PARIS.- In 1995, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain presented the first solo exhibition of the Malian photographer Malick Sidibé outside of the African continent. One year after the artist’s death on April 14, 2016, the Fondation Cartier pays tribute to him with Mali Twist, a large retrospective exhibition accompanied by a catalogue. The exhibition is conceived and directed by André Magnin, in collaboration with Brigitte Ollier. Malick Sidibé, Mali Twist brings together for the first time his most exceptional and iconic photographs; period images he printed himself between 1960 and 1980; a selection of “folders” containing his evening shots; and a series of new portraits of timeless beauty. This exceptional collection of black-and-white photographs provides a thorough immersion in the life of the man who was nicknamed “the eye of Bamako.” The photographs reveal Malick Sidibé’s capacity, starting at the beginning of the 1960s, to grasp the vitality of the youth of Bamako and impose his unique style, recognized today throughout the world.

Malick Sidibé was born in 1935 into a Peul family in Soloba, a village south of Bamako, near the Guinean border. He was noted for his talents as a draftsman and was admitted to the school of Sudanese craftsmen in Bamako, where he graduated in 1955. He made his initial steps in photography with Gérard Guillat, known as “Gégé la Pellicule” [Gégé the Film] and opened the Studio Malick in 1962, in the Bagadadji district in the heart of the Malian capital. The portraits he produces display the complicity, which he naturally creates with his clients. Malick Sidibé is also very involved in the cultural and social life of Bamako, which has been booming since the country’s independence in 1960, and he becomes a key figure, much appreciated by young people. He rapidly becomes the most sought after photographer to cover soirées and dance parties. Here young people become familiar with the latest dances from Europe and Cuba, dress in Western fashion and rival one another to be the most chic. On Friday and Saturday, these evenings last until dawn and extend along the banks of the Niger River. Malick Sidibé returns from these reportages of daily life with snapshots filled with music, authenticity and shared joys, which make invaluable testimonies of a time filled with hope.

Through more than 250 photographs, Mali Twist retraces the extraordinary journey of Malick Sidibé. A large part of the exhibition is devoted to the Bamako soirées, which forged his reputation as “reporter of the youth.” In these photographs, couples intertwine, dancers vie to outdo one another in elegance, and pose or sway their hips to the sounds of twist, rock ‘n’ roll and Afro-Cuban music. The ensemble is made complete by the folders which Malick Sidibé designed in order to sell his photographs to clients after the soirées. Amongst his vintage photographs are images which have become legendary, such as Nuit de Noël [Christmas Night], Fans de James Brown [Fans of James Brown] or Je suis fou des disques ! [I Am Crazy for Records!].

The exhibition also highlights the diversity of portraits that Malick Sidibé made in his studio. Young people dressed in the latest fashion, a trio on a motorcycle, children in carnival disguises, women of perfect refinement, beaming adolescents; we find all parts of Bamako’s society in the portraits which have been gathered for the exhibition. By having them pose against a neutral background or a simple curtain, photographed sometimes in close-up, sometimes from low-angle, sometimes from behind, Malick Sidibé composes for each of his models an authentic and spontaneous equivalent on paper. About thirty of these portraits are shown here for the first time. The many photographs on display in the exhibition, developed by Malick Sidibé in his modest studio in the 1960s and 1970s, constitute the biggest ensemble of vintage prints ever gathered together for an exhibition of the artist’s work. They reflect the wealth of a generous work that is as intuitive as it is enlightened. Finally, one of Malick Sidibé’s most emblematic series offers an escapade to the shores of the Niger where young people once gathered for picnics on Sundays, and listened to records of their favorite hits, while playing, having fun, and swimming, under the watchful eye of Malick Sidibé, the faithful witness to these joyous moments.

Mali Twist has its own original playlist, selected by Manthia Diawara and André Magnin, as well as a photo studio, produced by Constance Guisset that is as rich in fantasy as it is in color. Finally, the artworks by Congolese painter JP Mika and Ghanaian sculptor Paa Joe, especially created for this exhibitionevent, reveal the influence of Malick Sidibé’s work on an entire generation of artists. In addition to Mali Twist, Cosima Spender’s documentary Dolce Vita Africana (2008) will be shown on a loop, allowing visitors the opportunity to discover Malick Sidibé’s daily life in Bamako and Soloba, his native village.