Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms - PART II

Primo Marella Gallery Milano is pleased to announce the unveiling of Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales – Part II.

Open to the public from today, this renewed chapter of the exhibition unfolds through a reconfigured display centred around the presentation of a major new work by Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté: Hommage aux chasseurs et musiciens du Mandé (2026).

Conceived as a new chapter within the exhibition, the reinstallation creates fresh dialogues between the artists on view while offering visitors a renewed perspective on the richness, complexity and diversity of contemporary African artistic practices.

At the heart of the new display stands Konaté’s monumental textile composition, measuring 705 × 220 cm, the largest work ever produced within this celebrated cycle and the most ambitious iteration of a subject that has remained central to the artist’s practice for more than three decades.

This new work represents a monumental reimagining of one of Konaté’s most iconic and enduring themes. For over three decades, Konaté has explored the symbolic legacy of the chasseurs du Mandé – legendary hunters and spiritual guardians of the medieval Mandé Empire – whose history continues to resonate as a powerful metaphor for cultural identity, collective memory and resilience.

Through his distinctive use of textile, colour and symbolic form, Konaté translates historical narratives into contemporary visual language. In Hommage aux chasseurs et musiciens du Mandé, the artist extends this reflection by paying tribute not only to the hunters but also to the musicians and custodians of oral tradition who have preserved and transmitted the cultural heritage of the Mandé world across generations. The work becomes a meditation on memory, continuity and the enduring relevance of ancestral knowledge in the present. Particularly significant is the presence of authentic materials sourced directly from Mandé hunting communities. Among the numerous objects incorporated into the composition are genuine ritual amulets, hunting horns and animal hair originating from animals hunted by the community itself.

These elements, traditionally used by the hunters in their spiritual and everyday practices, introduce an exceptional degree of figuration and material specificity within Konaté’s oeuvre, reinforcing the work’s connection to lived cultural traditions while blurring the boundaries between artwork, historical testimony and collective memory.

The Mandé Hunters cycle occupies a pivotal place in Konaté’s career and in the broader history of contemporary African art.

An early work from the series, L’Hommage aux chasseurs du Mandé (1994–96), received the prestigious Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor at the Dakar Biennale in 1996. A monumental version of the work was presented at Documenta 15 in Kassel in 2022, while another entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, in 2023.

These milestones underscore the international significance of a body of work that continues to shape critical conversations around contemporary art, history and cultural heritage.

Through a carefully reconsidered spatial framework, Alternative Practices and Unbound Forms: African Artists Across Recent Biennales – Part II encourages new connections between artists, generations and geographies, highlighting the plurality of perspectives, materials and methodologies that define contemporary African practices today.