Embodying Relation: Art Photography in Mali

Art History Publication Initiative

by Allison Moore

In Embodying Relation Allison Moore examines the tensions between the local and the global in the art photography movement in Bamako, Mali, which blossomed in the 1990s after Malian photographers Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé became internationally famous and the Bamako Photography Biennale was founded. Moore traces the trajectory of Malian photography from the 1880s—when photography first arrived as an apparatus of French colonialism—to the first African studio practitioners of the 1930s and the establishment in 1994 of the Bamako Biennale, Africa's most important continent-wide photographic exhibition. In her detailed discussion of Bamakois artistic aesthetics and institutions, Moore examines the post-fame careers of Keïta and Sidibé, the Biennale's structure, the rise of women photographers, cultural preservation through photography, and how Mali's shift to democracy in the early 1990s enabled Bamako's art scene to flourish. Moore shows how Malian photographers' focus on cultural exchange, affective connections with different publics, and merging of traditional cultural precepts with modern notions of art embody Caribbean philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant's notion of “relation” in ways that spark new artistic forms, practices, and communities.

376 pages, Hardcover

Published June 26, 2020

Reviews

[A YOGAM]

Allison Moore zeichnet in Embodying Relation die Entwicklung der Fotografie in Bamako von der Kolonialzeit bis zur Etablierung der renommierten Biennale nach. Im Spannungsfeld zwischen lokalen Traditionen und globalen Einflüssen analysiert sie, wie Künstler wie Seydou Keïta und Malick Sidibé internationale Sichtbarkeit erlangten. Mit Rückgriff auf Édouard Glissants Konzept der „Relation“ beschreibt Moore Fotografie als ein Netzwerk ästhetischer und sozialer Verbindungen, das neue Gemeinschaften und affektive Räume hervorbringt. Das Buch ist zugleich eine Hommage an die Kamera als Instrument einer eigenständigen modernen westafrikanischen Bildsprache.