Guinea-Bissau / Guinea-Conakry: Art in Transition

Abdoul Aziz Diallo - Lianas bridge (2015)

African beauty and taste were overwhelmed by a dramatic and cruel colonial history, artefacts were labelled ethnic art’, and the complex aesthetic practices of this world summed up by Francisco José Tenreiro, a poet from São Tomé, an island state in the Gulf of Guinea, as: strong tones, of the Cubist palette were forgotten until the twentieth century, when some major European artists in search of the new, recognized its powerful expressive language, value and depth. The Imago Mundi collection dedicated to two countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea the Republic of Guinea, also known as Guinea-Conakry, and Guinea-Bissau aims to give an aesthetically and morally honest account of a different land, full of vibrant colours, other bodies, a different sensuality: a beauty often shaped by nature, alive with spirit, linked to the primitive forces of existence. Forever suspended between disillusionment and hope.

Hassane Guilavogui - The palm wine collector (2015)



Guinea-Conakry is the only country to have left the French community’ on the basis of a referendum organized by France itself. As the German sociologist Peter Kammerer noted, it was followed by the punishment of the offended white father De Gaulle, to whom Sékou Touré replied proudly: We prefer poverty in freedom to riches in slavery. In the aftermath of independence, France withdrew its economic and administrative aid, but the new government sought and found support in the Soviet Union. Touré became the symbolic figure of an independent African socialism, which would, nonetheless, end in tragedy between the millstones of the Cold War.

Kaba Traore - The African library (2015)



Today the Republic of Guinea is still in a period of instability. The result of ethnic divisions in the population between Malinké (about 35%) and Fulani (40%), reflected in policies and party dynamics, and the health crisis (like Sierra Leone and Liberia, the country was hit by the outbreak of Ebola), which has been overcome, but has resulted, as always, in an economic emergency. Yet Guinea-Conakry is, for example, home to the most important water reserves in West Africa, earning it the nickname Chateau d�eau d Afrique. From its mountains spring the main rivers of the region, the Senegal and Niger, arteries along which flow the life and the economy of entire countries.

Boubacar Ben Barry - The fight against Ebola in Guinea (2015)

Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and shaped like an elongated crescent extending inland to the southeast, it has a variety of different natural environments. The coast, where the Atlantic creeps into its estuaries and bays, lowlands with tropical fruit plantations, essential for exports, and mountains like the Fouta Djalon, which occupies the centre of the country with plateaus and high, rocky peaks reaching 1,500 metres. Moving down the valley, to the north, the savannahs open up and fade toward the Sahel, while in the south, the forests penetrate the green lung in the centre of the African continent.

Mohamed Traore - The Flower of my Country (2015)

One of the main objectives of the country in the economic field is to encourage a more efficient exploitation of its mineral wealth: gold, iron, diamonds and bauxite, of which it is the world’s leading exporter. It also has significant agricultural potential, due to the wide availability of arable lands that are not fully utilized. The vital challenge is to develop agriculture so as to achieve food self-sufficiency and at the same time, increase the export of products such as tropical fruits, coffee, cocoa and palm kernels, which provide hard currency for Guinea to reinvest in infrastructure and development projects, such as the literacy program that led UNESCO to name Conakry the World Book Capital for 2017.

Beao Pansau - Rooster Racing with bike (2015)

Guinea-Bissau’s unique natural resources in the West African panorama also mean it has a great potential for tourism: seven national parks, the archipelago of Bijagós, the largest colony of saltwater hippos, a turtle sanctuary, bird nesting and breeding areas, the largest network of rios (saltwater inlets immersed in mangroves) and primary forests inhabited by wild animals. But today, unfortunately, its image in the world is above all that of a great African drug hub, the ideal transit spot for South American cocaine en route to the European markets (Africa is white, wrote Roberto Saviano in his book ZeroZeroZero). This is partly due to the fact that the capital, Bissau, is about 3,000 km from both eastern Brazil and Spain, a distance easily covered by mid-sized planes.

Mahamadu Lamine Djan (Lés) - Girl (2015)



Even popular culture can become an area for growth and redemption; examples include Netos de Bandim, a group of young artists and traditional dancers who, from the streets of their neighbourhood, Bandim, one of the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the city, have become famous throughout the country, and abroad, thanks to social media. Today, they help young Guineans hope for a better tomorrow, and contribute to their education by investing part of their earnings in school projects, in collaboration with various NGOs operating in the area.

Luis Manuel Fernandes Carvalho Nogueira - Landscape (2015)

I think the duty of a musician is to portray people’s lives, dreams and hopes for the future, says the singer Binhan, who, in his melodies sings the lives of an entire people. A little like the griot have always done, the itinerant storytellers who, through music and songs, have passed down through generations the historical memory of the country. Our collection of 140 10 x 12 cm paintings (97 from Guinea- Bissau, 43 from Guinea-Conakry), collectively bear witness to the bond of the artists with their common African soil. The collection shows the daily life of the villages, men and women at work, dancers, wild animals. Primal strength, lightness, ingenuity, humour and dignity. But also fear, uncertainty, illness and the inability to fully choose their own destiny.

Francisco Sanca - Shield of power (2015)

In a colourful canvas of blue, yellow and green, the African continent is represented as the great Mama Africa, welcoming, the cradle of archaic man. But there is another Africa, as the journalist and intellectual from Guinea-Bissau, Filomeno Lopes, points out, that is born with a conscious identity on the ships that transported slaves to the Americas, that is, with the problem of forced migration. It began as a blend of passion and suffering, and as a project for a better future. Today as another canvas in the collection dramatically shows the future of Africa is still a big, red, desperate question mark. Neverthelss as Pasolini recognized Its future is in its anxious anticipation for a future; and its anxiety is a great patience.

Luciano Benetton