Two exhibitions in Florence for the tenth Black History Month Florence

Black History Month Florence, an initiative dedicated to Afro-descendant cultures in the Italian context, celebrates its 10th edition with an event of great artistic significance. From Feb. 6 to May 4, 2025, the MAD Murate Art District in Florence will host two exhibitions that dialogue with historical memory and contemporary artistic research: Devouring Stones, a solo exhibition dedicated to Georges Adéagbo (Cotonou, 1942), and William Demby: Tremendous Mobility, a project that explores the archive of writer William Demby (Pittsburgh, 1922 - Sag Harbor, 2013) one of the African-American protagonists of the postwar Italian cultural scene. The two exhibitions, realized thanks to the support of the Fondazione CR Firenze, are the result of the collaboration between MAD Murate Art District, Fondazione MUS.E and Black History Month Florence, now in its ninth year of partnership. The theme of the 2025 edition, Tempo Rubato (Stolen Time), becomes a common thread for an investigation of cultural stratifications and the reinterpretation of the past through art.

Devouring the Stones: Georges Adéagbo and his “archaeology of the mind”

The exhibition Devouring Stones, staged in MAD’s Laura Orvieto Room, offers a fresh look at the research of Georges Adéagbo, a Beninese artist known for his installation practice based on the accumulation and reworking of objects, images and texts. The title echoes the saying “Time devours stones,” evoking the inexorable passage of time, separated from human logic and life cycles. Adéagbo constructs his works from the collection of materials during his wanderings between Benin and the cities in which he exhibits. For the occasion, the artist reworks works conceived in 2008 between Rome, Venice and Florence, superimposing wood sculptures, books, everyday objects and African artifacts within compositions that challenge the concepts of space and time. The installation unfolds as a layered narrative in which the visual memory of Florence - maps, frescoes, architecture - is interwoven with elements of African culture. The result is a reflection on cultural exchange, the construction of identities and the perception of the past. The artist reverses the roles between explorer and explored, resulting in an archaeology of knowledge that subverts dominant narratives.

The cultural legacy of William Demby

At the same time, on the second floor of MAD, in the spaces of the Anna Banti Room, in the Gallery and in the Cells, William Demby: Tremendous Mobility takes shape, a project created as part of the Black Archive Alliance’s permanent residency at MAD. Demby, a key figure in African American literature, lived for a long time in Italy, where he intertwined his writing career with intense journalistic, musical and artistic activity. The exhibition, the result of research curated by Kevin Jerome Everson and Justin Randolph Thompson, reconstructs his journey through documents, photographs and publications, offering a never-before-seen perspective on his cultural legacy. The exhibition traces his involvement in the Roman Avant-Garde of the 1950s, his activities as an art collector, his contribution to literary experimentation, and his commitment to documenting the post-colonial reality of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Prominent among the materials on display are his reviews of major events, such as the 1959 Second Congress of Black Writers and Artists and the Venice Biennale. The exhibition is a key piece in the work of The Recovery Plan platform, which has been working since 2021 to enhance the archives and memories of the African diaspora in Italy. Thanks to the collaboration with Melanie Masterton Sherazi, Shelleen Greene and James Demby, the artist’s son, the exhibition restores a rich and polyphonic narrative of Demby’s influence on the Italian cultural landscape.

The opening of the two exhibitions is scheduled for Feb. 5 at 5:30 p.m. and marks a central moment in the programming of Black History Month Florence 2025. Through Adéagbo’s work and Demby’s legacy, MAD Murate Art District confirms itself as a place of research and intercultural dialogue, where the past is constantly re-read in light of contemporary instances.

“The project, which in this ninth edition takes the form of two fine exhibitions at the Murate Art District,” say Councillor for Equal Opportunity and Culture of Memory Benedetta Albanese and Councillor for Culture Giovanni Bettarini, “has the merit of exploring in depth the historical and artistic themes of Afro-descendant cultures in our national context, topics that are fully part of the heritage of our communities and deserve this level of in-depth study. Historical research is capillary knowledge, an incentive for creativity, and an element of reflection to help us project memory into the contemporary and transform it into teaching.”

“Fondazione CR Firenze,” says Vice President Maria Oliva Scaramuzzi, "has been supporting the activities of MAD Murate Art District since 2019 because it recognizes the capacity of this cultural and creative space to welcome and promote contemporary artistic research through residencies and exhibition projects of international significance. We also share the strong commitment to fostering the growth of a dynamic cultural ecosystem open to dialogue, capable of enhancing talent and offering new opportunities for confrontation between different cultures, which is as necessary as ever today. The exhibitions dedicated to Georges Adéagbo and William Demby fully fit into this vision, bringing to Florence extremely original artistic narratives that weave together, albeit with different accents , universal and always topical themes such as the ’importance of knowledge of history, the identity of a people, and the interdisciplinary nature of art.’

“TEMPO RUBATO draws on musical notation, ’stolen,’ which grants the musician interpretive freedom of performance time, which can be sped up and slowed down as a means of expression,” says Justin Randolph Thompson, Co-Founder, Director of The Recovery Plan and Black History Month Florence, President of the BHMF Cultural Association.

“Another year of happy collaboration between MAD and BHMF,” explains Valentina Gensini, MAD artistic director, “a new chance for our community to gain new awareness of the importance of the Afro-descendant presence in Italy: the richness of complex figures such as William Demby, actor, playwright, visual artist and musician, whose mighty archive resides on Tuscan soil, at Consuma, and who deserves further study and research; the occasion of having in Florence an exhibition of Georges Adeagbo, a Beninese artist of great fascination, recognized by both the Venice Biennale (1999) and Documenta (2002), offers us the opportunity to observe the extraordinary work of this artist who reconstructs random and aleatory visions capable of uniting the great tradition and fortuitous and accidental encounters. I thank BHMF for their important presence in the city and for their very important work. I thank Fondazione CR Firenze, which is once again by MAD’s side in our courageous programming, which will involve young artists in the enhancement of the project with the public and the citizenry.”

Two exhibitions in Florence for the tenth Black History Month Florence

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