Say “Habari Afrika” in St. Petersburg

There is a shop in Vienna which has managed to employ the former German prime-minister Gerhard Schroeder as a PR-tool, and as I guess free of charge. This shop sells items created by designers from 28 African countries.

What’s a link between this shop, Herr Schroeder and St. Petersburg? Late previous week the big boss from Germany opened an exhibition “Habari Afrika” organized by the shop (its poorly designed web-site is here. The only English-language page is about selling its stuff, not culture, so you may not want to click).

Actually, it is not a shop, but an organization dedicated to Africa and its culture, which can be seen at the exhibition. The founder is Reinhard Klimmt, who served as a minister – president of the bundesland Saarland and a minister of transport, building and urban affairs  in the Schroeder’s government.

The exhibition showcases about 200 items from a few countries, among which Mali, Benin, Gabon, Sudan, Kongo, Nigeria and others. The display is divided by themes: animals, paired sculptors, single figures, masks etc. The main idea behind the exhibition is tolerance.

The place: The State Museum of Urban Sculpture, Nevsky prospect, 1792,

The nearest metro station is “The square of Alexandra Nevskogo” (the museum is just a hundred meters from the station).The museum is located at the territory of the Alexandra-Nevskaya lavra.

“Habari” means “Hallo”.

Open: daily except Thursday and Friday.

Opening hours: 12.00-19.00, a ticket office closes at 18.00. Till 21st of April.

The site of the museum placed a seven-minute video about the exhibition (just scroll down a bit).

Ticket price: 100 roubles.

Photo credit: www.art-gid.ru