The Art-Z Gallery invites you this summer to Arles, with an exhibition of shared views of great photographers who met and influenced each other in Bamako, from the 1970s to the present day.
This exhibition pays tribute to the “Swinging 70’s Bamako” of Malick Sidibé, and confronts it with Bamako today. Mali’s independence in 1960 was the time of an identity re-appropriation, with a rebel youth in search of new models, and studio photographers like Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé were in the forefront of this quest. In the late 80’s, famous French photographer Françoise Huguier worked and settled in Mali, where she came across the studios of Keita and Sidibé, and decided to promote them in France and abroad. In 1994, she founded the Bamako Photo Biennale, which is still today the largest photo Fair on the African continent.
“Bamako encounters” exhibition also introduces the works of second generation malian photographers like Mamadou Konaté, King Massassy , Adama Kouyaté and the french-based Fatoumata Diabaté.
Camille de Sancy
Exhibition curator
Arles 2022 : Galerie Art-Z : Rencontres à Bamako
From July 2 to September 25, 2022
Guest of honor: Françoise Huguier, founder of the Bamako Encounters.
At the Galerie Art-Z, at 28 rue de la Liberté, all summer long in Arles
Exhibition also at Annie collectors Gallery, 20 rue des Porcelet.
