Maïmouna Guerresi (born Patrizia Guerresi; 1951 in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) is an Italian-Senegalese

multimedia art Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as writing, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. This is in contrast to tradition ...

ist working with photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Her work incorporates Afro-Asian themes and symbolism with traditional European iconography.

Life

Born as Patrizia Guerresi in Italy to a religious Catholic family, in 1991, Guerresi traveled in Africa and converted to

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in Senegal. Acknowledging a new identity and new direction for her work, she adopted the name Maïmouna. Guerresi lives and works in Verona and Milan, Italy, New York City and Dakar, Senegal.

Work

Guerresi's work presents an intimate perspective on the spirituality of human beings and their relationship to their inner mystical dimension. West African expressions of

Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

in particular are an inspiration for Guerresi's work. Guerresi's images are delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, and an appreciation of shared humanity beyond borders – psychological, cultural, religious and political. Recurrent metaphors such as milk, light, the hijab, trees, and contrasting white and black create awareness of the vital unifying qualities of Islamic spirituality, while Guerresi's work's embrace of hybrid spirituality and African, Asian, and European cultural ancestry ultimately reflects that of her global approach to both art and life.

Collections

The artist's work is found in private and public collections throughout the world including: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

;

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

;

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, a ...

, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; and the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden.

Select exhibitions

Her work has been extensively exhibited in solo and group shows all over Europe, Africa, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East. Guerresi was invited to participate in the Italian pavilion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1982-1986-2011 as well as at the 1987 Documenta K18 in Kassel, Germany. More recent museum shows include:

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center Atlanta Contemporary is a non-profit, non-collecting institution located in the West Midtown district of Atlanta. It is dedicated to the creation, presentation, and advancement of contemporary art by emerging and established artists. Atlanta Co ...

, USA, 2004; Biennal “Les Rencontres de Bamako” the National Museum of Bamako, Mali, 2009; Central Electrique, Brussels, 2010; Fondation Boghossian, Villa Empain, Brussels, 2011; French Institute, Fez, Morocco, 2011; KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, 2011; National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India 2012; Cultural Institute of Islam, Paris, France, 2013; Pole de la Photographie, France; Camhane Art Center, collateral exhibition for the Istanbul Biennal Turkey, 2013; F.A.R Museum in Rimini, Italy, 2013; Biennale Chobi Mela, Dhakka, Bangladesh, 2013; National Museum of Bahrain, UAE, 2014; National Museum of Sharjah, UAE, 2014; ''Re-signification'', Museo Bardini, Florence, 2015; ''Islamic Art Now, Part II: Contemporary Art from the Middle East'',

, Los Angeles, 2016; ''The Fall: Awa and Adama'', Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, 2022; ''Villes Nouvelles and Ancient Shadows / Sebaatou Rijal'',

Aga Khan Museum The Aga Khan Museum is a museum of Islamic art located at 77 Wynford Drive in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is dedicated to Islamic art and objects, and it houses approximately 1,200 rare objects assembled by Sh ...

and Aga Khan Park, Toronto, 2022; ''Ruh , Spirito , Roots of Spirituality'', KYOTOGRAPHIE, Kyoto, 2023; ''Being and belonging'',

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, Toronto 2023; ''Nur/Luce/'', Triggiano, Bari, 2023; ''A Spiritual and Political Journey'', Museo Ettore Fico, Torino, 2023; ''A WORLD IN COMMON: Contemporary African Photography'',

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, London, 2024. Guerresi participated in the exhibition ''I Am. . .Contemporary Women Artists of Africa'' at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art from June 2019-April 2022.

Publications

* Guerresi, Maïmouna. ''Inner Constellations,'' 2015.

References

External links

Artist's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerresi, Maimouna 1951 births Living people People from the Province of Vicenza Italian photographers Converts to Sunni Islam from Roman Catholicism Italian Sufis Artists from Dakar Italian expatriates in Senegal