Created as part of the Italia, Culture, Africa program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Under the Spell of Africa is an art project developed over a couple of years in three sub-Saharan African countries: Ivory Coast, South Africa and Ethiopia, with the participation respectively of three Italian artists: Raffaela Mariniello, Flavio Favelli and Eugenio Tibaldi.
Created and coordinated by Italian diplomatic institutions in the individual countries, the project focuses on the principle of exchange, and osmosis among cultures through the visionary tool of art. It aims to generate a cross-fertilisation among the invited artists and the areas in which they have interacted, through a direct relationship with local entities, both within the art world and beyond.
Deliberately transversal in its languages, from photography to painting to installation, Under the Spell of Africa has led to the production of site-specific works developed by the artists in their three adopted countries.
This followed a period of research and residence, which involved intense dialogues, and face-to-face encounters with the particular nature of the sites.