Artists grow weary of always being confined by identifying labels. The gaze through which they are viewed is, according to them, always tainted by simplistic clichés of blackness and Africanness—and more recently, diaspora—as if they are condemned by their origins to exist in a Western world fascinated by "otherness." If we have understood that Africa is a continent composed of multiple peoples, nationalities, languages, cultures, and expressions, it follows then that diaspora cannot be presented as a sole and unique identity. How does a Cameroonian Bassa or a Malian Touareg see things with geographical and historical distance? Certainly not the same way. In like fashion, living in Paris has nothing to do with living in Brussels. It is mainly on this aspect that "Black Paris Black Brussels" is weak. The initiators of the project did not allow themselves the means to get to the heart of this subtle debate on differences. The social and historical research on the African Diaspora in Brussels was insufficient. Hence we might ask: is the French Parisian experience universal, transposable, and reproducible in any other European capital?
In the end, an exhibition can only provide partial orientation about aspects of a culture or an identity, but it can raise issues and provoke the platform for further discussion. For some of the participating artists, it is just this opportunity for interaction and discussion that was missing. Nonetheless, the exhibition provided an event to arouse and nourish the curiosity of the local public about historical paths and encounters and it extended additional recognition to these contemporary artists who are now fueling the international art scene.
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