Maïmouna Guerresi

Maïmouna Guerresi (b. 1951 in Vicenza, Italy; lives and works in the Veneto region, Italy) works in a hybrid embrace of ancestry from African, Asian and European cultures, following her encounter with Islam.

Guerresi’s practice, though rooted in photography, includes sculpture, textile, installation, and video. Across her range of media, she presents an intimate perspective on human spirituality in relation to mysticism, shedding a new light on community and the soul. Heavily influenced by Sufi traditions in Senegal, Sudan, and Morocco, Guerresi’s work creates awareness of the unifying qualities of Islamic spirituality. She returns often to depictions of female spiritual strength, and of circular time in which the past remains ever-present. Other recurrent symbols such as light, the hijab, and nature transform her work into delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, an appreciation of shared humanity beyond borders – psychological, cultural, and political. 

Her work has been featured in prominent solo exhibitions internationally including at the National Museum of Bamako (Bamako, Malí), French Institution of Culture (Fez, Morocco), Sharjah Art Museum (Sharjah, UAE), Bahrain National Museum (Manama, Bahrain), Aga Khan Museum (Toronto, Canada), and most recently the Italian Cultural Institute (Dakar, Senegal). She has taken part in group exhibitions such as at KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki, Finland), National Museum (Lagos, Nigeria), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (Los Angeles, CA), Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) (Paris, France), New Orleans Museum of Art (New Orleans, LA), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington, DC), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada), Tate Modern (London, UK), Wereld Museum (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Fotografiska Museum Shanghai (Shanghai, China), C/O Berlin Foundation (Berlin, Germany), among others. Guerresi was the recipient of the IPA International Photography Awards (2015) and residencies including most recently at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden Marrakech in 2020. 

Her works are included in private and public collections worldwide, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), Fondation Boghossian, GAM Galleria Arte Moderna Achille Forti, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (Los Angeles, CA), Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (Marrakech, Morocco), Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth (Hanover, NH), and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (Washington, DC).