Hala Elkoussy

Lara Baladi

Nontsikelelo "Lolo" Veleko

Maha Maamoun

Malala Andrialavidrazana

Mikhael Subotzky

Tracey Rose

Brancolini Grimaldi Arte Contemporanea presents "personae & scenarios the new african photography". Through a vast and eclectic selection of photographs, Personae & Scenarios invites the viewer to discover the unexplored world of contemporary African art, seen here on a comprehensive scale for the first time in Italy.

Both the complexity and the diversity of the African continent are evidenced in this exhibition, bringing together works from some of the most important figures in African contemporary art, featuring both emerging and more established African artists.

Through this rich and penetrating selection of work, the exhibition shows the hidden face of Africa: the creativity, wealth and culture of a continent full of life and of differences, a land as vast as it is difficult, expressing its contemporaneity through photography and video.

Despite the growing trend of contemporary art in Africa, in the world of contemporary photography, it remains one of the few less chartered areas, a continent apart. Africa cannot be defined by a single country, but as an entire continent, and as such encompaasses an infinite variety of styles, customs, and languages. The exhibition shows the complexity and the prosperity of contemporary African photography, reflecting the wealth of culture and history of a continent in perpetual change.

Artwork

"personae & scenarios the new african photography" features work by Mikhael Subotzky (born Capetown, South Africa 1981), Lolo Veleko (born Capetown, South Africa 1977), Maha Maamoun (born California 1972, lives and works in Cairo), Lara Baladi (born Beirut, 1969, lives and works in Cairo), David Goldblatt (born 1930 in Randfontein, South Africa), Hala Elkoussy (born Cairo, 1974), Malala Andrialavidrazana (Antananarivo, Madagascar, 1971), and Tracey Rose (born Durban, South Africa 1974). From images of prisons in South Africa (Subotzky), to the exploration of street fashion in Johannesburg (Veleko), to fantastical collages of an immagined desert landscape (Baladi), the exhibition showcases a great array of work and experience. The visual energy and dynamic language of the work shown presents a unique portrait of contemporary Africa.

Exhibitions - contemporary African art

Other current or upcoming exhibitions dedicated to contemporary African art include:

"Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent", mostra itinerante: Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Hayward Gallery, Londra; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.

"Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine", sesta edizione, Bamako, Mali, Novembre 2005.

"Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography", International Centre of Photography, New York, March 2006.