Although we all have our origins in Africa and Egyptian culture still shapes us today, while the Roman Empire’s granaries were in North Africa and powerful African kingdoms flourished during the Middle Ages, Africa has been portrayed on world maps since the days of Mercator as smaller than its actual size and the continent continues to be underestimated in both its geographic scope and its significance for world history, despite its prehistorical role as the birthplace of humankind. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA signifies all of this, in addition to the global reach of the African diaspora, wrought by the transatlantic slave trade and the forced displacement of African people worldwide, with lasting impacts to this day.

Exactly 140 years ago, in November 1884, the Congo Conference was opened in Berlin, which divided up Africa among the colonial powers without any African participation: Reason enough to take a different look in 2024 at this huge continent and the people who come from it. THE TRUE SIZE OF AFRICA tests approaches that identify traditions of thought, prejudices and stereotypes and enable new perspectives—by means of cultural history and contemporary art, through constant changes of perspective and artistic polyphony.