A journey through the music and culture of Africa
Experience the African zest for life: the spotlight is on music stars from the Cape Verde Islands and Senegal at the “International Afro Music Festival”, better known as the “Africa Festival Würzburg”. This year’s event will be taking place from May 25 to 28, 2012 on the “Mainwiesen”. Würzburg, the university town in Franken, will be hosting the festival for the 24th time, again uniting thousands of fans of African music and culture, and of course numerous artists from Africa and the Caribbean. In its more than 20-year history the festival has notched up almost two million visitors, making it the biggest festival of African music and culture in Europe.
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(© Thomas Dorn)
Support for this year’s event will again be provided by the Federal Foreign Office. The countries of Africa are traditionally important partners in German foreign policy. Germany has increased its cultural collaboration, especially with the “Action Africa” which was launched in 2008. Since then, a great diversity of projects have been promoted in the areas of theatre, dance, music, art, design, fashion, literature and film.
In addition to the Africa Festival, a variety of exceptional events have regularly awakened interest in the African continent. For instance, the Federal Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn recently showed an exhibition until the beginning of 2012. For the very first time in Germany, it showcased impressive sculptures, traditional masks, jewellery and everyday items from the Dogon culture in West Africawhich is part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.
A current exhibition in Baden-Baden provides another perspective of Africa: “Africa through their own eyes – researching and imagining a continent”. The show at the Museum of 19th Century Arts and Technology focuses on African cult and everyday objects. It informs visitors about the cultural history and the aesthetic discovery of Africa in the 19th century and illustrates how African cult objects were transformed into highly sought-after art objects in Europe.
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