Exhibition / 22 Sep – 28 Oct 2023

L'homme en objet et en animal / Nimissa - Elysium Gallery

Fatoumata Diabaté

This exhibition, a collaboration between Elysium and Ffotogallery, showcases recent work by Fatoumata Diabaté, a Malian photographer from Bamako. Particularly interested in the place of women in society, Fatoumata is president of the Association des Femmes Photographes du Mali. Her work has been exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions and she has been the recipient of several awards.

Alongside her captivating, dreamlike portraits inspired by folklore and fairy tales from her childhood, L’homme en object et L’homme en animal, this exhibition premieres Nimissa (meaning regret in the Bambara language) in the UK. Through the common history of several women, who, like the artist, were victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), the images that make up Nimissa contribute to a process of reconstruction of a lost, stolen, female identity of an intimate self that has disappeared.

Check Elysium Gallery’s website for more details.

Fatoumata Diabaté

Born in 1980 in Mali, Fatoumata Diabaté has been invited to many festivals around the world and has won several awards. She takes part in the Rencontres photographiques de Bamako", the "La Gallicy" photo festival, the Rencontres d’Arles and the Biennale de Dakar. Her work is the subject of several group and individual exhibitions in Mali, France and internationally. In her youth, she was Malick Sidibé’s assistant and in 2013, she creates ‘Le Studio Photo de la Rue, a traveling photo studio which is invited by many cultural spaces and festivals, The Cartier Foundation in Paris in particular. She has been exhibited in various galleries, more recently the 31Project Gallery in South Africa. She has been named 2020 laureate of the Photographic Residences of Quai Branly Museum whose project has just been carried out in Mali and around excision. She divides her time between Montpellier in France and Bamako in Mali.