At the MAR in Ravenna, the art of Victor Fotso Nyie: a journey between identity and memory

The Ravenna City Museum of Art continues its innovative programming with the second installment of the SPAZIO NEUTRO project, an initiative that aims to overturn traditional museological principles by inviting the public to experience a more participatory artistic experience. Following the success of Diego Miguel Mirabella’s first installation, the museum welcomes Cameroonian artist Victor Fotso Nyie (Cameroon, 1990) with the exhibition I am the Other, which opened Feb. 28 and will continue through June 2, 2025.

Located in the museum’s new Arts & New Media Room, the SPAZIO NEUTRO space is designed to offer an alternative view of the works, seeking to establish a direct dialogue between the public and art, an encounter that engages all the senses. Here, traditional conventions of museum display - such as physical distance from the work, silence and composure - are challenged, offering a freer and more personal relationship with the artists’ creations. The project, conceived and curated by Giorgia Salerno, the museum’s curator, is an invitation to go beyond the traditional view of galleries, giving space to reflect on the role of the museum as a place of relationship between the visitor and the work, and proposing contemporary issues such as the decolonization of collections and the use of artificial intelligence.

In this context, Victor Fotso Nyie, known for his reflections on African identity and cultural heritage, brings to MAR is a direct call for reflection on otherness, the experience of those who are different, and the importance of recognizing the other as part of oneself. The concept of otherness permeates every aspect of his work, which, through the language of sculpture and portraiture, aims to interrogate and reappropriate African cultural and historical roots, reinterpreting them in a contemporary key. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the sculpture Re-connexion, a portrait of Nyie himself, from whose head emanates anthropomorphic figures that evoke traditional African idols and artifacts. These figures, made of clay, are imbued with a golden patina that elevates them to an almost divine dimension, transcending the materiality of the earth. Clay, a material symbolic of primordial energy, becomes the protagonist of the museum experience. The public is invited to interact with it, to touch it, manipulate it and feel its texture, breaking the barrier between observer and artifact. The project invites emotional and sensory involvement, with clay also becoming a means of symbolic restitution. In fact, the artist will reuse the clay manipulated by visitors at the end of the exhibition to make a new sculpture, an act that becomes a circle that closes, an emotional gift that returns the lived experience to the audience.

Nyie’s installation, which is part of a larger project of international significance, is also an attempt to decolonize the exhibition space, offering a new vision that challenges historicity and museum tradition. In this sense, I am the Other becomes an invitation to reflect on how we perceive and understand other cultures. Sculpture and interaction with the audience stimulate deep reflection on how sensory experience and encounter with the other can transform our perception of the world. In parallel with the exhibition at MAR, Victor Fotso Nyie’s work will also be on view within the exhibitionThe Wandering Genius. Negri, Gessi and Matteucci: stories of travelers between the 17th and 19th centuries, hosted at the Classense Library in Ravenna. In this exhibition, Nyie presents another of his works, Rêve Lucide, which contributes to enriching the debate on the relationship between African art, historical memory and the dynamics of cultural exchange between East and West, a dialogue that is also being developed with the support of the Museum of Civilizations in Rome.

“Basically,” says MAR director Roberto Cantagalli, “we were interested in activating a space of experimentation, research and innovation, capable of stimulating all-round reflections, and from unusual perspectives, on the role of art in contemporaneity. We are therefore satisfied with the path taken, of which SPAZIO NEUTRO is one of the qualifying components, with respect to a broader design that will soon develop also in the interaction with projects conceived outside the museum.”

“The path of the Art Museum of the City of Ravenna aimed at exploring new forms of enjoyment of the work of art continues,” says Acting Mayor Fabio Sbaraglia. “With this second appointment of the Spazio Neutro project, the MAR’s Arts and New Media Room confirms and relaunches its function as a space devoted to innovation, experimentation and the involvement of contemporary languages in the museum’s programming. It is an important project line that broadens the horizons of artistic creativity and completes the scope with which the MAR opens to the city and its visitors, confirming itself as an increasingly innovative museum where experimentation and creativity go hand in hand.”

At the MAR in Ravenna, the art of Victor Fotso Nyie: a journey between identity and memory

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