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Abdoulaye Konaté, Rouge touareg (noir, bleu, et vert), 2019, Textile, 234 × 147 cm -
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Nel corso degli anni, abbiamo avuto il privilegio di sostenere e presentare artisti che oggi godono di un riconoscimento internazionale — tra questi Joël Andrianomearisoa e Abdoulaye Konaté. Il loro successo conferma l’importanza di una ricerca costante, di un impegno a lungo termine e di una sincera dedizione alla creatività africana contemporanea.
Nel loro insieme, le opere presentate in “Africa Universe” delineano una mappa ampia e multidimensionale dell’arte africana contemporanea.
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Act I - Two Masters
ABDOULAYE KONATÉ & JOËL ANDRIANOMEARISOALa mostra si apre con due tra le voci più influenti dell’arte africana contemporanea. Profondamente radicati nelle rispettive tradizioni etnoculturali — e attingendo a materiali, segni e simboli propri dei loro paesi d’origine — Konaté e Andrianomearisoa spingono le loro pratiche ben oltre le convenzioni figurative tradizionali.
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Abdoulaye Konaté is one of the most representative contemporary African artists, in 2004 he participated in Africa Remix, in 2005 at the exhibition at the Center Pompidou, in 2007 at Documenta 12 Kassel, he was present as a protagonist in all subsequent international exhibitions of African art, in 2010 had a retrospective anthological exhibition at the Dakar Biennale, in 2017 one of his monumental works was exhibited at the Arsenale in the 57th Venice Biennale. In 2020 Abdoulaye Konaté presents his monumental and site-specific installation Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logos (Hommage à Youssouf Tata Cissé et Germaine Dieterlen) at Zeitz MOCAA’s BMW Atrium. In 2020 Konaté has been invited to participate in the exhibition “Global(e) Resistance” at Centre Pompidou, Paris, with one of his historical installations, dated 1995-1996. In 2021 Abdoulaye Konaté has his first solo exhibition in Japan, “The Diffusion of Infinite Things”, held in Standing Pine spaces in Nagoya. In 2022 the most influential African Biennale: Dak’Art Biennale, payed him tribute as “The Master”, with the exhibition: Hommage à Abdoulaye Konaté, l’étoffe d’un maître, Former Palais de Justice (Courthouse), Cap Manuel, Dakar. His works has been also shown in the Aichi Triennale 2022 and will be presented in 2023 in the Gwangju Biennale.
Joël Andrianomearisoa work has been shown on five continents, including many prestigious international cultural institutions such as the Maxxi in Roma (2018), the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2010), the Smithsonian in Washington (2015), the Centre Pompidou (2005) and Plais de Tokyo (2021) in Paris, the Zeitz Mocaa in Cape Town (2022), the Macaal in Marrkech (2022), among many others. Joël Andrianomearisoa also launched two public sculptures in Antananarivo in October 2021, supported by the Fonds Yavarhoussen. His work forms part of important international collections including the Smithsonian (Washington DC), The Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), the Collection Yavarhoussen (Antananarivo) and the Museum Sztuki (Lodz). In 2016, he received the Arco Madrid Audemars Piguet Prize. He participated in different Biennials like Biennial de la Habana, Cairo Biennial, Dakar Biennial, Sydney Biennial. Due to the invention and maturity of his work, his international reputation as well as the unconditional support of his professional network, in 2019 Joël Andrianomearisoa was chosen to represent Madagascar alongside curators Rina Ralay Ranaivo and Emmanuel Daydé in the 58th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, with its own pavilion for the first time in its history. Joël Andrianomearisoa is also the founder and artistic director of Hakanto Contemporary, a non- profit independent space for artists in Antananarivo, Madagascar supported by the Fonds Yavarhousse
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Act II - Three Painters
Hako Hankson, Godwin Champs Namuyimba, Arim AndrewThe second act explores painting in its most narrative, symbolic, and socially resonant forms. -
Hako Hankson (Cameroon)
A self-taught painter deeply rooted in the rituals and myths of his ancestral culture, Hankson creates large-scale compositions that move between the sacred and the profane. His work revitalizes oral traditions, recasting them as contemporary allegories and offering a fresh vision of Black aesthetics. Raised among masks and totemic objects through his father’s role as a notable, sculptor, and musician, he weaves memory and myth into a vibrant visual language. Hankson is also committed to community support: in 2013 he founded In and Off Art Center, a self-funded space for artists in need.Godwin Champs Namuyimba (Uganda)
A leading voice in contemporary African figuration, Namuyimba blends a personal faux-naïf style with Expressionist hints, Afrofuturist impulses, and nods to Western modernism. His flat, introspective figures—poised between presence and abstractionprobe themes of identity, memory, and the postcolonial condition while imagining possible futures. Trained in Kampala but largely self-directed in his artistic discipline, he uses the human form to explore transformation, belonging, and the subtle distortions of perception that define his distinctive visual world.
Arim Andrew (Uganda)
Working within a context where homosexuality is criminalized, Arim employs a coded visual language to address queer experience through symbolic female figures. His quiet interior scenes—charged with shadows, gestures, and small objects—speak to desire, secrecy, and self-protection. These rooms become spaces of subtle resistance, revealing how intimacy is shaped, constrained, and quietly asserted under Uganda’s restrictive political climate.
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Act III – New Techniques and the “Abstract Way”
Troy Makaza & Samuel NnoromL’atto finale celebra l’innovazione artistica attraverso materiali, processi e forme che ampliano la stessa definizione di arte contemporanea.
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TROY MAKAZA
“The medium is very intimately connected to my work on a number of levels. First of all, it combines a traditional art medium with a novel one. This is something that I am really conscious of doing as a contemporary Zimbabwean artist – bridging tradition with contemporary practice. Secondly, this medium allows me to move between sculpture and painting and to disrupt categories set up by people who are not us, so in a way it is me asserting my right as an artist to determine how I am seen and not allow myself or my content to be categorised. My subject matter is equally fluid moving between abstraction and figuration because neither category is in fact pure and the formality of these definitions don’t make sense to me.”-Troy Makaza (Zimbabwe)
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SAMUEL NNOROM
Il tessuto mi suggerisce una struttura o un’organizzazione sociale che intreccia l’umanità nella società, come nel caso dell’espressione “tessuto sociale”. Tuttavia, esso assume caratteristiche peculiari nelle diverse società, mentre la “bolla” rimanda a una struttura che contiene o preserva qualcosa per un determinato periodo di tempo. Questo materiale e questa forma mi fanno pensare all’essere umano, all’ambiente e alle loro lotte quotidiane per la sopravvivenza, attraverso azioni di studio come il taglio, l’arrotolamento, la cucitura e l’installazione delle loro bolle. Queste ultime fungono da metafora per coinvolgere gli spettatori in un processo di auto-interrogazione, di pensiero critico e di messa in discussione delle strutture o delle norme sociopolitiche, aprendo un dialogo tra “Verità e Cospirazione” e la facciata quotidiana indossata dagli individui per fuggire e sopravvivere alla condizione umana delle bolle.
– SAMUEL NNOROM (NIGERIA)
