Maïmouna Guerresi

erspective on the relationship between women and society, with particular reference to those countries in which the role of women is most marginalized. For over twenty years Guerresi’s work has been about empower- ing women and bringing together individuals and cultures in an appreciation for a context of shared humanity, beyond borders – psychological, cultural, and political. She uses recurrent metaphors such as milk, light, the hijab, trees, and contrasting white on black to create awareness of the vital unifying qualities of the feminine archetype and its special healing potential. Guerresi’s art is uniquely authentic. Her work is inspired by personal experience and cultural contexts that reference universal myths, the sacred realm, and the female condition, all of which are seen as vital expressions of the human form: an essentially spiritual and mystic body. Through photographs and videos of silent, austere, veiled women in domestic scenes and individual poses, her work functions as both metaphor and provocation. Guerresi’s images are delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, as well as rational analyses: women dressed in white, enveloped in chadors, fixed within their own tradition and isolated from and by it in the contemporary world. Her Fatimah image suggests the woman as Mother- Earth supporting us in the original energy cycle of Space-Universe-Infinity.


Maïmouna Patrizia Guerresi is a photographer, sculptor, and video and installation artist. Her work originates
from conceptual experimentations inspired by the 1970s Body Art . Early in her career she was invited to
participate with solo shows for the Italian pavilion
Venice Biennale (1982 and 1986
respectively), as well as
Documenta K18 (1987
) in Kassel, Germany.
In
1991
Maïmouna travelled to various Muslim African countries and converted to Islam. This marked her
new identify and the direction of her body of work, adopted in the name
Maïmouna,
with recurring themes
about multicultural symbolism and feminine spirituality.
Following these formative experiences, she held several important exhibitions in Italy, such as at the Giarina
Gallery in Verona
1995
, where she created a series of sculptures of egg and nutshaped heads with various
religious symbols and Eggmen, selfcontained human figures in the act of praying. In
1999
in solo shows
“Maimouna”
at the Rocca di Um- bertide Contemporary Artspace in Umbria and the Mudima Foundation in
Milan, she presented her first set of white resin sculptures,
Bui Bui,
veiled women sitting in a circle,
accompanied by her remarkable video
The Virgin of the Rocks.
This work is strikingly relevant today as it
shows a woman continuously removing her veil and yet never managing to rid herself of it. Various shows
associated with this theme followed Italy Spain,Africa and USA. She presents her work at the exhibition
Identità e Pluralità nelle città d’Europa
: Milano e l’islam at the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan in the year
2000
. In the same year, Martina Corgnati invites her at the Autore Donna exhibition where she displays a
largescale installation called
La Via del Latte
at the Palazzo Pasquini in Castiglioncello, Italy. In
2001
, an
individual exhibition is organised at the Levy Gallery in Madrid and at the Galleria Valmore in Vicenza, Italy.
In 2002, an individual exhibition”Fathimas” curated by Tommaso Trini is held at the Varart gallery in Florence.
She presents the sculptures Bui in Blu (two veiled figures made of blue polished bronze) at the Sottigliezze
exhibition curated by Patrizia Nuzzo held the Palazzo La Gran Guardia in Verona, Italy in 2003. Lisa Kurzner
invites her at the exhibition Under Different Circumstances in 2004 where she presents a largescale
installation composed of prayer rugs (made of terracotta) and photographic works at the Museum
Contemporary III, Atlanta, USA. She also exhibits at the Biennale Dakar Off , at “Fraternitè International”
curated by Art Sans Frontières. the text in the catalogue is written by Amadou Lamin Sall ,Leopold Sengor
Museum ,Dakar, Senegal.
In
2005,
an individual exhibition is held at the
Bel Art Gallery in Milan curated by
Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
She also participates in the collective exhibition called
Perdere la Testa
by
Francesca Alfano at the Galleria Studio Lattuada, Milan. In the
Filo-Philo
,she participates with an large
installation “the carpets”,curated by Luciano Caramel ,at the Chiostro di Sant’Eufemia, Como, Italy.
In
2005
,
Maïmouna
exhibits a series of photographic images of the
Mystical African Women
at the Bel Art
Gallery in Milan.
For the
2006
Winter Olympics in Turin, she presents her large-scale
Light Signs
sculpture,
originally commissioned by Studio Copernico in Turin as part of the ‘Sculpture En Plein Air’ exhibition,
curated by Maurizio Calvesi. In the same year, Verona’s Palazzo Forti Museum of Modern Art acquires her
Kunta
sculpture for their permanent collection and her
Walls
installation is shown at the new premises of the
Spazio Teca Gallery in Verona.
Again in 2006, her solo show at the Galerie Klaus Gramse is held concurrently with a presentation of her
video work at the Italian Institute of Culture in Cologne, Germany. For the Biennale of Photography at the
Mueso Ken Damy in Brescia, Italy, Maimouna presents six large photographs and she is then later invited to
participate in the first Biennale of Malindi in Kenya, Africa, with several photographic works and a video
installation. At the Paola Colombari Gallery in Milan she creates an extraordinarily unique photographs and
sculpture installation called
The Sisters: Marlene & Adji
featuring her
own two daughters. In March
2007
,
two of her large sculptures
The Stylites
are shown at the Palazzo della Ragione in Verona in
The Seventh
Wonder
exhibition curated by Giorgio Cortenova
.
Maimouna Guerresi presents her first show at the Photo & Contemporary Gallery in Turin
Mystic Journey:
Mystic Body
. She then creates the
Ablutions
installation as part of the
Water
exhibition curated by Paola
Forni and Daniela Moro. This exhibition is held at the Forni Gallery in Bologna and later at the Palazzo
Ducale di Pavullo in Modena, Italy. During the
2007
Venice Biennale, in collaboration with the Arterra
Museum, she presents two photographic works and a video at the
Faccia Lei
exhibition curated by Elena
Agudio at Spazio Thetis in the Arsenale Novissimo in Venice. In 2007, Maimouna’s sculptures, images and
video works are also part of an ambitious group exhibition called
Veil
curated by Andrea Busto at the Filatoio
di Caraglio Museum in Cuneo, Italy. Her photographic image
Adji Baifall
Minaret
is chosen as the exhibition catalogue and advertising image.
In
2008,
The Giant’s Rooms
, a solo
exhibition curated by Andrea Busto is held at Caraglio Museum in Cuneo, Italy.
Photo & Contemporary Gallery presents her work at the
Artissima Art Fair in Turin. at the Bologna Art Fair,
at
the
Art fair Brussels .
In
2009,
Miraggi,
an exhibition of large sculptural works for public places curated by
Giacinto di Pietrantonio is organised in collaboration with the Studio Copernico and Paola Colombari Gallery.
Both her
Black Hands with the light signs
sculptures are permanently installed in the Piazza San Babila in
Milan, Italy.
In 2009, she also participates in the Miart fair
at the Paola Colombari Gallery in Milan, Italy .
Her works are
published in the book
Aish
, another Islam another art
,by Gaia Serena Simionati, Skira Editions is
presented at Art Dubai
The catalogue cover for the exhibition
Teatri possibili
curated by Andrea Busto at the Palazzo Ferrero in
Biella published by Silvana Editore displays her work
Black Oracle
. In
2009
, she also exhibits with the
Photo
& Contemporary gallery in Turin at the
27° Art Faire Art Brussels.
On the occasion of
Ouverture 2009
, she presents her personal exhibition entitled
Ahwal
at the
Photo &
Contemporary gallery. The catalogue includes texts by
Nicola Angerame and Gabriele Mandel Khan.
In November 2009, she presents her exhibition
Asilo Politico
by
Enrico Stefanelli at the di Lucca Digital
Foto Festival in Lucca, Italy and
The Giant’s Rooms
at the Musèe National de Bamako in the framework of
the
Biennale Africaine de la Photographie 2009
Rencontres de Bamako
by Michket Krifa and Laura Serani,
Bamako, Mali.
2010 Frontier
, curated by Michket Krifa and Laura Serani, La Centrale Electrique, European Center for
Contemporary Art, Brussels,
Belgium.
Miart
International Art Fair ,Galleria Paola Colombari, Milan, Italy .
Art
Brussels 28th International Fair
, Photo & Contemporary Gallery, Brussels.
Figure della protezione
,
curated by Bianca Tosatti, Palazzo Dei Pio, Capri, Italy.
Fotografia Europea
and Rencontre de Bamako ,
curated by, Michket Krifa & Laura Serani, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Barakat: the Gift
, curated by Gaia Serena
Simionati, Stux Gallery, New York, USA .
XIV Biennale d’Arte Sacra
Contemporanea Le Beatitudini , curated by di Giorgio Cortenova, Museo
Staurós d’Arte, Teramo .
Art & Design Fair
London,Galleria Paola Colombari,England
La Scultura Italiana del XXI secolo
, curated by Marco Meneguzzo, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro,
Milano, Italy.
Italian video-art festival
, curated by Nicola Davide Angerame King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology,
Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok.
Africa: See You See Me,
curated by A. Amkpa, Museo da Citate–Pavilhao
Preto, Lisbon, Portugal.
2011
Il Poema del Mantello
, solo exhibition, curated by di Elisabetta Sassoli e Paola Colombari, Palazzo
Bevilacqua, Bologna, Italy.
The Giants
, solo exibition, curated by Jean Dadolin, Istitute Francais de Fès and
culture de France Paris, Fès, Morocco.
See You See me
,curated by Awam Ampka, Fondazione Studio
Marangoni, Firenze .
Mia: Contemporary Art Photo,
Galleria Paola Colombari, Milan, Italy
Africa: See You See Me,
curated by Awan Amkpa, Studio Maragoni, Florence, Officine Photografiche,
Rome, Italy, and Li-Space, Chaochangdi District, Beijing, Chi na.
L’Orient et L’Occident desorientès?,
Rencontres international, Fondation Boghossian, Flagey e Villa
Empaiin - curated by Diane Henneberg, Bruxelles, Belgium.
ARS 11,
curated by Jari-Pekka Vanhala, Pirkko Siitari, and Arja Miller, KIASMA Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Dromofestival: Muc(h)ador,
curated by Cristiana Collu and Ivo Serafino Collu, Museo Man, Nuoro, Italy.
Italian Pavilion 54° Venice Biennale,
curated by Vittorio Sgarbi and Italian Culture Institute of Helsinki,
Venice, Italy.
Ri-tratti Imperfetti
, curated by Patrizia Nuzzo and Paola Marini, Palazzo Forti ,Verona.
Art critics who have written about Maïmouna
Martina Corgnati (Milan, Italy), Rosa Maria Falvo
(Melbourne, Australia), Enrico Mascelloni (Rome, Italy), Sarenco (Brescia, Italy) Julien Blen (Marseilles,
France), Tommaso Trini (Milan, Italy), Gabriel Man- del Khan (Milan, Italy), Achille Bonito Oliva (Rome, Italy),
Giorgio Bonomi (Perugia, Italy), Giuliana Scimè (Milan, Italy) , Omar Calabrese (Siena, Italy), Francesca
Alfano Miglietti (Milan, Italy) Maria Grazia Torri (Mi- lan, Italy), Tiziana Conti (Turin, Italy), Maurizio Calve- si
(Rome, Italy), Maria Teresa Ferrari (Verona, Italy), Alienor Saint–Macary (Marseilles, France), Francesca Pini
(Milan, Italy), Camilla Bretoni (Verona, Italy), Luciano Caramel (Milan, Italy), Andrea Busto (Turin, Italy),
Giorgio Cortenova (Desenzano, Italy), Gaia Ser- ena Simionati (Milan, Italy), Nicola Davide Angerame
(Alassio, Italy), Caterin Fox (Atlanta, USA), Liza Kur- zner (Atlanta, USA), Eric Girard Miclet (Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania), Amadou Lamin Salle (Dakar, Senegal), Michket Krifa (Paris, France), Elisabetta Sassoli de Bi-
anchi (Bologna, Italy), Manuela De Leonardis (Rome, Italy), Awam Ampka (New York, USA), Jari-Pekka Van-
hala (Helsinki, Finland), Diane Hennemberg (Brussels, Belgium).