EXHIBITION ‘Light Bodies’ by Maimouna Guerresi

The works in the exhibition show Maimouna's artistic path and journey to different spiritual interpretations. At Volta visitors will be able to see: 'White Rubber Tire - First Lesson', 2014, 'The Giants', 'Cosmo' and 'Supha' and at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Seattle: the photographic series of the Giants: 'Moussa', 'Rhokaya' and 'Surprise'; the photo triptych 'Table Red' and 'Blue Family'; the photographic installation 'Cosmo'; the photos 'Hats-Minarets'; and the video installation 'Milky Light'.

M-Eating Series

'White Rubber Tire - First Lesson', 2014 is a part of the latest photographic series titled M-Eating. The series presents images of African men, women, and children, in front of the same table, anticipating a banquet. But there is no food on the table, and just a few objects like a plate, a jug of water, or some remnants of war, that in this context lose the meaning of menace for a daily and decorative aspect. The scene in 'First Lesson' takes place around a red table with a teacher, children and a wheel on the table painted white and used as if it was an object of study. The scene has a psychological connotation as well as a formal one. The colourful clothes, tablecloths, and the bottoms of the walls painted by the artist are part of this silent act of metaphysical suspension, something is going to happen, perhaps a dialogue or something else. This table encounter thus becomes an opportunity to reflect on the contemporary man and his relationship with society.

Maimouna Guerresi / M-Eating Series, White Cup, 2014, Lambda print on aluminium, 100x118 cm - 200x237 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Maimouna Guerresi / M-Eating Series, White Rubber Tires -First Lesson 2014, Lambda print on aluminium, 100x162 - 150x243 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

The Giants

In 'The Giants' series, Maimouna was inspired by the African Muslim mystics who appear in her photographs as large and imposing figure wearing the mantle, where only the hands and the face can be seen while the body is empty, a space that attracts new and unknown. The clothes are shaped in architectural forms making it metaphysical and surreal to become a whole with their body in the photograph.

Maimouna Guerresi / Akbar, 2010, Lambda print on aluminium, 200x125 cm - 100x63 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Maimouna Guerresi / Rhokaya, 2010, Lambda print on aluminium, 200x125 cm -100x63 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Cosmo

A large photographic installation 'Cosmo' is composed of circles in various sizes that give the effect of planets spinning around their orbit, representing a female figure dressed in black seen from the top, in various stages of counterclockwise rotation symbolizing the mystical dance of the Sufis.

Maimouna Guerresi / Illumination 1, 2010 Lambda print on aluminium, 120x120 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Maimouna Guerresi / Illumination 3, 2010 Lambda print on aluminium, 100x53 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Maimouna Guerresi / Illumination 4, 2010 Lambda print on aluminium, 100x60 cm / Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Hats-Minarets

In these works Maimouna focused on the highest part of the body - the Head. She crowned them with a number of artefacts in the form of Hat-Minaret, created in the traditional way with simple materials and pieces of cloth, collected, put together and then sewn as is the tradition for the Sufi Muslims Baifall Senegal. The architectural form of headpieces makes men tall and narrow. The characters in the photographs hide their faces with a hand gestures, they are blindfolded or simply close their eyes, to get away from the world and to get in tune with the cosmic divine spirit. The form of the Hat-Minaret can also be seen as a castle, a fortress, which protects the head, the highest part of the body but is also an extension of the same body, the antenna, the canal leading and transmitting spiritual energy.

'Milky Light', video installation

The work 'Milky Light' (2013, 23 min) consists of three large bowls in white resin, filled with milk. In each bowl, there is a projection video that represents the hands of different people continuously taking the milk, in an almost hypnotic rhythm, without emptying the bowls, symbolizing the well of infinite light. The video is accompanied by ancient Sufi music, the sound representation of the circles of water, produced by the sound of a lute. This music used to be played as a form of healing in old Turkish hospitals.

Maimouna Guerresi

Maimouna Guerresi is a photographer, sculptor, and video installation artist. She lives between Italy and Senegal. Maimouna's universe is as much the result of chemistry between cultural and religious influences, as the fusion of different artistic languages. Linked both to Italy and Senegal, to Western culture and Sufi philosophy, her works reflect a dual culture and a dual belonging, and above all, the search for equilibrium between these two worlds.

Maimouna Guerresi was invited to participate in the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1982-1986-2010 as well as Documenta K18 (1987) in Kassel, Germany. In 1991 she travelled to various Muslim countries in Africa and converted to Islam whilst in Senegal. Her work has been exhibited and collected all over the world.

To learn more about the artist read the INTERVIEW.