RIGA.- From 13 May to 7 September 2025, an exhibition titled Tukku Magi: Rhythm’s is on view in the Cupola Hall of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga (Jaņa Rozentāla laukums 1).

The exhibition Tukku Magi: Rhythm’s is a celebration of shared human experience, expressed through the universal language of art. It demonstrates how different styles, influences, and cultural perspectives can come together to create a multifaceted view that resonates with people on a deep, emotional level. Rhythm embodies the essence of artistic collaboration and the beauty that emerges when diverse voices are brought into conversation. It is not just music or dance movement, but also the rhythm of life, nature, and relationships between people. The world is in motion, creating rhythmic dialogues between the local and global, personal and public, authentic and constructed, humans and nature, between prejudice and openness to diversity.

Every artist in the exhibition contributes their individual story connecting with Africa and their own unique conception of rhythm. The exposition includes objects of African traditional art from the Tukku Magi collection, in conversation with contemporary artists, including Moffat Takadiwa (Zimbabwe), Dickens Otieno (Kenya), Jānis Jākobsons (USA / Latvia), Zoya Frolova (USA / Latvia), Nick Brandt (UK), Fernando Anuang’a (Kenya), and artist group James Muriuki (Kenya), Olga Kisseleva (France), James Mweu (Kenya), Margaret Ngigi (Kenya).

Tukku Magi is dedicated to fostering a unique multi-cultural dialogue between the North and the South, as well as between tradition and modernity. Its location in the northeast of Europe allows to shift the focus away from the historically privileged metropolitan centres of the “Western” world to a historical crossroads of empires, continents, and peoples, creating space for reflection on historical legacies and the complex contemporary cultural and political contexts. Tukku Magi mission is to reshape the paradigm of perceptions of traditional art, bringing it as an equal partner into modern art discourse.

The Tukku Magi project started in a spontaneous conversation with American philanthropists and collectors Bobbi and Tim Hamill, of Boston, Massachusetts and a donation of over 500 objects of African traditional art.

In 2019, artists Zoya Frolova and Jānis Jākobsons became co-founders and creative directors of the Tukku Magi project.