Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE
Constructed of approximately 100,000 black LEGO bricks, artist Ekow Nimako's Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE is an Afrofuturist cityscape that "celebrates the cultures of the African diaspora" and is a new addition to the Aga Khan Museum's permanent collection.
The large 30-square-foot (2.8 m2) sculpture was commissioned by the Toronto museum for Building Black: Civilizations, Nimako's creative response to the Caravans of Gold, Fragments of Time exhibition displayed between September 2019 and February 2020. That exhibition, which originated at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, "spotlighted medieval west Africa’s sprawling trade in gold and other commodities and its role in the spread of Islam," according to the museum. The black cityscape of Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE was a dramatic juxtaposition to the gold artifacts on display in the museum's second-floor gallery.
Ekow Nimako's talk at the Aga Khan Museum in January 2020, embedded below, is worth watching for learning about the artist's inspirations — from the scholarly book The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa to the blockbuster film Black Panther — and hearing about how he constructed the sculpture.