On the occasion of Paris Photo, the first international art fair dedicated to the medium of photography, MAGNIN-A gallery is pleased to present the latest series by Omar Victor Diop. From November 11 to 14, 2021, the Grand Palais Éphémère will unveil the 15 works that make up Allegoria as well as the first book dedicated to the photographer, bringing together the series Diaspora (2014), Liberty (2017) and Allegoria (2021), co-published with 5 Continents Editions.
Omar Victor Diop begins a new chapter in his work. With Allegoria, the photographer takes up the fundamental question of the environment and its impact on the African continent. His works represent the allegory of a humanity concerned with a nature that could be no more than a memory of natural history textbooks. Humanity, abandoned to his painful responsibility, collects around him this Nature reduced to a representation.
"The symbolic garden that surrounds my allegory has no borders, and can just as easily mix different parts of the planet as opposing elements or seasons. It is up to the viewer to decipher the language of the allegory, to grasp the codes, the values and the meanings of a bee, a dodo or a reed. What do you feel when you see a deer in a harbor environment, accompanied by seagulls, corals and fish? Climate change? A dialogue within the fauna? Just like a prophetic text, the reader makes his or her own interpretation. I wanted to give a religious dignity to my allegory, a contemplation sometimes appeased, like Saint Francis of Assisi watching over the species, sometimes playful, like Orpheus enchanting nature." Omar Victor Diop
