{"id":2116780,"date":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2116780"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:00:00","slug":"collector-hasnaine-yavarhoussen-wants-to-elevate-madagascars-art-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2116780","title":{"rendered":"Collector Hasnaine Yavarhoussen Wants to Elevate Madagascar\u2019s Art Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hasnaine-Yavarhoussen-portrait.-Courtesy-Hakanto-Contemporary.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn 2019, just four nations mounted their debut pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Madagascar was one of them, and Hasnaine Yavarhoussen\u2019s sponsorship was largely what made it possible.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe year before, the Malagasy art collector and entrepreneur met with artist Jo\u00ebl Andrianomearisoa to discuss the country\u2019s participation and his support. At the time of their meeting, Yavarhoussen had limited knowledge about Malagasy artists; his almost decade-old collection didn\u2019t even include any artworks by them. But the chat with Andrianomearisoa, who splits his time between Paris and Antananarivo, Madagascar\u2019s capital, was so convincing that it led Yavarhoussen to help fund the inaugural Malagasy Pavilion. It also inspired Yavarhoussen to collect work by Malagasy artists and to make plans to provide long-term support for other artists from Madagascar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was thinking: Okay, what would be the impact on Madagascar?\u201d Yavarhoussen recalled in an interview about that pivotal meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\tA member of Tate\u2019s Africa Acquisitions Committee, Yavarhoussen went on to found Fonds Yavarhoussen in 2019 with the goal of supporting and promoting Malagasy art and culture, both locally and globally; sponsoring the Malagasy Pavilion became its first initiative.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing Madagascar\u2019s showing at Venice Biennale, Yavarhoussen and Andrianomearisoa cofounded Hakanto Contemporary in February 2020, with the artist serving as artistic director. Hakanto Contemporary, which began as a modestly sized multipurpose art space and now occupies a nearly 2,000-square-foot renovated warehouse in Antananarivo, has helped make Yavarhoussen one of Madagascar\u2019s most important art patrons. Its exhibitions, residencies, educational initiatives, and workshops have helped create an emerging local art scene and placed Madagascar on the global art scene\u2019s map. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"View<\/div>\n<\/div>
Installation view of \u201cPierrot Men. FOFON_AINA. WINDS OF LIFE. VENTS DE VIE,\u201d 2026\u201327, at Hakanto Contemporary.<\/span>Courtesy Hakanto Contemporary<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAmong Hakanto Contemporary\u2019s most recent efforts is a 400-work survey of Pierrot Men, whom Yavarhoussen called \u201cthe most known Malagasy photographer today.\u201d The collector, who owns photographs dating back to 1860, said the pioneering Malagasy photographer\u2019s retrospective curated by Andrianomearisoa and Rina Ralay Ranaivo is a \u201cvery important step\u201d in Hakanto Contemporary\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n

\n\tYavarhoussen is the chief executive officer of Groupe Filatex, a Malagasy company with holdings in the real estate, hospitality, healthcare, and sustainable energy sectors. The company is said to provide about a third of Madagascar\u2019s power needs; Yavarhoussen joined the family-owned company in 2011, having previously studied economics and management in France and Spain.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the late 2000s, a visit to a friend\u2019s Paris-based contemporary art gallery inadvertently kicked off Yavarhoussen\u2019s art collecting journey. With the encouragement of his father, he later bought a work he liked by American artist David Ratcliff.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are two main themes in my collection,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe first speaks to my sensibility and my taste: I buy what I like and what I want to live with and be surrounded by every day. The second is Madagascar. We buy modern Madagascar art, often works that left the country at the time of Independence [in 1960]. We acquire them and bring them back to the country. I sometimes refer to this as a \u2018relocalization\u2019 mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Exterior<\/div>\n<\/div>
View of Hakanto Contemporary.<\/span>Photo Avotra Rajaonarisoa\/Courtesy Hakanto Contemporary<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHis over 500-work collection now largely includes work by artists from Madagascar and across Africa, including Andrianomearisoa, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Christian Sanna, Ramily (Emile Rakotondrazaka), and Esther Mahlangu.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to funding Hakanto Contemporary, Fonds Yavarhoussen sponsors projects by Malagasy artists and creatives outside the country. These include supporting Andrialavidrazana\u2019s exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in Paris and Andrianomearisoa\u2019s commission at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa; partnering with the LAM Museum in Lille, France, on a Jessy Razafimandimby solo; and coproducing a recent project by dancer and choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana that appeared this summer at the Venice Dance Biennale. The fund also powers the Yavarhoussen Scholarship, which collaborates with the Institut National d\u2019Histoire de l\u2019Art in Paris to research and publish books on Malagasy art history.<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/div>\n<\/div>
Joe\u0308l Andrianomearisoa\u2019s La de\u0301rive-des-sentiments<\/em> (2015) is among the artworks in Yavarhoussen\u2019s 500-work collection. <\/span>Courtesy Hakanto Contemporary<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThere are already signs that Yavarhoussen\u2019s collecting and patronage has had an impact beyond Madagascar. Andrianomearisoa joined the roster of Almine Rech gallery in 2023 and is a nominee for the 2026 Prix Marcel Duchamp, France\u2019s top art award. In 2024, Yavarhoussen donated Andrianomearisoa\u2019s Les Herbes Folles du Vieux Logis<\/em> (2022) to New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The next year, the work went on view in the museum\u2019s revamped Michael C. Rockefeller Wing for work from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Yavarhoussen also regularly loans work from his collection to international art spaces, the Ludwig Museum in Germany, Wiels in Belgium, and La Filature in France.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFormerly a Zeitz MOCAA trustee, Yavarhoussen said he doesn\u2019t want to keep the artworks he owns solely in storage, at home, or his corporate offices. Instead, he wants \u201cthese pieces to be shared and seen.\u201d The donations and loans, he said, \u201care primarily intended to ensure greater visibility [for] Malagasy art\u201d and also \u201cbreathe new life into the collection.\u201d Thinking about what he\u2019s accomplished since 2019 for Malagasy art, Yavarhoussen said, \u201cI think we\u2019ve fulfilled our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/hasnaine-yavarhoussen-collector-madagascar-art-scene-1234796150\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hasnaine-Yavarhoussen-portrait.-Courtesy-Hakanto-Contemporary.jpg?w=1024″] In 2019, just four nations mounted their debut pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Madagascar was one of them, and Hasnaine Yavarhoussen\u2019s sponsorship was largely what made it possible. The year before, the Malagasy art collector and entrepreneur met with artist Jo\u00ebl Andrianomearisoa to discuss the country\u2019s participation and his support. At the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2116780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2116780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2116780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2116780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2116780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}