IDENTITY AND HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

Samuel Fosso, Malick Sidibé, Seydou Keïta.

West-African portrait photography.

Seydou Keïta (1923-2001), Malick Sidibé (b. 1936) and Samuel Fosso (b. 1962) belong to three different generations. The focus of this exhibition is on studio portrait photography as practised by Keïta and Sidibé in Bamako and Fosso in the Central African Republic over a period of thirty years.

Seydou Keïta’s photographs primarily date back to the 1950s. He was one of the first African photographers to open his own studio, which he did in 1949. Mali, former French Sudan, broke away from the French colonial power in 1960 and Keïta was appointed state photographer in 1962, at which time his private business ceased. In the same year, Malick Sidibé opened a studio.

The photographs of Malick Sidibé shown at this exhibition chiefly date from this early period of liberation - a time characterised by hope and belief in the future. Sidibé’s photographs exude this sense of hope and joy, and the will of the portraitees to manifest their personality. In addition to Sidibé’s studio portraits, several of his pictures from parties and life on the beach are shown.

Samuel Fosso is represented with photographs from the 1970s. He began taking studio portraits at the age of thirteen. The pictures he exhibits at this exhibition are self-portraits, taken at the studio after his customers had gone home. Here Fosso is a teenager staging different identities.

Photography has a special position in Mali. In spite of the fact that Mali ranked among the five poorest countries in the world in 1992, the country has played host to the Pan-African Photography Festival. This festival has established Bamako’s position as the African capital of photography and several internationally recognised photographers work here today. The festival in Bamako has also been an important source for disseminating information on African photography to other continents. Revue Noir, the journal of art published in Paris, has also contributed to spreading information on African photography.

Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé and Samuel Fosso are the most internationally established West-African photographers, although their work has barely been shown in Norway. Only photographs by Seydou Keïta have been shown here earlier – at Tromsø Museum in 1999.

This exhibition has been produced by Xposeptember Stockholm Fotofestival 2002 in collaboration with Rencontres de la photographie africaine (Festival of photography held in Bamako, Mali).

Xposeptember’s representantive, Veronica Wiman, will be present at the press showing.

Simon Njami, writer and artistic director of the photography festival in Bamako, will speak about the exhibition at the opening at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Njami’s visit to Norway is the result of collaboration with the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Wegelandsveien 17, Oslo. He will also lecture on African art at the Art Academy under the auspices of OCA at 7 p.m. on Monday 31 March.

The exhibition opens in Small Gallery at Norsk museum for fotografi – Preus fotomuseum at 2 p.m. on Sunday 30 March and is open until 18 May.

Press photos may be obtained from Monika Jensen monika.jensen@foto.museum.no

Additional information: Astrid Roberg astrid.roberg@foto.museum.no