Galerie Atiss Dakar announces a two-part group exhibition as part of #theOFFisON. Spread across two locations – Galerie Atiss in Dakar-Médina and Atelier Aïssa Dione Tissus in Sodida, Dakar – the exhibition is anchored in a theme that connects the materiality, spirituality, and symbolism of Brazil and West Africa.

The title highlights the many forms of communication through gestures and meanings beyond canonized or indoctrinated language and the systems of power and control from which they emerge. Instead, it prioritizes knowledge passed down through generations, whether ancestral or exploring the context, landscape, and environment for what lies beyond the visible. New and existing artworks by an intergenerational group of artists compare physiologies, origins, and histories transmitted across generations while engaging with themes of collective memory, ancestry, spirituality, reuse, and reinterpretation.

Materials become essential in linking diverse practices and approaches that ultimately reveal parts of our human history that remain invisible. Forgotten or endangered ancestral and indigenous knowledge is laid bare in textiles, film, drawings, and an installation, combined with the capacity to envision new futures and imaginaries for artistic creation.

Alberto Pitta lives and works in Salvador, Brazil, where he grew up observing the activities of his mother, the Iyalorixá Mãe Santinha de Oyá. This inspired his interest in working with fabrics and their symbolism. On the gallery’s ground floor, Pitta presents a new large-scale in situ installation that connects Senegalese and Brazilian maritime histories in the form of a boat sculpture combining his pioneering work in fabric printing, clothing, sculpture, and the ornaments of the Orisha deities of the West African religion Candomblé. For more than 45 years, Pitta has pursued his research and creation of prints, costumes, sets, and allegories that characterize the visuality of the Afro blocks dominating Salvador’s carnival.

Jelili Atiku has expressed his political concerns for human rights and justice through various media such as drawing, sculptural installation, photography, video, and live performance art. He aims to broaden viewers’ horizons and help them understand the world around them so they can enrich their understanding and experiences and provoke change in their lives and environment. Atiku’s presentation will focus on his extensive but rarely exhibited drawing practice rooted in Yoruba symbolism.

Like Atiku, A. Sika sometimes works with Yoruba symbolism and mythologies. She is a priestess of disorder, a free artist liberated not only in her artistic approach but also in how she perceives her relationship with her creations, drawn from her creative muses. With disarming lightness, she transcends established codes concerning standardized techniques. She has empowered herself to push boundaries, delve deep into her being, thus expanding her scope of action.

Ana Beatriz Almeida focuses on African traditions and their connections with the African diaspora throughout history. She developed a series of rites to honor those who did not survive the transatlantic slave trade but remain alive in spirit. Concentrating on memory, the meaning of life and death, and the infinity between the two, her installation Homey, a 10-year ritual performance documented through film, photography, and ephemeral works, was specially created for the gallery on the first floor.

Tessi Kodjovi primarily experiments with wood and iron and is influenced by collectively shared questions such as Who are we? How do we coexist within geographical and temporal frameworks? How do we restore faith in our systems? How do we create new languages? These questions are not new; they find physical expression through the artist’s unique way of providing answers.