Maïmouna Guerresi is a photographer, sculptor, and video and installation artist. She lives and works in Verona and Milan, Italy, and regularly travels to Dakar, Senegal.
An Italian-born artist who converted to Islam and joined the Murid Muslim community in Senegal, Africa, her work now explores cultural diversity, Islamic spirituality and mysticism, and the roots between mother and child in her striking sculptural and photographic work.
Her early works were inspired by the European Body Art movement of the 1960s and 70s. She soon developed her own very personal style, which combines Afro-Asian themes and symbolism with the traditions of Western classical iconography. Through this hybrid visual language, she communicates the discomfort and beauty of cultural diversity and contemporary multiracial issues.
Guerresi finds Islamic art and literature to be an “endless source of inspiration, full of mystical concepts, metaphors, knowledge, collected poems, verses, of miraculous and sacred value.” Her photographic work often depicts the mystical figures of Islamic Africa. In 1991 Maïmouna travelled to various African countries and converted to Islam in Senegal. This marked her new identity and another direction for her work. She adopted the name Maïmouna, referring to the recurrent themes of multiculturalism and feminine spirituality.