《非凡现实主义》艺术家｜马伊穆纳·盖雷西

《非凡现实主义》展览现场，2024??Fotografiska影像艺术中心

开创性非洲影像艺术展《非凡现实主义》正于 Fotografiska 展出。本次展览为亚洲首次也是规模最大的非洲摄影展，呈现了 16 位非洲知名与新兴艺术家的摄影和影像作品。

与传统印象中的非洲不同，《非凡现实主义》中的参展艺术家通过缤纷的艺术视角，向观众呈现了一幅绮丽的非洲画卷。

在本篇中，我们将为大家介绍艺术家马伊穆纳·盖雷西（Ma?mouna Guerresi），讲述她的创作理念及其作品背后的故事。

马伊穆纳·盖雷西

Ma?mouna Guerresi

生于1951年，意大利与塞内加尔人，生活工作于达喀尔、纽约、维罗纳、米兰。

Born in 1951, Italian and Senegalese. Lives and Works in Dakar, New York, Verona, Milan.

|“意大利-塞内加尔人”眼中的非洲

The perspective of a “Italian-Senegalese” on Africa

马伊穆纳·盖雷西是一位摄影师、雕塑家和装置艺术家，她关注女性与社会的关系以及不同文化之间的联系。盖雷西出生于意大利威尼托地区，在一个虔诚的天主教家庭长大。她毕业于威尼斯美术学院，在进行了一段时间的绘画和素描实验后，转而学习摄影。1991 年，盖雷西到非洲旅行，在塞内加尔皈依了伊斯兰教苏菲派，并开始承认自己的新身份和新的创作方向，取名为马伊穆纳·盖雷西。

她说自己是 “梅蒂斯人”，这个词指的是欧洲人与美洲印第安人（“梅斯蒂索人”），或是非洲黑人与欧洲人或阿拉伯人的混血儿。这个词带有贬义，因为它假定一个种族（白人）凌驾于其他种族之上。马伊穆纳将这个名字作为自己身份的一部分，从而扭转了这一逻辑——她自豪地宣称，她作为非洲人的身份与作为意大利人的身份同等重要。她还强调了跨文化对话的重要性——她的作品融合了三种传统：塞内加尔的背景和主题、与伊斯兰教的深刻精神对话以及深受文艺复兴时期古典画家（如弗拉·安杰利科、拉斐尔以及早期荷兰画家）启发的视觉语言。我们决定将她的作品收录在《非凡现实主义》展览中，是因为我们认识到，非洲是一个各种文化相互交融、相互丰富的地方，就像欧洲、美洲或亚洲一样。

Ma?mouna Guerresi is a photographer, sculptor, and installation artist who focuses on the relationship between women and society and on the connection between cultures. Born in the Veneto region of Italy, Guerresi was raised in a religious catholic family. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, and, after a period of experimentation with painting and drawing, turned to photography. In 1991, Guerresi traveled in Africa and converted to Sufi Islam in Senegal and started to acknowledging a new identity and new direction for her work, adopting the name Ma?mouna Guerresi.

She refers to herself as a “Metis”, which is a term that refers to people of mixed origins between Europeans and America’s Indians (“Mestizos”) or between black Africans and Europeans or Arabs. The term is derogatory, as it assumes that one race (white) was above the others. By claiming the name as part of her identity, Maimouna turns the logic around – proudly claiming that her identity as an African is as important as her identity as an Italian. She also stresses how important the cross-cultural dialog is – and her body of works merges three traditions: A Senegalese context and subject, a deep spiritual dialog with Islam and a visual language that is heavily inspired by the classical Renaissance painters like Fra Angelico, Raphael as well as the early Dutch painters. Our decision to include her work in Marvellous Realism is a recogning that Africa is a place where cultures meet and enrich each other’s, very much the same way that they do in Europe, America or Asia.

|伊斯兰教在非洲的关键作用和苏菲主义精神学派

Opening up to the key role of Islam in Africa and to the spiritual schools of Sufism  

非洲的伊斯兰教是非洲大陆第二大信仰。早在公元 7 世纪，非洲就是伊斯兰教从中东传入的第一个大陆，甚至早于亚洲。一般来说，非洲的伊斯兰教往往适应非洲的文化背景和信仰体系，形成了非洲自己的正统教义。任何有关当代非洲的展览都不能忽视伊斯兰教对非洲大陆主要特征的重要影响。伊斯兰教的存在渗透到生活的方方面面，包括艺术，从而推动了一种非常不同的人体表现方法——在严格的伊斯兰传统中，人体往往是被禁止的。若将莱昂斯·阿波德鲁的 3 位健美运动员的作品与马伊穆纳的作品放在一起看，就会发现不同的传统是如何推动与人体截然不同的关系—虽然是不同的传统却都在赞美人体。

Islam in Africa is the continent's second most widely professed faith. Africa was the first continent into which Islam spread from the Middle East, as early as the 7th century CE – even earlier than in Asia. Generally Islam in Africa has often adapted to African cultural contexts and belief systems forming Africa's own orthodoxies. No exhibition about contemporary Africa could overlook the importance of Islam influence on key identities of the continent. The presence of Islam permeates every aspect of life, including arts – driving a very different approach to the representation of the human body – which was often forbidden in the strict Islamic tradition. It is interesting to look at Leonce's work of the 3 body builders next to Maimouna's work to see how different traditions drive very different relation to the human body – different yet both celebrating it.

Musclemen series, 2012 ??Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou

Mother Minaret, 2007??Maimouna Guerressi    

塞内加尔有 1600 万人口，其中 95% 是穆斯林。塞内加尔地处世界动荡地区：伊斯兰教徒在撒哈拉地区十分活跃，2012 年他们占领了邻国马里的北部地区。尼日利亚、喀麦隆和布基纳法索受到 “博科哈拉姆 ”组织的恐吓，索马里受到青年党的恐吓。在塞内加尔，许多年轻人也过着没有工作、没有前途的生活；尽管如此，塞内加尔仍被视为稳定之锚。塞内加尔从未发生过政变或内战；不同种族和宗教的人们和平共处。基督徒和穆斯林一起庆祝圣诞节和祭祀节，有时他们还会通婚。这种稳定与苏菲兄弟会的作用有很大关系，他们反对极端主义思潮，宣扬和平与宽容。苏菲主义是伊斯兰教中的一种神秘传统。它寻求通过个人对真主的直接体验来寻找神圣的爱和知识。对于马伊穆纳·盖雷西来说，苏菲主义的发现改变了她的生活，现在已经渗透到她工作的方方面面。她承认，“她不可能将自己最私密的想法与艺术表达分开”。

16 million people live in Senegal, 95 percent of whom are Muslims. The country is situated in a troubled area of the world: Islamists are active in the Sahara and in 2012 they overran the north of neighboring Mali. Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso are terrorized by Boko Haram, Somalia by al Shabab. In Senegal, too, many young men live without jobs or prospects; nevertheless, the country is considered an anchor of stability. There has never been a coup d'état or civil war; people of different ethnicities and religions live together peacefully. Christians and Muslims celebrate Christmas and the Feast of Sacrifice together, and sometimes they marry among themselves. This stability has much to do with the role of the Sufi Brotherhoods, which fight against extremist currents and preach peace and tolerance. Sufism is a mystical tradition within Islam. It seeks to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. For Ma?mouna Guerresi – the discovery of Sufism was a life changer and now impregnates all parts of her work. She admits that “it’s impossible for her to separate her most intimate thoughts from her artistic expression.”

|图巴之旅：塞内加尔的精神中心

A journey to Touba: The spiritual center of Senegal

Aishas Story 1, 2016?Maimouna Guerressi

盖雷西说：在塞内加尔，由信仰孕育的精神能够通过希望缓解日常生活中的困难。她把重点放在了人和人与环境的关系上，并在这一过程中传达了一个强烈的信息：我们必须找到一种新的方式来处理人与人之间的关系。一棵猴面包树（实际上只是在水泥墙上画了一棵猴面包树的概念）、一个被传统非洲织物包裹着的人物印象，以及并置的满是战区垃圾的风景，这些有什么共同之处？答案的关键在于理解马伊穆纳·盖雷西关注的是什么——在知识和精神层面。

她的系列作品关注人与自然之间的联系和相互依存。“人与自然紧密相连。每个人都与地球上的万物息息相关，地球的命运受到个人行为的影响。人与自然的关系反映了人与自身、人与内心的关系。因此，自然环境的荒漠化与人类内心生活的精神荒漠化是相对应的”，她解释道。在她这一代人中，消费主义取代了古老的传统，人类个体与生物多样性之间的平衡关系遭到了破坏。最重要的是，这个世界已经形成了这样一种观念：当某样东西不再足够好，或者某个人不符合标准时，无论是从物质意义上还是从社会意义上来说，这件物品或这个人都会成为垃圾。“消费主义造成了竞争。我们需要拥抱一种更具协作性的合作方式。这种认识可以引发一场运动。我们需要传播这个理念”，盖雷西非常务实地说道，然后又补充道，“我们需要找到一种新的时代精神和看待世界的理念。

归根结底，神秘主义者，这个常常被理想化的人物，不过是一个从人类中心主义的自我观中抽离出来的人，目的是在他的历史当下，在与神的接触中寻求和平与自由。”

“In Senegal, spirituality – nurtured by faith – is able to alleviate, through hope, the difficulties of daily life” Guerresi says. She places the emphasis on people and their relationship to the environment, conveying a strong message in the process: we have to find a new way of dealing with each other. What do a Baobab tree (actually only the painting over a cement wall of the idea of a Baoboa tree), the impression of a figure wrapped in traditional African fabric, and juxtaposed landscapes littered with rubbish from war zones, have in common? The key to the answer lies in understanding what Ma?mouna Guerresi is concerned with – in both the intellectual and the spiritual sense.

Her series focuses on the connection and mutual dependence between people and nature. “Humanity and nature are intimately interconnected. Each person is connected to everything that exists on earth. It follows that the fate of our planet is influenced by the actions of individuals. The relationships between humanity and nature reflect the relationship with oneself, with one’s own inner. Thus, the desertification of the natural environment corresponds to the spiritual desertification of the inner life of human beings” she explains. In her generation, consumerism has replaced age-old traditions, and the balanced relationship between the human individual and biodiversity has been destroyed. Most significantly, the world has developed the idea that when something is no longer good enough, or someone does not meet the standards, the object or the person becomes garbage, in both the material and social sense. “Consumerism has created competition. We need to embrace a more collaborative way of working together. This recognition can spark a movement. We need to spread the word” Guerresi says, quite pragmatically, then adds, “We need to find a new zeitgeist and idea of how we see the world.”

Ultimately the mystic, this very often idealized figure, is nothing more than a person who detaches himself from the anthropocentric view of himself in order to seek, in his historical present, peace and freedom in contact with the divine. 

《非凡现实主义》展览现场，2024??Fotografiska影像艺术中心

|仙境中的阿伊莎：非洲伊斯兰社会中妇女的全新视角

Aisha in Wonderland: A fresh new perspective on women in African Islamic society

Red Trampoline, 2016?Maimouna Guerressi

《仙境中的阿伊莎》是一次寓言之旅，围绕着格瑞西所珍视的主题，并与神秘和蒙面身体多样性的魅力和价值联系在一起。该作品表现了一位精神强大的女性，她通过自己的身份，摒弃了与伊斯兰教有关的陈规陋习，消除了男性和女性之间的区别。

阿伊莎戴着一条很长的红色头巾，实际上你无法透过头巾看到她。她站在一个看似潜水的平台上，似乎漂浮在空中，让人想起清真寺中布道的讲坛 Minbar，这是一个专门供男性伊玛目使用的空间，女性无法进入。人物紧闭的双眼和漂浮的姿势暗示着精神上的自省和物质上的超脱。作品的标题是艺术家创造的一个词，结合了苏菲（穆斯林神秘主义的实践者）和萨法（阿拉伯语中的“纯洁”或“清晰”）。

目前，欧洲对头巾以及穆斯林妇女是否应被允许在公共场合用头巾遮盖自己存在很多争议。对于马伊穆纳来说，头巾应该被视为一种宗教饰品，而不是穆斯林妇女的重要支柱。马伊穆纳对面纱的解释主要是象征性的和梦幻般的。有时，它偏离了特定的文化或宗教含义；就像在基督教传统中，戴面纱的人物象征着身体的神圣，就像灵魂的圣殿--其独特风格让人想起意大利古典艺术中的一些传统圣母像，但在穆斯林妇女中也很常见。最重要的是，她有兴趣研究女性精神的无限可能性，跨越所有地域、文化和时代，以视觉方式讲述其不适和魅力，以及多样性的永恒价值。

Aisha in Wonderland is an allegorical journey that centers around themes dear to Guerresi and links to the charm and the value of the mystic and veiled body’s diversity. It is the representation of the spiritually strong woman who, through her own identity, is able to dissolve the distinctions present between the masculine and feminine genres, leaving aside the stereotypes linked to Islam.

Aisha wears a very long red hijab that does not actually let you see the women through it. She is standing on what appear to be a diving platform and seems to be floating in space, recalling the Minbar, a pulpit where the sermons take place in mosques -- a space specifically dedicated to the male imam and denied to women. The figure’s closed eyes and floating position suggest spiritual introspection and material detachment. The work’s title is a word coined by the artist and combines sufi, a practitioner of Muslim mysticism, and safa, “purity” or “clarity” in Arabic.

There is a lot of controversy in Europe at the moment about the hijab and whether Muslim women should be allowed to cover themselves in public. For Maimouna, the hijab should be considered for what it really is, as a religious accessory and not as the essential pillar for Muslim women. Maimouna's interpretation of the veil is primarily symbolic and dreamlike. Sometimes it deviates from specific cultural or religious references; very much like in the Christian tradition veiled figures symbolise the sacredness of the body, like a temple of the soul —following a signature style that is reminiscent of a number of traditional Madonnas in classical Italian art, but is also common in Muslim women. Above all, She is interested in investigating the infinite possibilities of women's spirituality, across all geographies, cultures and eras, to visually narrate its discomforts and its charms, as well as the eternal value of diversity.

|一种受文艺复兴时期最伟大画家启发的摄影语言

A photographic language inspired by the greatest Renaissance painters

图片来源自网络

鉴于马伊穆纳在意大利接受的是宗教家庭教育，她的艺术语言也采用了文艺复兴时期古典画家的一些最具代表性的元素。这在文艺复兴早期尤为明显——在统一简化的背景上系统地使用素雅明亮的色彩（他们实际上是用压碎的宝石来制作色彩）。马伊穆纳的构图也非常注重服饰——它就像神圣建筑的支撑物——既隐藏又保护着处女的形象。最后，与古典绘画一样，她在画中使用了大量散落的符号，每个符号都指向特定的背景点，除了艺术品本身的美之外，这也有助于辨别艺术家的意图。

Given Maimouna‘s education in Italy in a religious family environment, it is no wonder that her artistic language adopts some of the most iconic elements of the classical Renaissance painters. This is particularly true of the early Renaissance – with a systematic usage of plain bright colors (they were actually using crushed precious gemstones to produce the color) over uniform and simplified background. Maimouna's composition also puts a lot of focus on the dress – which acts like an architectural support of the sacred – hiding but also protecting the image of the virgin. Finally – as much as in classical painting, she uses a lot of symbols scattered through the painting, each pointing to specific context points and helping – beyond the beauty of the art object itself – to discern the intention of the artist.

即将闭展｜《非凡现实主义》

Close Soon | Marvellous Realism

开创性当代非洲影像艺术展《非凡现实主义》是亚洲首次也是规模最大的非洲摄影展。《非凡现实主义》聚焦撒哈拉以南的非洲国家，采取跨国视角，展出知名与新兴艺术家的摄影和影像作品。通过这些作品，艺术家设想了当代非洲文化特征作为一种持续可能性的状态，在这种状态中，神话、记忆和运动交织成一幅丰富多彩的想象艺术画卷。参展艺术家的作品将非洲描绘为一种天然包容世界的状态,这与哲学家阿奇勒·姆本贝对非洲大陆的描述相似,即"一个由重叠的血统、多种的交集应运而生形成的运动躯体"。

展览即将于12月1日闭展，最后两周，前来探索非凡的非洲艺术世界。

Focused primarily on sub-Saharan African countries, the first and largest exhibition of African photography in Asia "Marvellous Realism" is transnational in outlook, the exhibition presents work by established and emerging artists using photography and film as a means to envisage contemporary African cultural identity as a state of ongoing possibility, in which myth, memory and movement weave together into a rich tapestry of expansively imaginative art works. The featured artists in the exhibition invoke Africa as an innately cosmopolitan condition that is closer in kind to the philosopher Achille Mbembe’s description of the continent as ‘a body in motion born out of overlapping genealogies, at the intersections of multiple encounters with multiple elsewheres.’

The exhibition will close in two weeks, come and explore the marvellous African art world.

关于 Fotografiska

来自瑞典斯德哥尔摩的Fotografiska，是当代影像、艺术和文化生活的国际性地标，始终致力于向公众呈现全球顶尖的影像作品、重新定义当代影像艺术新体验，同时也关注来自中国本土和亚洲地区的影像艺术创作者，旨在塑造充满活力、创新与包容的国际性文化艺术社区。

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