Mounir Fatmi's photographic triptych Calligraphy of Fire has been selected for this year's Bamako Biennale, where it will be showcased in its large 70 x 105 cm version. The 14th Bamako Encounters – The African Biennal of Photography will be held from November 16, 2024 to January 15, 2025 in Bamako, Mali, with the theme for the year being 'KUMA, the Speech, the Silence and the Noise'.
Calligraphy of Fire presents a set of situations, each of which links the idea of knowledge with light, and its absence, as a darkness, a void. If the burning candle is symbolic of life, illumination, and knowledge, as it is throughout much of art history, in the left hand image the snuffed candle could suggest an impending darkness, the possible smudges as a form of censorship.
