It is on the occasion of the collective exhibition : « Memoria : récits d’une autre Histoire » which took place at the Museum of Contemporary Cultures Adama Toungara that the jury of the “PRIX DÉCOUVERTE JEUNE TALENT SOCIETE GENERALE CI 2022“, headed by Ms. Joyce Sagoe of the Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire, joined by Ms. Pauline Burmann of the Thami Mnyele Foundation, Ms. Nathalie Varley Meplon of the Museum of Contemporary Cultures Adama Toungara and Mr. Zié Coulibaly of INSAAC, chose to award the first prize to Carine Mansan, to support her career.
The prize ” PRIX DÉCOUVERTE JEUNE TALENT SOCIETE GENERALE CI 2022 “, is set up to reinforce its status of solidarity bank, the Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire through its Foundation which will be exercised through four axes, among which that of the Art and the Culture by the artistic and contemporary development, the constitution of a collection for the Bank, contests and accompaniments for the young people, the participation in the artistic projects, and even the construction of a museum in Grand-Bassam.
Through this prize, Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire wishes to promote the young Ivorian creation while supporting the place of women in art and society, by bringing a significant help to a young artist at the beginning of her profession.
The winner, designated by the Jury among a choice of 3 artists on the proposal of the curators of the exhibition “ Memoria : récits d’une autre Histoire “, Nadine Hounkpatin and Céline Seror, will be offered by the Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire a cultural exchange program to spend 2 months in the artistic residence of the “Thami Mnyele Foundation” in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, followed by an exhibition in 2023 in the spaces of the Foundation Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire in Bassam.
The 2022 Laureate : CARINE MANSAN
Première lauréate du Prix Découverte Jeune Talent SGCI 2022
Carine Mansan is a visual artist born in Abidjan who lost her mother at an early age, which greatly affected her future creative process.
After high school, she left the Ivory Coast to study interior design in Paris, at the famous Condé school.
It was during her studies at the Faculty of Design at the University of Montreal, Canada, that she met Achille Kouamé. In contact with this professor of drawing and painting, Carine Mansan explores the non-figurative and tracks down the potential opportunity to communicate her states of mind and her otherness in a free and unconstrained manner.
Extremely motivated by the sacredness and style of the strict symbols, especially the black virgins, which fascinate her and mark her creative spirit, Carine Mansan makes it a point to travel in the footsteps of one of the most famous and beloved black virgins of Europe.
In her large three-sided work “Ethiopian“, a fantastic fresco drawn in pen and ink, huge representations as well as a progression of bronze heads that she presented in the exhibition “ Memoria : récits d’une autre Histoire “, an extremely private project impregnated with otherness and old mysterious practices, she questions her being and her deepest character.
It was then that she found the Song of Solomon and that specific section, “I am black but beautiful” … that she discovered that in medieval times, in Europe, all individuals of color were referred to as “Ethiopians“, from “Aethiopius“, burnt face and reminds us through her art that everything is established in African culture.
The Thami Mnyele Foundation: a residence that advances art and culture between Africa and the Netherlands
The Thami Mnyele Foundation pays tribute to the South African dissident artist, Thami Mnyele. An artist who used art as a means of connection and revelation during the struggle against segregation in South Africa. He died in exile in Botswana in 1985, during a tactical strike following his activities as a member of the MEDU collective, an association of anti-apartheid artists, linked to the African Public Congress in Gaborone.
After his death, artisans and government officials proposed to the Amsterdam City Council that a specialist workshop be established in his name, with an emphasis on cultural exchange.
In 1990 the Thami Mnyele Foundation was established and in May 1992 the first African artists came to Amsterdam.
The Thami Mnyele Foundation is the most experienced residency in the world in the Netherlands and offers African specialists in all disciplines of contemporary art (painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, video, film, sound, and multimedia) a residency in its studio, located in a former school in the center of Amsterdam
The main objective of the Thami Mnyele Foundation is to advance the exchange between Africa and the Netherlands through artists. Its program gives a chance for reflection, exploration and conversation, offering the laureate an optimal opportunity to focus on his or her practice as well as on cultural exchange.
