“Empow’Hair”, the exhibition of the Ivorian artist Laetitia Ky conceived specifically for the exhibition spaces of the LIS10 gallery in Arezzo, will open On Saturday 26 November from 12.00 to 20.00.

The exhibition, curated by Alessandro Romanini, consists of a series of photographic works and a series of paintings made by the Ivorian artist, accompanied by an installation by the young designer Marco Rambaldi (Bologna 1990).

With this exhibition in the Tuscan city Laetitia Ky (Abidjan 1999) crowns an annus mirabilis, 2022,  that saw her among the protagonists of the Venice Biennale – where she was called to represent her country, Côte d’Ivoire – in addition to being one of the 100 historical artists invited by the Kunstmuseum of Wolfsbur for the epochal exhibition “Empowerment” dedicated to feminism in art.

For the exhibition at the Lis10 Gallery in Arezzo, the young artist has created a series of new photographs and oil paintings on canvas, which focus on the promotion of identity and the vindication of women’s rights, in the complex framework of the social, political-economic and cultural context of contemporary Africa.

Laetitia Ky created a very original expressive formula, which has earned her hundreds of thousands of faithful followers. She builds a synergy between different elements: the use of the body as a material support and expressive medium as well as symbol of identity, typical of Body Art; the plastic-sculptural dimension and the elaboration of post-colonial concepts; the use of photography and communicative mediums as tools of proposition and promotion of political creative instances.

A multi-material installation, created by the Bolognese designer Marco Rambaldi, completes the exhibition by bringing together art and fashion design, in line with the themes, aims and “Do it yourself” methodology of the Ivorian artist’s works.

Rambaldi is in fact the creator of a line of clothing based on the representation of a dialogue between the iconographic universe of the “politicians” of the 70s and contemporary iconography, but above all he proposes an inclusive message, represented by a multiethnic and multicultural female figure, symbol of gender fluid and freedom of expression.

The installation created by Marco Rambaldi, takes its cue from one of  Laetitia Ky’s photographs in which she interprets the myth of the Medusa, with hair shaped like snakes; “The predatory snake becomes a symbol of rebirth with its continuous mutations of skin, which in our case are variations of fabrics in the constant defense of identity; skins that are not lost but reused in an eternal renewal, that puts in synergy past and present and above all an attitude towards new challenges, renovation and experimentation” comments the young but already award-winning fashion designer Marco Rambaldi.