We are happy to present the exhibition “I Had a Dream”, which will be held at Rome’s Rinascente on Via del Tritone from today to September 26. The exhibition features a selection of 54 notebooks created over the years by AtWork workshop participants. Conceived by Moleskine Foundation and Simon Njami, AtWork is an itinerant educational format designed for young people from all over the world. AtWork started its journey in 2012 in Dakar and since then continued to travel around the African continent and beyond with the aim of inspiring a new generation of creative thinkers.
Ranging across 10 different countries, the exhibition reflects the richness and variety of contemporary creative thinking, and is divided into 7 thematic sections: identity, community, memory, freedom, time, female condition, and dreams. The latter presents a selection of notebooks created during the first leg of the 2018 AtWork Tour “I Had a Dream”, which took place in Rome, at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, in May 2018. The third chapter of the tour is currently being implemented in Kampala.
All exhibited notebooks were donated to Moleskine Foundation Collection to support its activities. This one-of-a-kind collection features more than 1,000 notebooks created during our educational formats by students and internationally renowned artists alike. A creative collective relay that travels the world with the aim of fostering creativity, generosity and sharing.
Alongside the notebook exhibition, visitors will find an interactive area where they can write their dreams on a note and drop it in a box, thus becoming part of our international creative dream map.
Supported by Rinascente and Moleskine srl, the exhibition is held at the Exhibition Area on the -1 floor.
Come to Rinascente and join our creative community of dreamers. Looking forward to seeing you!
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.
