Galerie Atiss Dakar announces the two-part group exhibition on the occasion of #theOFFisON. Set across two sites – Galerie Atiss in Dakar-Medina and Atelier Aïssa Dione Tissus in Sodida, Dakar, the exhibition is grounded in a theme connecting the materiality, spirituality, and symbolism of Brazil and West Africa. The title indicates the many forms of communication through gestures and meanings outside canonized or indoctrinated language and the systems of power and control from which they emerged; instead, it favors knowledge passed down across generations that can be ancestral or looking within one’s context, landscape and surroundings for what is beyond the visible. New and existing artworks by an intergeneration of artists compare the physiologies, origins, and histories passed down from generation to generation while working with an array of themes dealing with collective memory, ancestry, spirituality, reuse, and reinterpretation. Materials become central for connecting varied practices and approaches that ultimately reveal parts of the histories of our humanity that remain invisible. Forgotten or disappearing ancestral and indigenous knowledge is laid bare in textiles, film, drawings, and an installation, combined with the ability to envision new futures and new imaginaries for art making.

Alberto Pitta lives and works in Salvador, Brazil, where he grew up observing the activity of his mother, the Iyalorixá Mãe Santinha de Oyá. This led to an ongoing interest in working with fabrics and their symbolism. On the gallery’s ground floor, Pitta presents a new large-scale site-specific installation connecting Senegalese and Brazilian maritime histories in the form of a boat sculpture that combines his pioneering work in fabric prints, clothing,
sculpture, and ornaments of the Orishas deities from the Western African religion, Candomblé. For more than 45 years, Pitta has continued his research and creation of prints, costumes, props, and allegories that characterise the visuality of the Afro blocks that dominate the carnival of Salvador. Jelili Atiku, on the other hand, has expressed his political concerns for human rights and justice through various mediums such as drawing, installation sculpture, photography, video, and live art performances. He aims to broaden the viewers’ horizons and help them comprehend the world around them so they can enhance their understanding and experiences and bring about change in their lives and surroundings. Atiku’s presentation will focus on his rarely exhibited yet extensive drawing practice rooted in Yoruba symbolism.
A.Sika, like Atiku, also at times works with Yorùbá symbolism and mythologies. She is a priestess of disorder, a free-spirited artist, liberated not only in her artistic approach but also in the way she perceives her relationship with her creations, drawn from her creative muses. With bewildering lightness, she transcends established codes regarding standardised techniques. She has empowered herself to push beyond boundaries, delving into the depths of her being, thus expanding her scope of action.

Ana Beatriz Almeida focuses on African traditions and their connections to the African diaspora throughout history. She has developed a series of rites to honour those who did not survive the transatlantic trade of enslaved people but remain alive in the spirit. Focusing on memory, the meaning of life and death, and the infinity between both. Her installation Homey, a 10-year ritualist performance documented in film, photography, and ephemera, has been conceived especially for the first-floor gallery.

Tessi Kodjovi experiments mainly with wood and iron and is influenced by collectively shared questions such as: Who are we? How do we coexist within the geographical and temporal frames? How do we restore faith within our systems? How do we create new languages? These questions are not new; they find physical expressions in the artists own way of providing answers.