The history of the Fondation Zinsou can be read in many ways, in the eyes of young Beninese adults who have come since childhood to visit exhibitions and discover a world of creativity; in the eyes of the artists who have exhibited or come to stay for a few weeks or months within our walls, in the articles that the press around the world has devoted to us, in the many books that we have published over the past fifteen years , or in all the images that you will discover on this site, each of which recounts a part of the adventure, like so many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of an action that is in constant evolution.
Our fundamental mission, since June 2005, is simple and ambitious: to share with all our populations the pride of the cultural creations of our continent, Africa, and to make these creations interact with the world.
The Foundation fights in its own way against the prejudices that still too often surround artistic and cultural initiatives in Africa: it's useless, there are other things to do that are much more important, contemporary art doesn't interest anyone... At the Foundation Zinsou, we refuse to let ourselves be stopped by these speeches, and our audience shows us every day that they are vain and unfounded. For us and for them, art is not only creation for creation's sake. Art also serves to free the spirit. When we are at the feet of a three meter high papier-mâché madman, or in front of Guélédé masks that tell our daily life, it is the barriers that we have in our head that break. And these barriers are in part our preconceptions, our conventions, our academisms. Faced with a school with strict frameworks, faced with a look of the other sometimes condescending, we return to ourselves through art, whatever our age, our origin or the idea we have of ourselves. It holds up an extraordinary
mirror to us and allows us to build ourselves with references that are our own, unique. There are no mistakes in the museum, no mistakes. Each glance has the same value, from the art critic to the schoolboy, from the Zem (motorcycle cab) driver to the university professor. One can ask a question about a work, have eighteen different answers, and none of them will be wrong.
But this contemporary creation that enriches us all, we do not pretend to have created it. It has always been there. Contemporary art is thousands of years old! The Fondation Zinsou is part of an ancestral tradition of the African continent. We are not here to format art, or artists. We take up the practices of courts, chieftaincies, convents, empires, cities and villages throughout Africa, which have been places of sharing and revelation of a wealth that pre-exists us; in Dahomey, for example, where there was a status of "artist", in the same way as that of weaver, soldier, miller... We are simple megaphones.
It is by knowing ourselves better, through our own art, history and culture, that we get closer to others. Proud and aware of our strengths and our wealth, we get out of the other's gaze which is often too internalized: the gaze of the big on the small country, of the powerful on the weak, of the rich on the poor. Works of art are a "mirror of excellence" that puts everyone on an equal footing. Pride in the works of art leads to pride in oneself, and helps to build oneself as an individual and as a nation. Finally, the Foundation invests so that artists can offer us their best. Too often in Africa, they are asked to be both creators and exhibitors, gallery owners, etc. And yet they need to work on their art first and foremost, and they must be given the space to make it happen. This is what the Foundation is doing. A fair return for these creators who commit themselves and invest themselves at our side with such generosity.
Indeed, it is thanks to them that contemporary art is one of the most popular subjects that can be approached here in Benin. Far from the clichés about art for art's sake, abstruse, confused, obscure and understood by a few happy few, here we know that artists create "for us", and especially for children, who themselves know it. It is the creator who puts himself at the service of all. If they know it today, it is because we are lucky enough to live in a time and in a country, and even on a continent, where the best is yet to come, where it is already on its way. Indeed, one does not create a museum for one's history, one's heritage, but for the future, for the generation to come, to help it define where it is going by helping it to know where it comes from. And in the same way, one cannot create a museum in an emergency of war, famine, nor in a dictatorship. You create a museum when you have confidence in the future, when you have more hope for your children than for yourself. Artists can exist during a revolution or a conflict, but not museums.
The gradual emergence of all the new initiatives on the continent - collections, galleries, festivals, research centers, etc. - proves that Africa, beyond the artistic and cultural vitality that characterizes it, is experiencing a global boom. Democracies are being born or strengthened, middle classes are emerging, civil society is taking note of its rights and asserting its freedoms. In 2005, we already considered that art was a "metaphor for development", today there is no need for a metaphor, development is here and art always opens new paths for us.
Marie-Cecile Zinsou
2005
Opening of the Zinsou Foundation
Exhibition "Romuald Hazoume"
Exhibition "Crossed Perspectives/Africa Today" Jean-Dominique Burton
Creation of the workshop for children, the Petits Pinceaux (The Small Brushes)
2006
Exhibition "Dahomey, Kings & Gods", Cyprien Tokoudagba
Exhibition "Béhanzin, King of Abomey", with the Musée du Quai Branly
Traveling exhibition, "Tokoudagba Universe"
2007
Exhibition "Vodoun/Voudounon", Jean-Dominique Burton
Exhibition "Basquiat in Cotonou", thanks to the patronage of Enrico Navarra
2008
Exhibition "Malick Sidibe 08"
Exhibition "Benin 2059"
2009
Exhibition "Collectors of Benin, African Heritages", exploration of 5 private collections in Benin
Exhibition "An invitation to travel", a walk in the Cotonou train station by Jean Pliya and Alain Chatenet
Opening of the Mini Library of Gbegamey
Launch of the Cultural Bus
2010
Documentary exhibition "Tell me about Independence"
Exhibition "Re-creation", a look at the Fondation Zinsou's collections
Traveling exhibition "Africa Style", Baudouin Mouanda and Malick Sidibé
Exhibition in the Royal Palaces of Abomey, "The King goes to war"
2011
exhibition "The poll", by Kifouli Dossou
Group show, "Manifesto"
Exhibition in the Royal palaces of Abomey, "Discovering the bas-reliefs"
Exhibition of the Nago Hunters in the Parisian metro, "Africa at a metro ticket from your home".
Exhibition "Let's dance!", Antoine Tempé
Dance festival, 1st edition, "Let's dance!"
Opening of the Mini Library of Akpakpa
Exhibition at the Nuits de Fourvières, "Heroes of survival", Romuald Hazoumè
Research residency of the person in charge of the African collections of the Musée du Quai Branly
Artistic residency of Nicola Lo Calzo
Art History Lectures by Gaëlle Beaujean
Graff Attackx, Street art workshop in Cotonou
2012
Exhibition "Nagô hunters of the kingdom of Bantè", Jean-Dominique Burton
Exhibition "Bruce Clarke"
Workshop by Bruce Clarke
Opening of the three Mini Libraries of Fidjrossè
Opening of the Agla Mini Library
dance festival, 2ndedition, "Let's dance!"
Artistic residency of Andrew Esiebo
Artistic residency of Baudouin Mouanda
Restoration of the sculptures of Cyprien Tokoudagba on the Slave Road, Ouidah
Renovation of the pediatric department of the National University Hospital, Cotonou
Traveling exhibition "Nago hunters" at the Dakar Biennale
Traveling exhibition "Let's Dance!" in South Africa
2013
Exhibition "Hector Sonon"
Exhibition "Gérard Quenum - Rupture"
Conference by Christophe Cassiau-Haurie on the history of comics in Africa
Opening of the Ouidah Museum
2014
Exhibition "Samuel Fosso"
Exhibition of the Lagos Photo Festival in Cotonou, "Afronauts" by Cristina de Middel and "C'Stunners" by Cyrus Kabiru
Artistic residency of Tomas Colaço and Sofia Aguiar
Philosophical Expedition - The Room of Robert Adjavon, Tomas Colaço
"I Like Insects, Insects Like Me" by Sofia Aguiar
"The Standing Men", Bruce Clarke, Ouidah
Winner of the Praemium Imperiale, awarded in July in Paris and in October in Tokyo
Philosophical workshop with Martine Giraud
Artistic encounters with Simon Njami and Erika Nimis
2015
Exhibition "African Records"
Exhibition "Romuald Hazoumè - Arè"
Exhibition "Kpayo Land - Romuald Hazoumè"
Group show "The fantasy factory"
dance festival, 3rd rdedition, "Let's dance!"
Artistic residency of Jérémy Demester
Release of the app "Wakpon - The museum goes wall-to-wall
Presentation of the app "Wakpon - The museum goes wall-to-wall" in the Special projects of "1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair" in London
First participation in Museum Week
Tenth anniversary of the Fondation Zinsou
2016
Exhibition"Focus on George Lilanga"
Exhibition "Keith Haring in Cotonou" thanks to the patronage of Enrico Navarra
Artistic residency of Catherine Laurent
Artistic residency of Cristina De Middel and Bruno Morais
Artistic residency of Ananias Leki Dago
Artistic residency of Jérémy Demester
Partnership of the "Small Brushes" with "the genius lab"
Second participation in Museum Week
2017
Exhibition "Malick Sidibé, the griot of portraits"
Exhibition "African Art Tour"
Culinary residency of Chef Loïc Dablé
exhibition "Sharing territories - Dominique Zinkpè"
Exhibition "On an infinite horizon the theater of our affections is played", Joël Andrianomearisoa
Artistic residency of Fabrice Monteiro
Third participation in Museum Week
2018
Group show "Everyday Africa"
Artistic residency of Pauline Guerrier
Exhibition "Africa is no island", tenth anniversary of the photographic platform Afrique In Visu
Exhibition "Cotonou(s), History of a city "without history""
Exhibition "Sharing of a dream", Pauline Guerrier
Fourth participation in Museum Week
2019
Exhibition "Wax Stories"
Workshop "Activissime" by Ivàn Argote - Bienalsur
Artistic residency of Ishola Akpo
Artistic residency of Laeïla Adjovi
Fifth participation in Museum Week
exhibition of the permanent collection
2020
Exhibition "AGBARA Women", Ishola Akpo
Artistic residency of Aïcha Snoussi
Exhibition of the permanent collection
2021
Exhibition "Gros-Câlin", Jérémy Demester
exhibition "Cosmogonies, Zinsou. An African collection", MoCo Montpellier Contemporain
exhibition of the permanent collection
exhibition " احبائي my loved ones", Aïcha Snoussi
Opening of the LAB in Cotonou
exhibition Dan Xomę, Cyprien Tokoudagba
2022
Screening of "Restituting African art, the ghosts of colonization" in the presence of director Laurent Védrine
Residence of Maya Ines Touam
Exhibition "Bruce Clarke"
