A new and fascinating foray into photography to tell the present: KENE / Spazio is an exhibition scheduled at MANN from 22 October to 30 November.

The original exhibition project, conceived by Mohamed Keita, promoted by Fondazione Pianoterra Onlus and curated by Sara Alberani, unites several Italian cities: KENE / Spazio arrives in Naples after a stop at the "Luigi Pecci" Center for Contemporary Art in Prato ; the "tour" of the exhibition will then continue in Rome and Milan. KENE won the Italian section of the “Focus Philantropy” photographic contest, promoted in Italy by Assifero and Acri and coordinated at European level by the DAFNE network.

The exhibition stems from a particular human and artistic journey: the twenty-six-year-old photographer Mohamed Keita comes from the Ivory Coast and arrives in Rome in 2010 as a political refugee. The encounter with photography represents a turning point, soon becoming a profession, which Keita decides to share with others: in fact, art is configured as a tool for urban research and a means of social transformation. Thus was born KENE (in Mandingo it means Space), a real project of life and knowledge, which brings Keita back to Bamako (Mali), with the aim of creating a space where children can learn photography: hence the conditions for enhance new forms of learning and cultural growth.

“The MANN space of interaction is the world and our Institute wants to be a privileged observatory. For this reason, Keita's photographic eye offers us a different glimpse of Africa, mother of man, favoring integration, contamination, crossbreeding, the voices of the vanquished: all values that we are striving to re-emerge from analysis of the ancient world, too often censored by the language of those who held power “, comments the Director of the Museum, Paolo Giulierini.

KENE's story includes five photographs of Mohamed Keida and about 50 images made by his young students in Mali; There is also a documentation of images of what has been done in the workshops and didactic moments in Africa.

With his photographic projects Mohamed Keita has now acquired international notoriety: his shots have been exhibited as part of the 14th edition of FotoGrafia international festival in Rome, in London, at the Italian Cultural Institute and at Palazzo Querini, in the Rothko in Lampedusa exhibition. , on the occasion of the 58th Venice Biennale.