Black Moyo: African Art

BLACK MOYO

A private African Art Collection.

The collection

THE COLLECTION

"The birth of Black Moyo marked the end of a journey that lasted 20 years.

Visiting Africa I was taught an important lesson: these works can be extremely contemporary, showing values that express the fundamental stages of our existence, from ancient times to modernity."

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THE JOURNEY

"That spice-laden, mystical aura surrounding the Dark Continent and its natural, fascinating charm led me over the years, to explore African daily life and culture, away from tourist routes."

I believe that every Art collector feels a need to share his emotions, his own path of study, and his knowledge with the public. This is how my ethnic art collection was born. Black Moyo (Black Heart) tells the story of my countless trips to the most remote villages in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with a Senegalese friend. My initial interest in Africa rapidly turned into amazement and then into irrepressible curiosity. My empathy with the people I met, with deep respect, eventually led me to moments of greedy readings which opened the door to further studies, discussions with scholars, collectors and merchants, laboratory research, and visits to museums all over the world.

A few years later, my interest in Africa grew into a desire to express the emotions collected as they were perceived, presenting them not by writing a novel, but using the objects that most represented this path of discovery, understanding, and pleasure. The eye got astonished, the mind interpreted the vision and the heart enriched.

So, a collection was born, over 500 pieces strong. Each piece was carefully selected to tell a story of a trip on tiptoe, through a world so complex and unreadable with Western criteria, that one can never fully understand. The story arising from this concept is a very personal one, transcended with one's sensibility and transmitted with one’s own language. Like an architect who looks, get inspiration, and creates. An authentic and valuable story.

My family, with extreme generosity and great patience, supported me in this sometimes compulsive research. They are now continuing to help me, with utmost tact and sensitivity, in my process of detachment from the Black Moyo collection, thus entering the final phase of my journey. The birth of a museum demonstrates that passion and perseverance can generate not only projects but can also expose the deep interests binding women and men of different cultures to share a common vision: the universality of the human being.

The journey

AFRICAN REGIONS

Gabon

Guinea Bissau

Sierra Leone

Ivory Coast

Liberia

Ghana

Senegal

Togo

Tanzania

Nigeria

Niger

Mali

Chad

Cameroon

Angola

Congo Dem. Rep.

Kenya

Burkina Faso

The regions

The book

THE BOOK

"I strongly wanted this book.

It's the Ariane's thread of my journey among the different cultures of the Sub-Saharan continent.

It looks at rites of passage, social changes within communities, religion, and creed orders."

The Black Moyo book represents the end of a long journey through the Moser African Art collection. Each one of the 600 pieces was segregated, cleaned, restored, measured, photographed, and qualified in the catalog, in the appropriate Country and ethnicity section. Notes were added to describe each piece and its significance in the culture of the tribes involved.

Some pieces, particularly the ivories, were processed in a laboratory to ascertain their age with scientific precision. The Art Lab of the Science and Technology Museum in Milan, under the guidance of Dr. Peter Matthaes, performed dating analyses by FT-IR spectroscopy, and surface microscopic screenings. The result is a truly iconic volume, telling the story of Sub-Saharan art and culture.

The book is available in specialized bookstores, or on our website.

Black Moyo

An african Art collection

Get your copy

Preface by Michele Moser, Claudio Metzger.

Curated by Sira Waldner.

665 pages.

The museum

THE MUSEUM

"Iconic, modern but traditional, buzzing of life and cultural activity. I designed the Black Moyo museum using materials, colors, and styles that speak loud about Africa. The perfect place to embrace my collection, release its power to future generations, continue the conversation, and renew my legacy."

A strong friendship between Michele Moser and Polyseum, a British non-profit specialising in Fine Arts education, generated a project for a dedicated museum hosting the Black Moyo collection while embracing African culture and Art. A contemporary, polyfunctional dynamic space designed to accommodate creative inputs, to promote collaboration, and to share experiences.

Black Moyo @ Polyseum aims to inspire interaction, participation, and audience involvement engaging the public in a collaborative atmosphere. The building design, entirely created by Michele Moser, inspires artists and art lovers to join while inviting them to share knowledge and experience.

In the Polyseum educational concept, interaction is key. For this purpose, the museum project features several free-flow exhibition areas and public spaces suitable for working, eating, sharing, learning, and talking Art.

Black Moyo @ Polyseum

An African Art permanent exhibition

More information

A licensed Polyseum Center.