While The Divine Comedy exhibition carries on at MMK Frankfurt Museum, lettera27 continues to examine its contents and the behind the scenes, putting together the authors that enabled this impressive project and other scholars, artists and intellectuals from all over the world, hosted by important editorial platforms. One such example is the conversation published by Doppiozero, between Elio Grazioli, the art critic, writer and curator and Simon Njami, the exhibition’s curator.
The encounter between the Divine Comedy and the work of more than 60 African artists allows to read the Dante masterpiece as a device of knowledge construction, an argument of a particular interest for the mission of lettera27. In fact, Grazioli points out how the Divine Comedy has given birth to a narrative archetype, which translates a journey from one world to another as a metaphor of consciousness and has been able to build the knowledge maps, from Dante to the contemporary times. A mechanism that Simon Njami has realized and applied to the present of the African continent and its multiplicity, inverting the direction of the journey: from Paradise to Hell, the works of art included in the exhibition rewrite the history and the alleged Western universalism through the visions of Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, atheistic, agnostic and Jewish artists.
Among them Bili Bidjocka, the author of Ecriture Infinie, a travelling artistic project, which also became digital thanks to Moleskine, that celebrates the calligraphy and the pleasure of transferring the thoughts from the mind to the page through handwriting in an enormous notebook which will forever preserve their traces. Through these collective traces he creates an infinite and absolute time, like the one of the Dante’s Divine Comedy, in which the grand intellectuals and thinkers from the various epochs meet in a continuous present. “This way throughout the exhibition the living are tasked with the work of the dead, or however the ones that are not visible.” Njami elaborates on the link between Ecriture Infinie and the Dante masterpiece, “By inviting the visitors to add their thoughts to the big book, which simultaneously questions our notions of space and time, Bidjoka makes them a part of eternity in perpetual mutation.”
We can navigate this journey through the contemporaneity, history and infinite time through the words of two exceptional guides: Elio Grazioli and Simon Njami.
Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
