Famakan Magassa: Riez et faites rire car trop sérieux n'est pas très sérieux 

Over the festive period, Kunsthaus Graz is hosting a participatory project with artist Famakan Magassa, who is temporarily relocating his studio to the Kunsthaus Needle. From 26 December 2024 to 5 January 2025, the artist will be working with visitors on a joint work. Under the motto ‘Laugh and make others laugh, because too serious is not very serious’, a creative antithesis to the consumerist Christmas holidays and current global political events will be created. Visitors are invited to talk to the artist, paint with him or accompany him in his working process.

Famakan Magassa combines the everyday with current socio-political issues in his large-format, intensely coloured acrylic works. His works speak of the need for individual fulfilment and emotional connection, the universal desire for freedom, but also of violence, oppression and displacement. His grotesque, rather gender-neutral figures are an allusion to the Kôrêdugaw - a ritual community that follows its own code of behaviour and philosophy and is of central importance to the cultural identity of certain peoples in Mali. They embody values such as traditional wisdom, tolerance, righteousness and humility, which are also important to the artist. He uses texts and sketches to develop his expressive figurations, which he then transfers to canvas surfaces on the floor in a final step. Through the targeted use of humour and irony, he succeeds in pointedly illuminating the contradictions and complexity of social structures. His art also reflects personal experiences and conflicts.

Mali, which is categorised as a ‘Heavily Indebted Poor Country’ (HIPC), has been ruled by a military junta since the last military coup. Together with radical Islamist jihadists, it is increasingly threatening the lives and freedom of artists.

Magassa currently lives and works as an artist in exile at the Cerrini Schlössl on the Schloßberg in Graz, organised and funded by the Cultural Mediation Department and the City of Graz's Department of Culture.