BAMAKO.- A movie theater, a place where anything is possible and imagination is on the loose; an open window to the world. The local political and military setting has been particularly tough since 2012, how can the youth of Mali project itself into the future? What has become of yesterday’s dreams? As skinned and decrepit as the walls we intervene on. Here we are, gathered around a collective proposal, questioning freedom of expression, history, art and politics. In the courtyard of Medina Coura Cinema, this in situ photographic installation offers a framework for discussing, renewed questioning, thinking and hoping.
Compelled by a fast-moving world, driven by power, domination, isolation and borders, we are here seeking echoes of a common thought. Through this collaborative endeavor, we are following side roads, new ways of seeing and looking, reflecting the society we live in.
Notwithstanding existential hardships, we return to Bamako where we met to share our experiences, worried and aware of the need to listen to each other, to discuss, to work together, here and now in The courtyard.
François-Xavier Gbré Born in 1978 in Lille, France. He lives and works in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
While engaging with time and geography, François-Xavier Gbré’s work summons the language of architecture as a witness of memory and social changes. From remnants of colonial times to landscapes that are redefined by current events, he explores territories and revisits history.
In 2016, his series Tracks ‘’La Piscine’’ is acquired by Centre Pompidou Paris are presented in the exhibition Cher(e)s Ami(e)s curated by Christine Macel. This same year, he also presents an extract of his series Mali Militari at the Pori Art Museum in the exhibition Crisis of Presence and his installation Wo shi Feizhou / Je suis africain in the international selection of the Dakar Biennale and in 2017 in AFRIQUES CAPITALES at the Grande halle de la Villette, Paris.
In 2015, his work was presented in The Lay of the Land at the Walther Collection Project Space in New York and in the solo show The Past is Foreign Country at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, USA. In 2014, he presents his work in two solo exhibitions Fragments at Galerie Cécile Fakhoury – Abidjan, and Abroad at Art Twenty One in Lagos, Nigeria.
Notably, his work is part of the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Tate Modern in London, UK and the Walther Collection in Germany.
The object of his work is the erasure of memory in a western world where the essential values seem to be speed, progress and technology. His researches have been published in Les lanternes sourdes, at trans phographic press, in 2004. He is also interested in the remnants of France’s colonial past in the Outre-Mer project, nominated for the Prix Kodak de la critique photographique in 2005. He participated in Bamako Encounters, in 2005, 2009 and 2015, in Kreyol factory, Paris, in 2009, Addis Foto Fest, Ethiopia, in 2010 and Intense proximity at Palais de Tokyo and Bétonsalon, Paris, in 2012.
Since his participation in In Situ, artists in residence program in midlle schools, in Seine-Saint-Denis, France in 2008, he build projects in public space combining collaborative, artistic and participative approach. In 2013, he involves nearly two hundred persons in the construction of an eigth meters long airship named Le nuage qui parlait (the talking cloud).
In 2015, ‘‘the cloud’’ continued its trip to Abidjan with the performance L’empreinte (The imprint), in prologue of the exhibition Presences at Cécile Fakhoury Gallery in which he participated. That same year, his Pieds de bois series is presented as part of the Fringe of the 10th Rencontres de Bamako through an in situ installation for the exhibition à découvert organized by Galerie Cécile Fakhoury at the Blabla Hippodrome. In 2016, his work is selected by the Dakar Biennale to be presented at the international exhibition Réenchantments at the former Palais de Justice.
Nii Obodai Born in 1963 in Accra, Ghana. He lives and works in Accra
Nii Obodai is at ease with the vast and diverse world of his continent. His work mainly explores the urban and rural, not with a detached eye, but with an artist’s careful watching, with a strong interest in history and a love of the stories that abound in his world.
Nii Obodai’s photographs are a conduit into a vibrant space. In his travels he discovers and explores the meaning of Farafina. Here we merge into the zone between tradition, improvisation and modernity. We begin to feel the spirit of Farafina, with its adeptness where religions come together, traditions remain in contemporary living, faces of the Diaspora returned home and spiritual stories are told, from within a landscape of beauty. Nii Obodai is unafraid to challenge the common catch cries of what is accepted to be Africa – war, corruption, helplessness. We share his positive awareness of the daily lives of millions of normal people across the continent. In the images of Nii Obodai, the land of the Farafina is living poetry.
Nii Obodai is presently based in Ghana where he works and lives. He enjoys facilitating inspirational workshops on photography and continues to travel exploring and recording the vibrant essence of life. Nii Obodai has exhibited in Accra, Paris, Bristol, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Bamako.
