18/05/2026
Exhibition Opening Following the Church Service
The traveling exhibition "World Art from Tanzania—More Than Tingatinga!" celebrated a premiere yesterday, Sunday, at the Protestant City Church in Unna. Not only are the approximately 60 works by 30 Tanzanian artists on display in a Christian church for the very first time; the introductory lecture by curator Fritz Gleiß was also immediately preceded by the regular Sunday service—which, despite the long weekend, was quite well attended.
Pastor Dr. Jula Well dedicated her sermon to the commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth," from the Book of Exodus. In her exegesis of this concept—and its significance in the present day—she found it effortless to draw a connection to the works by Tanzanian artists currently on display. She particularly lamented the perception of "African" imagery, which remains persistently shaped by colonial patterns.
After a brief interlude to set up the screen and projector, nearly all the congregants listened once again for more than half an hour to introductory remarks of the curator that, while secular in nature, offered an overview—similarly grounded in ethics—of the exhibition concept and the visual arts scene in Tanzania. At the conclusion, the approximately 30 guests accorded sustained applause not only to the presentation as a whole, but specifically to its central statement: "The decolonization of our perception still lags significantly behind to this day." Immediately thereafter, quite spontaneously, the first painting was sold.