Arte e architettura africana, “ricchezza e festa nuova per tutta la famiglia umana”

African art, “a new feast for the whole human family” Ever since the official beginnings of his activity as a painter and sculptor, Father Costantino Ruggeri was fascinated by African art, first known not directly but through publications. At first his research, however, was above all marked by the relationship with expressions and forms of the artistic avant-gardes, to which he looked for the ongoing invention of his own personal language. Influenced in particular both by some avant-garde artists who used African art as a model and by the graphic work of religious minor and mendicant orders, over time he deepened the relationship with African art, thanks also to direct acquaintance with it, acquired through travel, and the themes of missiology and inculturation. This study is evident in the construction of three churches in Burundi, requested by the Provincia dei Frati Minori of Genoa. He also brought together a significant collection of African masks and sculptures, for him a reminder of the Church’s encounter with different cultures, in adherence to the openness matured during the Second Vatican Council.