The French National Assembly has passed a bill to return 27 colonial-era artefacts to their countries of origin. The draft law will now head to the senate; if approved, it will require the return of 26 works that were looted from the palace of Abomey in present-day Benin, and a sword that belonged to the 19th-century leader Omar Saïdou Tall, who once ruled in what is now Senegal. The artefacts from Benin are currently held in the Musée du Quai-Branly in Paris, while the sword has since 2019 been on loan from the Musée des l’Armée to the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar.
Much of everyday life unfolds through patterns we rarely stop to notice — familiar roads, objects kept close, changing cityscapes and small gestures repeated until they become almost instinctive. These quiet rhythms take centre stage in Unseen Script, the latest group exhibition at Rizq Art Initiative on Reem Island, Abu Dhabi. Bringing together 10 artists from different backgrounds, the exhibition explores repetition, memory, nature and the ways people observe and interpret the world around them.