“The real work is about meeting unknown faces that are pertinent”

He organises or designs exhibitions but refuses to be labelled and, before anything else, wishes to be seen as a finder of talent. The founder of “Revue Noire” fiercely defends his independence from the “industry” and the new generation.

AM: So is current African art on the map now?
Simon Njami: Today,  people are no longer allowed to be idiots. When they decided to do their great global exhibition at Beaubourg, the people there realised that they were a bit short on African art, and so they had to try and catch up, even if some pieces had already been acquired at the time of “Africa Remix”, with Pascale Marthine Tayou and Samuel Fosso. And events like the Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennial can no longer claim to be “global” and not have African artists.
We have contributed to the creation of a number of usual suspects, about twenty contemporary artists whose work has increased in value and who showcase their work throughout the world. Every two years there’s Venice and I already know 80% of the visual artists that I see there, that’s disappointing for me. I organised a show in Frankfurt on the theme of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Of the 55 artists invited nobody had even heard of at least half of them. If it’s not like that I get bored way too easily.

You’re close to Sindika Dokolo, the Danish/Congolese business man a big art collector...
Sindika Dokolo spoke up for a part of his identity by collecting African contemporary art. He said: “I too have money.” It was a political act. It is small details like that which can change things a lot. But at the moment there’s only one Dokolo. He plans to open a contemporary art centre in Luanda, but why is it that Africa has no museums? A Nigerian bank financed the African art program at the Tate Gallery in London. It’s absurd! This kind of thing is proof that there is still a complex. Why not use this money to build a museum in Lagos? I’m not against the fact that Africa is helping Europe, but first Africa needs to have its own structures. “For charity to be effective it needs to start at home.”

What would be your best possible project, your ideal?
I’d like to create a space with African money, and work with big budgets and finance the continent’s art in an uncomplicated manner. All these people beat their chests because they have given 2,000 euros; it needs to be more than that.
With 100,000 euros we could finance a whole project without having to ask for a cent, without having to go out with our begging bowls! There needs to be gestures. Everyone needs to take responsibility. I have noticed a change in Angola: when, with Sindika Dokolo, we set up the African pavilion for the Venice Biennial in 2007, these Angolans came up to me and said that they were richer than he was and that they wanted to buy works because they thought it was a trendy thing to do.
There are a lot of people with money in Africa. The day that they realise that art is trendy, their children will be able to live a bit more easily with the art that is produced by their continent.