Alliance Francaise Banjul holds a photographic exhibition showcasing works of French visual artist Enora Lalet and Gambian photographer Lena Nian who have been commissioned to create five exceptional portraits of Gambian women.
The artists were hosted by the Alliance Francaise Banjul for a one month artistic residency program at the Musa Ngum artists house.
The initiative is part of the “We together for Women’s Empowerment Project” funded by the French Embassy in Senegal and the Gambia and implemented by Alliance Francaise. It aims to promote womens expression through arts, culture, debate and entrepreneurship.
Enora is a professional food artist and multiple award winner who travelled the world and guided artistic works in many countries including Indonesia, India, Colombia and Sweden. Her work focuses on turning local foods and plants into delicate photographic series to highlight the many cultures of the world.
In the Gambia she uses peanut shells, local plants like Wonjo, eucalyptus trees, traditional wax fabrics, and cowries to tell a rich complex story, capturing the essence of Gambian identity and celebrating women’s resilience.
“My artwork focuses on food matter because food is a really deep topic. It’s full of beliefs, full of identity, full of tasting and full of sharing. What you eat tells a lot about who you are. As I have an anthropologist background I am also interested with the culture and how the culture eats but also how the culture uses food as ritual,” Enora said at the exhibition. “In this series, I use a lot of elements from Gambian culture and it is about celebrating women and the injustices they faced. It’s about the knowledge of life, of plants and traditional medicine which is a very important cultural element in the Gambia.”
Alliance Francaise director Justine Guschlbauer said the exhibition reflects the objectives of the women empowerment project to empower women by giving them safe spaces to express themselves, showcase the incredible diversity of arts and culture and tackle common challenges and injustices they are facing through arts.
Director Justine praised Enora and her contributor Lena Nian for their exceptional work which celebrates Gambian women and portrays the country’s food culture in clear and loud terms. “The project is a work in progress. And we are very pleased with this exhibition.” She said the portraits will be on display at the Alliance gardens for the next one month and open for public view.
“Alliance Francaise Banjul will continue to give a safe space for people to discuss, exchange ideas, cultures and to discover each other. We will continue to give the floor and space to different artists to produce and share their art works,” she added while thanking the French Embassy in Banjul and Senegal for bankrolling the initiative.
Gambian photographer Lena Nian said; “This [project] is something we used to celebrate women, uplift them and highlight the issues that women go through and lift up those who have been suppressed and are facing injustice and struggles and really look at how we as women can support each other, build the community together and uplift each other.”
