VOICES OF THE DESERT

Exhibition of Aboriginal artists : Minnie Pwerle, Dr George Tjapaltjarri, Dorothy Napangardi, Abie Loy Kemarre, Walangkura Napanangka, Barbara Weir, Ningura Gibson Napurrula, Makinti Napanangka, Gloria Petyarre, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Jimmy Robertson Tjampitjinpa Jampijinpa, Cowboy Louie Pwerle, Walala Tjapaltjarri, Thomas Tjapaltjarri, Shorty Jangala Robinson, Bambatu Napangardi, Wentja Morgan Napaltjari, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, Lily Kelly Napangardi, Maureen Ward Nakamarra, Maisie Campbell Napaltjari, Betty Kutunga Munti

EXHIBITION 24 JANUARY – 19 APRIL 2026

Opening : Friday, January 23 at 6:30pm

Tuesday-Sunday, 2-6 pm

Apollonia venue, 23 Boecklin street 67000 Strasbourg

Artist’s hand, © Morteza Esmaili

Apollonia presents a major exhibition devoted to Aboriginal art, bringing together artworks by 21 iconic artists from this ancient culture. Reflecting a culture steeped in the sacred and symbolism, the exhibition « Voices of the desert » deals with an ancient art form, which gained widespread recognition in the late 1970s. It explores the earliest signs of creation ; the lines, the dots, the circles, used by Aboriginal artists who inscribe the memory of the « Dreamtime » in their works – that founding moment when the Ancestors shaped the world and connected beings to nature. The shapes and patterns woven together convey meaning linked to spirituality and ancestral stories, their paintings becoming a sacred language, a spiritual map of the Earth, a bridge between the visible and the invisible. Through the repetition of gestures and the vibration of symbols, they perpetuate a cosmic vision in which each shape expresses the presence of the elements and spirits.

Ningura Gibson Napurrula (1938-2013), Women business dreaming, 2006, 305 x 200 cm.

Morteza Esmaili, curator of the exhibition, is a collector and artist who was himself adopted by an Aboriginal community in 1999. He has been entrusted with the responsibility of transmitting this culture in Europe. Since the early 2000s, he has been inviting Aboriginal artists, dancers, and musicians to France so that they can share their culture directly, outside of any ethnographic approach. In this context, he has accompanied Aboriginal dancers playing the yidaki (didgeridoo) in France and Australia. This commitment is based on trust, acceptance, and strict adherence to cultural protocols.

© Morteza Esmaili

This is a unique exhibition, marking the first time that artworks from the Musée des Deux Amants have left its walls to be exhibited in Strasbourg. « Voices of the desert » offers a rare new encounter with Aboriginal art, not as a frozen heritage, but as a contemporary way of thinking about the world, based on respect for the Earth, the memory of ancestors, and the balance between humans and living things.