Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Kudzanai Chiurai, Charity (2013)

By

pop-art-naomi-campbell-charles-taylor-mia-farrow-pink-building-background

“Dante echoes Saint Paul (Rom. 5:1-5) when he shows charity as born of hope, in turn generated by faith. These three virtues sum up all the celestial philosophy and constitute the very condition of salvation. Within the doctrinal field, the word indicates the fundamental attitude of the Father towards all His creatures, a relationship that finds its perfect form in the blessed [. . .] (Purgatorio, Canto XV, 71).”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

To learn more about the Zimbabwean artist and activist Kudzanai Chiurai, see Wikipedia. Read an interview with the artist about his related 2012 video work Iyeza on the RISD Museum blog.

 

 

Pélagie Gbaguidi, Sacrifice (2013)

By

red-script-on-black-drawing-figures“Sacrifice—it appears twice in the usual sense of ‘solemn offer of victims and gifts’ made to godheads. In a broader sense, it refers to any offer, real or symbolic, material or spiritual, made to God: ‘Even as thine own Angels of their will/ Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing, /So many all men make the sacrifice of theirs’ (Purgatorio, Canto XI, 11). In particular, the vow is described as a sacrifice, insofar as its formulation obliges the man, standing before the divinity, to perform or not perform a given action, thus offering to God one’s own freedom of choice. It is Beatrice who clarifies to Dante what the importance of the vow is, as a spontaneous sacrifice and offering to God: ‘closing between God and man the compact, /A sacrifice is of this treasure made’ (Paradiso, Canto V, 29).”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

For more information on Pélagie Gbaguidi, see Wikipedia. For more on the artist’s body of work, see AWARE, the Archive of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions.

Nabil Boutros, Liberty (2013)

By

visual-poetry-nabil-boutros-liberty-if-desire

“The words that Virgil speaks to Cato (De Monarchia II, V, 15) mark both the origin and the end of the quest undertaken by Dante, at the end of the quest undertaken by Dante, at the end of which he poses a clear antithesis between ‘servitude’ and ‘liberty’: ‘Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom’ (Paradiso, Canto XXXI, 85).

[. . .] In this process of discernment through which freedom is achieved, man is supported by will, i.e. ‘the power that wills’ (Purgatorio, Canto XXI, 105), and aided by reason, i.e. ‘the power that counsels’ (Purgatorio, Canto XVIII, 62).”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

Learn more about the Cairo-born artist Nabil Boutros on the artist’s website.

Dominique Zinkpè, multimedia drawings (2013)

By

ink-watercolor-body-falling-out-of-open-body

“The ideas behind the Divine Comedy have brought the artist to reflect upon a millenary question: what is the soul? This question entails an inquiry about uncertainty and wandering. The artist uses the medium of installation to create a unique world, made up of thousands of tiny figurines suspended as if they were souls waiting for a visa to enter another world or destination. Positioned on the ground, these retrospective objects are installed in such a way as to suggest their interrelation, their secret bond, as if they were suspended souls. The idea behind Errance is to create an emotion, a feeling of anticipation and reflection with the public. The twelve thousand colored figurines are suspended from the ceiling and are reflected in the thousands of mirrors placed on the floor, referring- also thanks to a soundtrack- to the infinity of the universe, the tackling lights and moving elements that are unknown to us but which we admire and dream about even though we do not know where they come from.”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

Learn more about the artist Dominique Zinkpè (b. 1969, Cotonou, Benin) on Wikipedia.

Aïda Muluneh, The 99 Series (2014)

By

photo-of-selam-painted-white-face-painted-red-hands-around-neck

“…I painted her body white because for me, living in this city we call Addis Ababa, we don’t need to fantasize about going to the Inferno—I have seen and experienced enough things to really make me question humanity. I have realized that in order to get ahead here, many people wear masks in order to protect their future. But while doing this, the reality is that I have seen the various atrocities and the great lengths that many will go to in order to maintain their success. So with that in mind, for me the red hands symbolize the guilt associated with the thirst for upward mobility. The cloth wrapped around Salem’s body is specifically from the southern region of Ethiopia, which has endured several centuries of oppression, slavery, and so forth. For the background color, I chose the off-grey because it reminds me of dirty snow; this reminds me of my childhood growing up in Canada, in the midst of the bitter cold, and also the challenges that I faced being an African immigrant in an all-white community.”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

For more information on The 99 Series, visit Muluneh’s website here.

How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

Creative