At the forefront of African art

Ruth Cohen welcomes us to the Casino 2000 in Mondorf, where she has set up her permanent exhibition since the reopening of the establishment. A conscious choice for this contemporary art and pop art enthusiast, who came to the profession late in life. Gallery owner, a job Ruth would never have thought of growing up: "I'm from Cameroon, and over there we didn't have museums! Artists in Africa were traditionally on the margins of society. In the end, art and museums were white people's things! Today that has changed a lot", she says.

It was her husband who almost dragged her to Paris to visit an exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly and then the Musée Pompidou. At first Ruth wanted to go shopping, but in the end she found herself fascinated: "It was a revelation! I was particularly struck by Kandinsky. She then discovered a bulimia for art, she wanted to make up for lost time and read everything she could, she was interested in galleries when she travelled, she wanted to know everything. That's how she rediscovered New York and in particular the Soho district where she scoured the galleries: "I wanted to buy everything and bring it all back to Luxembourg. It was too complicated, so I left it at that, but I kept the idea in the back of my mind."