C-Gallery in collaboration with South Africa’s Gallery MOMO is bringing  Selling the Shadow a touring exhibition curated by the American artists Ayana V. Jackson and Ingrid LaFleur.

Selling the Shadow is an international, cross disciplinary presentation that examines the relationship between art and social practise.

The exhibition’s title recalls the abolitionist and women’s rights activities of African American activist Sojourner Truth. From 1859 through the early 1900 Truth financed her political work by selling a small “Carte de Visite” of her portrait inscribed with the words: “I sell the shadow to support the substance”.

A pioneer not only politically but also in her method of appropriating and ultimately controlling her own image during a period, the United States Civil War, when alternate presentations of a black woman body prevailed. To this day Sojourner Truth invites us to reflect on the mechanisms of signs and signifiers, identity constructs and narrative strategies utilized in creating and maintaining power structures.

Selling the Shadow presents the work of 21 international artists from different countries including Cameroon, Congo, France, Italy, Jamaica, United States and South Africa. While vastly different in their personal narratives and method of art making, what each of them share is their confrontation with themes around identity, history, and the social structures that play a role, not only in creating their own work, but also in its consumption and the way in which it is activated.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Derrick Adams | Endia Beal | Kimathi Donkor | Amir George | Maimouna Guerresi | Tony Gum |  Delio Jasse | Lauren Kelley | Coby Kennedy | Simone Leigh | Michèle Magema | Joel Mpah Dooh | Maurice Pefura | Alexis Peskine | Jefferson Pinder | Robert Pruitt | Tabita Rezaire | Dread Scott | Mary Sibande | Cosmo Whyte | | Jessica Wimbley |

C-Gallery
Via Ventura 6, Milan

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