Fotografiska, Tallin

Omar Victor Diop

25 Aug 2023 - 6 Jan 2024

Past Touring Exhibition

A recasting of history, diasporic experience and global politics of black resistance

address

Fotografiska Tallinn
Telliskivi 60a-8 10412
Tallinn, Estonia

Visiting info

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past exhibition

This exhibition is now closed. View our current exhibitions here

ABOUT THE exhibition

The critically acclaimed Senegalese contemporary artist Omar Victor Diop is coming to Fotografiska Tallin this winter. His striking photographs capture modern African sensibilities, and often focus on a recasting of history, the representation of diasporic experiences and global politics of black resistance.

Combining photography with other art forms, Omar Victor Diop’s remarkable body of work includes fine art, fashion, design, and portrait photography. Using artistic self-portraiture as a key tool to engage with complex representational politics, community embodiment and ideas of self-fashioning, his practice is characterised by meticulously staged, dramatic imagery in which the artist himself appears as the main visual protagonist and interlocutor.

This exhibition presents – brought together for the first time – three distinct yet interconnected emblematic bodies of works completed between 2014–2021: Allegoria, Diaspora, and Liberty, alongside an Autograph artist commission.

Diaspora (2014) draws inspiration from 15th to 19th century Western portraits depicting a diverse constituency of black figures who have risen to prominence in courts, science, politics, and social movements in Europe – yet often missing from conventional narratives. Largely based on historical paintings, which Diop imbues with playful contemporary references, the series celebrates four centuries of notable Africans with extraordinary lives in the diaspora.

In Liberty (2017), subtitled A Universal Chronology of Black Protest, the artist reinterprets significant moments of historical revolt associated with the struggle for black freedom – from anti-Apartheid movements in South Africa to civil right campaigns in America, the Caribbean and Europe to contemporary Black Lives Matter politics, exploring what unifies and defines these ongoing, global fights for equality and human rights.

Diop’s most recent project Allegoria (2021), imaginatively addresses the climate crisis and its impact on the Global South and the African continent especially. In these vibrant metaphorical, paradisiacal images, Diop is pictured amidst stunning imagery of carefully constructed flora and fauna. Here, openly borrowing from genres that include classical painting, religious iconography and West African photographic studio portraiture, as well as science textbooks and encyclopaedia, the artist considered the fate of humanity in the wake of natural disasters and environmental decline, asking how we may secure more viable, liveable futures together.

In 2018, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush, Autograph invited Diop to create two new artworks in response to iconic archive images in their collection. The Windrush portraits capture West Indian migrants from the Caribbean beginning a new life in Great Britain in the late 1940s: a watershed moment at first filled with hope and anticipation, soon followed by the harsh reality of discrimination, hardship and unemployment. 

Omar Victor Diop is based on a 2018 exhibition by Autograph, originally presented in London (co-curated by Renée Mussai and Mark Sealy), this touring iteration for Fotografiska is curated by Renée Mussai and reflects the accompanying monograph Omar Victor Diop (5 Continents Editions, 2021). This exhibition is produced for Fotografiska Stockholm by Johan Vikner in collaboration with Autograph, London and Gallery MAGNIN-A, Paris.

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exhibition preview

Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 5, 2021

Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 1, 2021

Omar Victor Diop, Thiaroye 1944. From Liberty, 2016

Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 13, 2021

sample

Omar Victor Diop, Empire Windrush, Tilbury Docks: 1948, 2018

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Omar Victor Diop, Pedro Camejo 1790 – 1821. From Project Diaspora, 2014

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Omar Victor Diop, Ministry of Labour and National Service, Liverpool: 1949, 2018

Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass 1818–1895. From Project Diaspora, 2014

Omar Victor Diop, Selma 1965. From Liberty, 2016

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Omar Victor Diop,  Trayon Martin, 2012. From Liberty, 2016

about the artist

Omar Victor Diop

Omar Victor Diop (b. 1980, Dakar, Senegal) developed his interest in photography and design at an early age and uses the medium to capture the diversity of modern African societies and lifestyles. Following acclaim for his early conceptual projects, he left his career in corporate communications to pursue life as an artist.

Diop’s body of work includes fine art, fashion and portrait photography – including The Studio of Vanities, a series of staged portraits showing the new faces of art and culture scenes in African urban centres.

You can see more of Diop's work on his website.

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related CONTENT

Windrush Day

Omar Victor Diop’s artist commission reinterprets a key moment in Britain’s cultural history of migration

See more

Black Subjects in the Frame

Watch Heni Talks' video with the artist and Autograph's director Mark Sealy

Watch

Liberty / Diaspora

Omar Victor Diop's first solo exhibition in the UK, at Autograph in 2018

See more

supported by

All photographs © Omar Victor Diop

Banner image: Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 6, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.

Exhibition preview images: 1) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 5, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 2) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 1, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 3) Omar Victor Diop, Empire Windrush, Tilbury Docks: 1948, 2018. Courtesy of and commissioned by Autograph, London. 4) Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass 1818–1895. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 5) Omar Victor Diop, Thiaroye 1944. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 6) Omar Victor Diop, Pedro Camejo 1790 – 1821. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 7) Omar Victor Diop, Selma 1965. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 8) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 13, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 9) Omar Victor Diop, Ministry of Labour and National Service, Liverpool: 1949, 2018. Courtesy of and commissioned by Autograph, London. 10) Omar Victor Diop, Trayon Martin, 2012. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.

Other page images: 11) Omar Victor Diop, Jean-Baptiste Belley 1746 - 1805. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.