Making Art Global (Part 2): 'Magiciens de la Terre' 1989 (Exhibition Histories)

Magiciens de la Terre was an exhibition held at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle at the Parc de la Villette in 1989. Curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, it aimed to counter the ethnic bias and colonial complicity of the contemporary art world. Martin chose 100 artists from around the world: 50 from first-world cultures such as the U.S. and Europe and 50 from cultures then routinely ignored by the art market, in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Australia. I want to play the role of someone who uses artistic intuition alone to select objects which come from totally different cultures, Martin explained. I also want to incorporate into that process the critical thinking which contemporary anthropology provides on the problem of ethnocentrism. With photographs and gallery plans, this volume revisits the exhibition.