Fusion Art between Italian and Kenyan artists: Italian art in Malindi and the other way round: a round trip
In a village of Malindi, in Kenya, Giulio Bargellini called some Italian artists and Kenyan craftsmen in order to create original works that represented the meeting of those two worlds, two cultures. It happened in 1988 and the Village was named African dream village of Giulio Bargellini (now called Dream of Africa hotel owned by the tour operator Francorosso) and those are personalities who attended this event: Aldo Grazzi, Gianni Guidi, Mauro Mazzali, Marco Pellizzola, Raimondo Raimondi, Gaetano Russo, Giovanni Scardovi, Francesco Somaini, Guglielmo Vecchietti Massacci, J.E. Fungomeli, J. Ghuru, S. Gona, K.K. Duka, K.M. Kilatva, P. Mualuko, W. Muli, C. Onyango, K. Ponda, Rengi & Racmel.
Over the years, almost thirty artists stayed in Malindi to realize those works, along with critics and art historians. The perfect fusion of two cultures turned out to be an innovative idea with extraordinary results. Europe and Africa, thanks to a sort of alchemy, were able to assert an experimental project and gave life to large scale sculptures which combine diversity and mutual fascination.
The sculptures were brought to MAGI ‘900 museum in 2007. By now, far from that place of primary inspiration, they bring with themselves the energy absorbed from those places.
