22.01.2025 – 02.03.2025
Malian-born artist Famakan Magassa currently lives and works as an artist in exile in the Cerrini-Schlössl on the Schloßberg in Graz. In his large-format, intensely coloured acrylic works, he combines the everyday with current socio-political issues. His works tell of the need for individual fulfilment and emotional connection, the universal desire for freedom, but also of violence, oppression and displacement. Magassa’s grotesque, rather gender-neutral figures are an allusion to the Kôrêdugaw – a ritual community that follows its own code of behaviour and philosophy and is of central importance to the cultural identity of certain peoples in Mali. They embody values such as traditional wisdom, tolerance, righteousness and humility, which are also important to the artist. He uses texts and sketches to develop his expressive figurations, which he then transfers to canvas surfaces on the floor in a final step.
Famakan Magassa
22.01.2025 – 02.03.2025
Kunsthaus Graz
www.museum-joanneum.at
