Dakar – The Italian Cultural Institute in Dakar is presenting “The School of Athens / Madrasat ‘Athina”, a solo exhibition by Maïmouna Guerresi curated by Caterina Riva, as part of the 14th edition of Partcours. Guerresi’s project enters into an ideal dialogue with Raphael’s School of Athens, the Renaissance fresco that celebrated the male intellectual tradition of ancient Greece.
In Madrasat ‘Athina, the artist instead pays tribute to female knowledge and the educational practices rooted in African and Muslim cultures. “The Madrasa of Athens,” curator Caterina Riva explains, “takes shape as a symbolic space where cultures, eras, and systems of knowledge meet, celebrating the women who—despite exclusion—have safeguarded and passed on the light of learning.”
Maïmouna Guerresi, an Italian-Senegalese multidisciplinary artist, works across photography, sculpture, video, and installation, exploring the relationship between spirituality and sociopolitical experience. Her work, shaped by Italian and Senegalese cultural influences and deeply connected to Islamic and Sufi traditions, is known for a poetic, metaphysical visual language grounded in métissage. Through costumes, symbols, and figures suspended between reality and transcendence, Guerresi creates contemplative worlds that view mixed identity as a key to understanding contemporary life.
The exhibition will remain open to the public at the Italian Cultural Institute in Dakar until 31 January. (9colonne)