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5 Narrating the Artist SeyniCamaraandtheMultiple ConstructionsoftheArtisticPersona sIlVIA FoRnI Exhibition narratives have long-lasting power in determining the ways in which artists and their work are perceived and appreciated by the public and scholars. Even when the stance taken by curators of successful exhibitions is criticized by reviewers and academics, the implications of their discourse may persist for years. Sometimes, the intellectual and political narratives informing an exhibition prove to be so powerful that they completely mute the personal input of the artists included in the show. At other times, these narratives may subvert or reinforce what artists say about their own work. In all cases, these narratives have great potential to define artists’ works and professional personas. In this chapter I address the relationship between curatorial narratives and personal self-presentation by focusing on Seyni Camara, a Senegalese sculptor from Casamance, who made her first appearance on the international art scene in the oft-cited seminal exhibition “Magiciens de la Terre” (1989).1 Apparently indifferent to the concerns of art critics, Camara presents herself in a way that seemingly replicates the framing proposed by “Magiciens de la Terre.” However, a closer look at the narratives developed by Camara and her critics reveals a much more complex picture in which personal visions are entangled with local cultural references and global ambitions in an ever-evolving negotiation. Camara’s use of narrative, or lack thereof, in her interactions with Western collectors , curators, and scholars questions the heuristic power of interviews. Despite the fact that since the 1990s, many people have approached her and talked to her, the portrayals resulting from these dialogues reiterate some of the common tropes suggested in the “Magiciens” exhibition, while many elements of her poetics continue to be enshrouded in an aura of mystery that the artist seems to have no intention to unravel. Camara is seemingly a willing participant in the interviews and dialogues that provide the grounding for the scholarship on her work. She may be nArrAtinG the Artist 71 very vocal when it comes to telling the story of how her art was collected and exhibited , but she generally refuses to disclose in overt terms the inspiration for her work. When it comes to explaining the meaning of what she does, she prefers to keep silent, leaving it to whoever is interpreting her words to find an explanation that will satisfy the interviewer. Camara does not create an overt counter-narrative to the framework suggested by the “Magiciens” exhibition, and while at times she reacts bitterly to some of the statements reported in the literature on her work, she prefers to keep working on her clay rather than challenging directly these ideas. Through her words, silences, and actions this artist seems to claim the right not to be confined to any reductive image, nor to reveal herself fully—the right to remain opaque to the inescapable taxonomic force of Western scholarly and art critical narratives. Seyni Camara’s opacity has generally been appropriated by scholars and flattened into a generalized category of “magic,” a category that seems inescapably associated with primitivistic ideas of radical alterity. However—without denying the profound spiritual elements informing Camara’s production—I believe that her mystery might be better understood as a strategic act of agency, a silent claim to irreducibility. Constructing the Earth’s Magicians The 1989 exhibition “Magiciens de la Terre” is a noteworthy example of the lasting power of curatorial discourse, and it is often cited as a milestone in the construction of the idea of contemporary African art and artists. While the exhibit did not focus on Africa in particular but included artists from all over the world, after twenty years its legacy, whether embraced or challenged, is still a point of reference for exhibitions and critical assessments of the works of African artists. Taking directly to task the theoretical assumptions at the basis of the 1984 exhibition “Primitivism in 20th Century Art,” the curatorial frame orienting “Magiciens” put emphasis on the contemporaneity of Western and non-Western artists.2 They were grouped together by virtue of all being creators of pieces that communicated “sense,” resulting from “complex desires and decisions, [and] . . . charged with intentions , aspirations, criticism, and strategies.”3 By juxtaposing the creations of artists from all over the world the exhibit aimed to create a “place of marvel and knowledge, where the former stimulates the latter and the play of similitudes and analogies does not fear the unique and the exception.”4 This wondrous...

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