Seven artists with roots in West Africa—Yacine Tilala Fall, Selly Raby Kane, Maguette Dieng, Ican Ramageli, Hamedine Kane, Eva Diallo, and Babacar Traoré Doli—have jointly created a multi-sensory total installation at Marres in Maastricht. Titled “Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes,” the exhibition incorporates sculpture, sound, textiles, and video, connecting Zikr chanting of mantras, daily life in the Medina, and the trees of the dry landscape.
This exhibition matters because it presents a collaborative, immersive approach that foregrounds West African spiritual and cultural practices within a European institutional context. By weaving together diverse media and collective authorship, the show challenges conventional exhibition formats and offers a nuanced perspective on contemporary art from the region, expanding dialogues around identity, ritual, and place.