Mimonisa exhibition

From the 14th of January to the 8th of February, the Mimonisa exhibition takes place at the French Institute of Thessaloniki. You have three weeks to meet 11 artists from Thessaloniki and also from other countries (a few of them are refugees). The goal of the initiative is to unify people with common interests in painting by presenting their work through this exhibition. Afghanistan, Iran, Congo, Greece… it is a perfect mix of techniques, influences and backgrounds.

To be visible

There are a lot of places to be in contact with art in the city of Thessaloniki. The French Institute is one of them. By giving the chance to Richard Lusakumunu and his collective «Mazi» (which means ‘together’ in Greek) to realize this project, they offered the possibility to unknown artists to show their art to the community. This is a very important detail for this young team composed of different people. Indeed, this group of artists is pretty new!

It began with Richard’s story: he was born in Kinshasa, Congo. After his studies in painting and making workshops for young people in his country, he had to leave. In Greece, he got the refugee status. He was following workshops about painting and music in refugee camps. After a while, he got the idea of creating a community of artists with refugees and Greek people. The aim was to gather all of them and try to find some opportunities to present their art instead of keeping it for themselves.

«I had this simple idea and then I started to talk with my friends talented in painting. As I am a painter, I had the chance to discuss with a lot of artists and it was very natural. So basically the process was talking with people and share this idea with them. Then slowly slowly I got connected with all the members that now compose Mazi. »

Richard Lusakumunu

This exhibition called ‘Mimonisa’ is the first concrete project for the team. The word ‘mimonisa‘ comes from Lingala, a language spoken in Congo, and means to get visible, to let people know that they exist.

Different techniques for different arts

Even though all the arts that you can find in this exhibition are made with the painting techniques, there are a lot of personal specificities to define each artist. Eleven people contributed and by walking around you can discover also a wonderful mix of acrylic paints. You can have a look by watching the pictures gallery behind. Enjoy!

Wali BENIA

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