« Ce sont des artistes du quotidien, des faiseurs de mémoire. » — Mama Anne, « Zigzag à Ziguinchor »
Portrait: Giorgia (@giorgigigigia)
BIOGRAPHY
Mama Anne is a Franco-Senegalese curator, director, and producer whose work lies at the intersection of public policy, contemporary narratives, and artistic creation.
Her career is built on more than twenty years of experience in public administration in France and Switzerland, where she has led initiatives in the areas of social cohesion, housing, youth, and public safety. After studying organizational management at the University of Paris 13 and then development policies and practices at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, she has developed a curatorial approach that is attentive to social realities, collective memories, and the dynamics of individual and collective transformation.
In 2025, she founded Tissali Arts & Cultures, a platform dedicated to contemporary art, documentary film, and narratives of memory, which develops transdisciplinary projects connecting Africa, Europe, and the diasporas. Her work explores Afro-diasporic memories, issues of identity, transmission, and cultural exchange, by combining imagery, storytelling, and contemporary creation.
Her commitment to storytelling also extends to her writing. In 2024, she contributed to the anthology Woven Memories: An Ode to Our Grandmothers from Afar, as Witnesses and Keepers of Tradition. In 2026, she wrote the foreword to Zigzag à Ziguinchor by François Burland, a book dedicated to advertising murals in Senegal and their visual imagery.
She is also the initiator and curatorial director of The Fissures of Light – Diaspora Dissonance in F Minor, a project selected as one of the official collateral events of the 61st Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition.
At the same time, she is a co-producer of the documentary Essamay: Jules-François Bocandé, the Panther, which aired on Canal+ International, and is currently directing her first feature-length documentary, Return to Danthiady.
She is currently working on several writing projects centered on memory, transmission, and personal journeys, including a pilgrimage narrative that weaves together her family history with that of her grandfather, as well as a story inspired by her curatorial experience at the Venice Biennale, where the artistic journey becomes the starting point for a profound inner exploration.
