Reframing a collection through the poetics of encounter.
29 April 2026
At Fondation H in Antananarivo, ‘Kabarin-javakanto: A Reading of the Fondation H Collection’ unfolds less as an exhibition than as a living discourse. Conceived by curator Abdellah Karroum, the project reimagines the foundation’s international holdings through the lens of kabary, the Malagasy oratorical tradition in which speech binds community, memory, and future intent.
Across three galleries, the collection is not simply displayed but activated. Works drawn largely from Africa and its diasporas enter into a layered dialogue with local epistemologies, proposing a mode of viewing that is attentive, relational and grounded. The exhibition resists closure. Like the structure of kabary itself, it moves from introduction to exchange to projection, opening outward toward unresolved narratives and shared imaginaries.
In this context, the act of collecting becomes a form of storytelling, continually rewritten through context and encounter. Karroum’s curatorial approach foregrounds translation, not as a loss, but as a generative space where meanings shift and multiply.
Positioned within Fondation H’s wider commitment to cultural transmission and accessibility, the exhibition signals a broader ambition. It asks what it means to hold a collection in the present, and how such holdings might speak beyond themselves, toward a future shaped collectively.
This exhibition is on view at Foundation H, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, until 17 October 2026.
