Fondation H is a malagasy contemporary art foundation.
It was founded in Antananarivo in 2017 on the initiative of entrepreneur and patron Hassanein Hiridjee, who believes that art and culture have a strong social impact and enable a critical opening to the world. It hasbeen recognized as a since 2018. For the past 6 years, Fondation H has been running programs dedicated to supporting artists from Africa and its diaspora in their careers, facilitating public access to art, and actively participated in the development and structuration of the artistic scene in the Indian Ocean.
While Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, has no public contemporary art museum or art school, despite an immense historical and cultural heritage, Fondation H plays a key role in this local context and more broadly on the African continent.
Since its creation, Fondation H has supported the promotion and dissemination of artistic creations from Madagascar and the African continent, through the patronage of international exhibitions including two exhibitions during the Africa2020 Season in 2021: ‘Memoria: Récits d’une autre histoire’ [Memoria: Tales from another story] (FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine, Bordeaux) and Katia Kameli: ‘Elle a allumé le vif du passé’ [She lit up the heart of the past] (FRAC PACA, Marseille); Joël Andrianomearisoa for the Madagascar Pavilion during the Biennale de Venise in 2019); and ‘Madagascar: Arts de la Grande Ile’ [Madagascar: Arts of the Great Island] (Musée du Quai Branly, 2018-2019).
Since its creation, Fondation H has been building a collection of contemporary art, with a strong focus on artists from Africa and its diasporas.
The first private contemporary art foundation in Madagascarand the first cultural institution of this scale in the country, Fondation Hinaugurates its new, entirely free, 2200 m2 venue on April 28, 2023, in thecity center of the capital of Madagascar.
In a historic building in downtown Antananarivo, built acentury ago and completely renovated and expanded, Fondation H’s new space is avibrant place of creation and dialogue, focusing mainly on artists from Africaand the diaspora. Because of its size and ambition, Fondation H is one of thefew artistic institutions in Africa capable of pushing the outreach of these scenes on an international level.
This noncommercial space, one of the few dedicated to the african scene and diasporas in the French capital, has an experimental dimension and allows itself a large flexibility in the form taken by the collaborations with guest artists, who are always invited for solo shows, allowing a personalised support provided by the Fondation H team.
The Fondation H parisian space can host in situ installations (Hyacinthe Ouattara, M’barka Amor, Christian Sanna, Temandrota)and is also regularly transformed into a workshop by the artists who settle there for a few months (Maya Inès Touam, Adelaide Damoah, and Johanna Mirabel).
MADAGASCAR
FRANCE
3GRF+PVV, Rue Refotana
Antananarivo, Madagascar
MADAGASCAR
FRANCE
Fondation H Paris
24 rue Geoffroy l’Asnier
75004 Paris,
France
