Maimouna Guerresi, White Cup, 2014. Fotografia, 224 x 200 cm. Courtesy Collezione 54, Milano.

Maimouna Guerresi was born in Italy in 1951 and over time developed an artistic research profoundly influenced by her encounter with Senegal and the culture of West Africa.

Her Italian-Senegalese identity is a central element of her artistic journey, guiding her practice toward an intercultural reflection that brings different visual, spiritual, and symbolic traditions into dialogue.
Her work thus situates itself in a space between Europe and Africa, where questions of identity, belonging, and transformation take on a fundamental importance.

After initial training in painting and sculpture in Italy, his research gradually evolved into a multidisciplinary practice encompassing photography, installation, and video. A defining moment in his career was his encounter with Senegal and his joining a Sufi brotherhood, an experience that profoundly influenced the spiritual and symbolic dimension of his work. From that moment, his relationship with the African continent became not only a cultural reference, but an existential and structural component of his practice.

Guerresi’s work develops within an ongoing dialogue between West African spiritual traditions and international contemporary artistic research. His works do not propose ethnographic or documentary representation, but construct suspended and universal images, in which specific cultural elements are transformed into symbols of a shared interior dimension.
At the center of his research is the body, understood as a place of transformation, balance, and transcendence. In his photographs, female and male figures appear isolated in essential spaces, immersed in an atmosphere of silence and contemplation. The proportions are often elongated or altered, suggesting a tension between physical presence and the spiritual dimension.

Guerresi’s visual language is characterized by a strong focus on composition and the relationship between figure and space. Monochrome backdrops, controlled lighting, and a reduced color palette contribute to the construction of images of great formal intensity. The voluminous and architectural garments take on a sculptural quality and become tools for the symbolic construction of identity.

A recurring theme in her work is spirituality as a universal experience and a space for connecting cultures.

Through a dialogue with the Senegalese Sufi tradition, the artist develops a research that focuses on reflection, meditation, and inner transformation. The figures depicted appear suspended between presence and absence, between the material and the transcendent.

At the same time, Guerresi’s work also addresses the issue of the representation of femininity and cultural identity. Her images portray dignified and autonomous figures, far removed from exotic or folkloric stereotypes, offering a vision of contemporary Africa that combines symbolic strength, complexity, and spiritual depth.

Through solo and group exhibitions in international museums and institutions, her research has established itself as a coherent and recognizable practice in the contemporary art scene. Her Italian-Senegalese background allows her to mediate between diverse cultural contexts, helping to build a space for dialogue between Africa and Europe within the global art system.
Overall, Maimouna Guerresi’s practice proposes a visual language that combines photography, sculpture, and installation in a perceptive and meditative experience. Her works invite the viewer to slow down and engage with a dimension of interiority and silence, in which the encounter between Africa and Europe becomes an opportunity for reflection on identity, spirituality, and the possibilities of contemporary intercultural dialogue.

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