ABOUT JEAN-CLAUDE MOSCHETTI

Jean-Claude Moschetti was born in France but his work as an independent press photographer allowed him to travel extensively and sparked his interest in Africa. He now lives and works between France and West Africa. During his extensive travels around the continent, in particular the West African Region, Moschetti came into to contact with many traditional, and some very secret, African voodoo and magic societies.

The African continent is steeped in a rich and complex history of mysticism and in many traditional societies magic is accepted as an integral part of life. But unlike the Western interpretation of magic as a series of smoke and mirrors, magic in the African sense is part of the physical realm, a physical reality that manifests during rituals often through the wearing of masks. By donning a mask the wearer straddles both the physical and mystical realm, and becomes a conduit between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, the ancestors and other mysterious entities. As a Vodun initiate of the Egungun cult in Benin, Moschetti has a unique insight into this world of shadows,

In West Africa, the supernatural is part of daily life; spirits and divinities are never far away. The artist wants to introduce this mystery and immateriality in his photographic compositions. Triptychs and diptychs allow him to deconstruct the space and to build it again in a new way, more poetic and odd. The mask, the character, takes place within this space, opening up a crossing from one world to the other, from the spirit world to earth. More generally the artist questions the reality we see, and wishes to inspire the doubt in our minds; things are not always what we believe we see.

Moschetti’s work has been published among the likes of National Geographic Traveller, Géo, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Times, Forbes, Musée magazine, Label magazine and the Financial Times.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021 Magic Africa, solo show, Westred Art Museum, Harbin, China

2021 Magic Africa, solo show, Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan, Chinas

2016 ‘Paralles Worlds’, Mariane Ibrahim Gallerie,Seattle, USA

2014 ‘Magic on Earth’, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, USA

2004 ‘Black Hollywood’,CCF, Lagos, Nigeria

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 “Funérailles Vaudou”, Report’Images #4, Rennes, Saint Malo, Brest, Douarnenez, France

2019 International Photo Festival Incadaquès, Cadaquès, Spain

2018 Also Known As Africa (AKAA) Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Paris, France

2018 ‘The Summer Exhibition,’ EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 ‘Backs Stories’, Mariane Ibrahim Gallerie, Seattle, USA

2016 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, London, UK

2016 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, New York, USA

2016 ‘Disguise’, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA

2015 ‘ARTalk, Disguise and African Masquerade’, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2015 ‘Afrika: Architecture, Culture and Identity’, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark

2015 Disguise: Masks and Global African Art,’ Seattle Art Museum, USA2015 Seattle Art Fair, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery , Seattle, USA

2015 ‘Origins’, Heist Gallery, London,UK

2015 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, New York, USA

2014 Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa

2014 International Biennial of Photography and Visual Arts, Liège, Belgium

2014 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, London, UK

2013 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair,EBONY/CURATED, London, UK

2012 FNB, Joburg Art Fair, South Africa

2010 ‘Under the Bridge’, Athens Photo Festival, Athens, Greece

2009 ‘Voies Off’, Arles, France

2007 ‘Act Off Faith’, Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen, Netherlands

2003 ‘Visa pour l’image’, screening ‘Croisade du pasteur Bonnke’, Perpignan, France

Press

2019 https://onartandaesthetics.com/2019/10/26/magic-on-earth-the-traditions-of-burkina-faso-by-jean-claude-moschetti/

2017 https://www.imodara.com/magazine/artist-spotlight-jean-claude-moschetti/

2016 https://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work/photographer-jean-claude-moschetti-documents-magic-west-africa

2015 https://zonezero.com/en/interpreting-collectives/295-magic-on-earth

2013 http://www.anotherafrica.net/art-culture/jean-claude-moschetti-magic-on-earth

Collections

Fondation Zinsou

The Paul Allen Foundation

The Museum of Modern Art, Equatorial Guinea