Join DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State for a special gallery tour of Architects of Liberation: Modernism in West Africa at the Museum of Modern Art with Martino Stierli, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design.

During the unprecedented period of liberation and decolonization across Africa, many dreamed of a continent with a boundless future. Ghana gained independence from British rule in 1957, and in 1960—often called the Year of Africa—17 nations struggling for self-determination achieved political autonomy. This upheaval ushered in a boom in cultural production and experimentation in visual art, dance, and music. Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa is the first major museum exhibition to examine the role of architecture in shaping this historic change.

Newly independent African countries wanted to project—both inward and outward—a forward-looking, progressive, and cosmopolitan self-image, and modern architecture embodied this aspiration. A new architectural identity engaged with the political ideas of Pan-Africanism and Africanization and was shaped by architects both from the continent and abroad.

Architectural drawings, models, and archival images, as well as newly commissioned site-specific photographs and videos, are among the exhibition’s 400 objects. Nearly all are being shown publicly for the first time. Spanning Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon, Architects of Liberation is a revealing look at a region reimagining its future.

Organized by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, MoMA, and Ikem Stanley Okoye, guest curator and associate professor at the University of Delaware; with Mallory Cohen, Curatorial Associate, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.

Martino Stierli is MoMA’s Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, a role he assumed in March 2015. Stierli oversees the wide-ranging program of special exhibitions, installations, and acquisitions of the Department of Architecture and Design. Exhibitions he has curated at MoMA include Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980 (with Vladimir Kulić, 2018) and The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985 (with Anoma Pieris and Sean Anderson, 2022). Prior to joining MoMA, Stierli was the Swiss National Science Foundation Professor at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Art History.

Thursday December 3, 3:00–4:00 pm
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street

Tickets: $25
Tour cost is $25 regardless of DOCOMOMO or MoMA membership, and includes admission.
Capacity is limited to 25. Advance registration required.

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