FRÉDÉRIC BRULY BOUABRÉ | Cosmogonie

Abstract

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. Cosmogonie, curated by Cristina Costanzo, is the first solo exhibition in Sicily of one of the founding fathers of African contemporary art as well as one of the most fascinating artists of our time. The exhibition project, initiated by 091 Art Project Gallery and supported by the Embassy of Ivory Coast in Italy and the Department of Culture and Societies, University of Palermo, presents the artworks of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (1923, Zepreguhe – 2014, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoir) following his 2022 retrospective at MoMA in New York, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound. Previously, his work has been shown at the Venice Biennale, both at the Pavilion of the Ivory Coast and as part of the Encyclopedic Palace, the 55th Biennial exhibition curated by Massimiliano Gioni. The exhibition aims to offer a critical discussion of the artistic production of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré through a rich body of works across a broad chronological period, from 1994 to 2008, representative of his philosophical research on the sun, flags and legends that distinguish his highly original imagination. His installations of various sizes with a strong verbal-visual component are presented for the first time here, in Palermo.