencies, and exhibitions abroad.
But this strategy has its limits. ‘Madagascar doesn't have enough philanthropists to [...] change the artistic face of the country,’ Yavarhoussen explained. ‘They are hardly a handful today, but I hope newcomers will join the fight and work to promote artists and culture from Madagascar.’
Andrianomearisoa recalled that when he opened the Madagascan pavilion in Venice in 2019, although well attended, he was the only Malagasy present. When the exhibition closed, close to 500 Malagasy had flown to Italy to see the show. With new spaces opening in Antananarivo over the last five years, interest in contemporary art is on a sharp incline.
‘Next step is for Malagasy society to understand that creative talents, artists, designers [...] are one of the country's precious resources that can have an important impact in the country and worldwide. Not just in terms of soft power but also in economic terms,’ Yavarhoussen explained.
Hakanto’s next show, ‘La Nouvelle Terre’ will focus exclusively on young artists, while Fondation H will welcome in residence the Malian artist Ange Dakouo, who works with traditional Malian textiles worn by hunters. This artistic dialogue is essential for the Malagasy, Christian Sanna, one of the exhibiting artists at Hakanto told me.
‘A lot of things disappear with time; culture, and even the art center and institutions we work with. So if I don't bring a little bit of my culture, a tree might die, a forest might burn...’ says Sanna.
For the renaissance to thrive, this cannot happen.
‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’
Hakanto Contemporary, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Until November 18, 2023
Ayodeji Rotinwa is a writer, editor, and critic. Based between New York, Lagos, and Accra, he writes about artistic, cultural production, movements, trends in art communities, and markets across the African continent. He also covers the intersection of visual art and culture, with politics, social justice, and development. He has been reporting extensively on the socio-economic, political, diplomatic, and cultural significance of the restitution of African artifacts by Western museums across Bénin Republic, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal. His work has been published in Art Forum, National Geographic, New York Times, Financial Times, The Continent, THISDAY Nigeria, Mail & Guardian South Africa, amongst others. He is currently “Business of African Art” (boAA) building a service journalism newsletter for emerging African artists. He is a graduate of Columbia University.
Published on July 28, 2023
Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1. Installation view of Lamba with patterns in the Hakanto exhibition ‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’, 2023. Courtesy of Hakanto Contemporary. 2. Installation View of Kevin Ramarohetra's ‘Doria’ photo series in the Hakanto exhibition ‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Hakanto Contemporary. 3&4. View of the exhibition ‘Lamba Forever Mandrakizay’, 2023. Courtesy of Hakanto Contemporary.