Sguardi sull’Africa @ Palazzo Gotico, Piacenza: Binta Diaw, Adji Dieye
The African continent was the cradle of humanity and civilization, from there Lucy and our ancestors took their first steps, first spreading to Europe and then throughout the world, making us the intercultural and global universe we have become today.
A place rich not only in nature and raw materials, but also in history, traditions, and a culture as diverse as the populations that inhabit the fifty-four nations that comprise it: from northern countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt, through Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Nigeria, South Africa, and Madagascar.
Great artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Giacometti, and others have looked to African artistic and artisanal production to renew and advance their research into a timeless modernity, creating works that enrich contemporary art museums around the world.
For about ten years, the art world has discovered African artists, with a particular focus on their innovative figurative work that blends tradition and contemporaneity, resulting in group exhibitions such as “When We See Us. A Century of Black Figuration in Painting” at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2024, various participations in the pavilions of the Venice Biennale in both the 2022 and 2024 editions, and solo exhibitions in museums around the world by African artists with ties to the diaspora, such as Kara Walker, Simone Leigh, Sam Gilllian, Kehinde Wiley, and William Kentridge.
The auction world has underscored the same interest with record results for many of these artists, further highlighting their cultural importance.
“Views of Africa” is the first major exhibition in Italy to represent the complexity and variety of African artistic production over the last century. This is possible thanks to the dialogue between two important private collections: Collezione Giglio di Piacenza and Collezione 54 di Rosario Bifulco.
Various events will be organized throughout the exhibition, including a series of meetings and roundtables with distinguished guests, curated by Mauro Molinaroli, such as journalist Domenico Quirico, who will introduce and discuss topics related to Africa and its contemporary world.
These meetings will be accompanied by insights into general African culture, with dance, music, and theater performances, completing the representation of a continent in constant turmoil, waiting to be discovered and rediscovered.
