Works from the series Tresses including:
选自《女人的长发》系列

Gaba Studio Building, Rotterdam, 2008
《Gaba工作室，鹿特丹》，2008年

L’étoile rouge, Cotonou, Benin, 2008
《L’étoile rouge，贝宁科托努》，2008年

Disa Park, Cape Town, South Africa, 2007
《Disa公园，南非开普敦》，2007年

Gherkin Building, London, United Kingdom, 2008
《Gherkin大楼，英国伦敦》，2008年

Château d'Eau, Cotonou, Benin, 2008
《Château d'Eau，贝宁科托努》2008年

All Collection of Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, The Netherlands
所有作品均由荷兰voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem美术馆提供

With great humor and material dexterity, Meschac Gaba creates sculptural installations that engage with the nomadic conditions of the (art) world. Especially pronounced is the impact of diasporas. If the artist’s background leads us to consider specifically the changing position of Africans in Europe, Gaba may be seeking to explore a more general sense of people (especially artists) who somehow have to carry their homes with them. For Nether Land, we have chosen to exhibit a selection of Gaba’s Tresses (begun in 2007). These braided head-dresses are produced by a team of skilled craftswomen in Cotonou, Benin. Using traditional methods, Gaba arrives at wholly original forms: buildings on the move! The portability and animation of the most stable of human creations – architecture – is highlighted in the accompanying video, produced during a public performance of the Tresses in Paris, France. It begs the question: How much can be transported between places and cultures?
Meschac Gaba创作的雕塑装置以其无与伦比的幽默和材料的纯熟运用探讨了（艺术）世界的游牧状况。这其中尤为显著的是探讨异乡散居对人们生活的影响。如果说艺术家的背景引导我们对非洲人在欧洲正在变化的地位进行具体思考，Gaba要做的则是探索一种更为普遍的、对于那些某种程度上承载着厚重的乡土的人的（尤其是艺术家的）认知。在此次《何国》展览上，我们选择了Gaba2007年起创作的《女人的长发》系列中的一些作品。作品中头巾外形的“建筑”是由一组技艺精湛的女匠人在西非贝宁的科托努织就的。Gaba运用传统方法创造了“可以移动的建筑”这种全然独特的形式。将建筑这种人类最为稳定的创造形式便携化和生动化，这一点在附随的录像中尤为凸显，这段录像是《女人的长发》在法国巴黎一次公共行为表演上的记录。抛给我们的问题是：在地域之间、文化之间，

Meschac Gaba (b. 1961) is a Beninese artist based in Cotonou, Benin and Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He is well known for his Museum of Contemporary African Art, 1997-2002, which comprised twelve “rooms” of diverse purpose that moved to various institutions in Belgium, Egypt, France, Italy, The Netherlands (among others) and culminated with a presentation at documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany [2002]. Gaba has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York and inIVA, London, and group exhibitions such as the Sydney Biennale in Australia and the São Paolo Bienal in Brazil (both 2006). His work will be included in this year’s Liverpool Biennial, England.
Meschac Gaba（1961年生）是生活在贝宁的科托努和荷兰鹿特丹的贝宁艺术家。他的大型项目《非洲当代艺术博物馆》（1997-2002年）为人熟知，项目由12个“屋子”组成，每个“屋子”的目的各不相同，已经在比利时、埃及、法国、意大利、荷兰等国家的不同机构中进行过展示，并最终参加了第十一届卡塞尔文献展（2002年）。Gaba参与了国际上的众多展览，包括在纽约哈勒姆区的The Studio博物馆和伦敦国际视觉艺术协会(inIVA)举办的个展，以及澳大利亚悉尼双年展（2006年）和巴西圣保罗双年展等群展（2006年）。今年的英格兰利物浦双年展上也将有他的作品参加。