Gallery ILÉ is proud to announce its representation of
Nicola Lo Calzo.
Nicola Lo Calzo (Turin, 1979) is a critically acclaimed photographer, a curator and PhD researcher whose work focuses on themes of memory, identity, as well as colonial and postcolonial histories. His long-term documentary projects often explore how communities preserve or reclaim cultural memory in the face of marginalisation and historical erasure.
-
Since 2010, Lo Calzo has been working on the Kam project, a multi-year photographic series exploring the legacy of slavery and resistance across the Transatlantic world — from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas. Lo Calzo’s practice is deeply rooted in field-based and participatory research, and he frequently collaborates with local communities, historians, and institutions.
-
In Addition to being frequently exhibited at major museums across the world,
works by Nicola Lo Calzo has been permanently incorporated in numerous Public and Private Collections, including Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Paris, France, Wereld Museum - Amsterdam - Netherlands, Museo Nivola Collection - Orani, Italy and J.P. Morgan Chase Art Collection - New York, USA, to name a few.
Furthermore the artist has also been heralded in respected media outlets such as: The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Smithsonian Magazine, Le Monde, Libération, Internazionale, and National Geographic.
-
Apart from his photography, Lo Calzo is very active in academia and curatorial practices, often intersecting visual storytelling with scholarship on colonial history, memory politics, queer and decolonial thought processes.
-
it is with great pride that Gallery ILÉ now collaborates with an artist of Nicola Lo Calzo's stature.
-
This marks a significant milestone in our journey as we expand our horizons to welcome a critical and situated perspective that transcends geographical origins, enriching the ongoing dialogue around Afro-diasporic worlds.
-
The curation unfolds with the following 2 exceptional bodies of work.
-
Agoudas
Through this photographic Series, Lo Calzo explores the complex practices of memory transmission revolving around slavery in West African countries, including Ghana, Senegal, and the Republic of Benin. In a region where the Transatlantic slave trade still represents a past that is both morally and socially difficult to reconcile with, memories often survive within private spheres through rituals, religion and taboo.
-
-
With this Series, Nicola Lo Calzo sheds light on an historical legacy that continues to play an important role in the contemporary relationships between both descendants of African slave merchants and descendants of African enslaved.
-
Revealing a marginalised yet persistent memory that not only shapes Yorùbá social hierarchies and collective remembrance, but reinforces to this day, the stigma of slavery within the organisation of power in West Africa. Blending documentary with conceptual approaches, the Series Agoudas uncovers a treasure trove of counter-archive that challenges dominant narratives, and honours the silenced voices of historical memory.
-
Nego Fugido
-
The Series Nego Fugido is a photographic investigation of a unique performative tradition, held every July in the Quilombola community of Acupe, Brazil.
Originating in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery, this community-based performance re-enacts the violence and the struggle for freedom of the enslaved, through symbolic resistance and collective memory.
-
-
Abdicating official historical narratives, 'Nego Fugido' asserts the central role of the enslaved in their own liberation.Today, this tradition functions as a political and cultural space where Afro-Brazilian identities and ancestral knowledge are not only preserved, but reimagined. With this Series, Nicola Lo Calzo explores non-institutional forms of remembrance, giving voice to marginalised histories and gestures of cultural resilience.
-
-
Each authentic and certified limited edition fine art photographic print, is produced under 'Museum Quality' standards and framed with State-of-the art finished, courtesy of Après-Midi Lab Paris.
-
0 commentaire