"Walking through Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imaginationat the Museum of Modern Art, I noticed that the exhibition didn't have definite sections or texts, and the wall labels abstained from naming the nationalities of the photographers. It was an invigorating experience to be in a show that eschews geographic boundaries set up by Western nations, as well as rejects a cause-and-effect narrative that centers Western colonialism as a framework for understanding African aesthetic production."
"One of the first photographs a visitor encounters is a broken triptych self-portrait by contemporary photographer Silvia Rosi entitled "Sposa togolese disintegrata (Disintegrated Togolese Wife)" (2024). Rosi is known for producing self-portraits in which she captures herself holding the shutter release. In her early works, she often depicts herself as either her mother or father to produce a "reimagined" family album that referenced her Togolese heritage and her family's migration to Italy."
An exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art rejects Western colonial frameworks and geographic boundaries when presenting portrait photography from African and diaspora contexts. The show avoids definite sections and omits national labels on wall texts to resist nation-based classification. Portraiture is presented as a means of agency through reimagination, physical activation, and direct address. The selection spans photographers from West and Central African diasporas dating from the mid-20th century to the present. Silvia Rosi's broken triptych self-portrait disintegrates familial memory, mobility, and personal history into a fractured grayscale image.
Read at Hyperallergic
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