The Culture Center
The Cultural Center is an installation that begins with group of Ming-era coins uncovered in Kenya by the Chicago Field Museum’s team of archeologists. The coins’ journey, from dynastic China to the Kilwa Sultanate, reveals a network of cultural and economic circulation that predates European contact, and pushes against tired histories that fixate on the subsequent Ming isolationism that “deprived” China of naval dominance. Circumnavigating this discursive terrain, filled with images of Chinese deficiency, Chihying instead foregrounds this earlier moment of African exchange with a non-European power, and connects it to the present moment by creating another set of coins. These, however, are stamped with important African cultural institutions—a theater, two “cultural palaces,” a history museum, and an art museum—owned or built by multinational Chinese firms in the 21st century.
The Culture Center: Museum of Black Civilisations © Musquiqui Chihying
Installation view at Center Pompidou © Musquiqui Chihying
Installation view at Center Pompidou © Musquiqui Chihying
