Discussion by Patrick Sephani

There is a widespread assumption today that art must necessarily be international… But against this trend one finds isolated pockets of resistance, which suggest that good art can (perhaps must) be a local affair – the product of a particular place and culture. And of the one of the most remarkable in the contemporary world is the last 30 years… placed beside the dismal stuff so beloved of the international art bureaucracy – as they were in the 1990 Biennale – these African carvings shine out in a desolate world.