The inaugural show, the work of photographer Malala Andrialavidrazana, born in Madagascar in 1971 and based in Paris, features her series Figures begun in 2015. Here she explores the link between her personal history and cultural identity. Malala invents a kind of poetic imagery of decolonialization using visual allusions.

Andrialavidrazana graduated from the Parisian Ecole d’architecture de La Villette in 1996, specializing in photography. The artist creates colorful collages with her collection of bank-notes, fragments of images, old maps, record covers, stamps and various papers, then uses delicate photomontage to fix the images on Hahnenmuhle cotton rag, creating collectible objects. She is represented by Galerie Caroline Smulders.

Malala rapidly gained prestigious prizes like the HSBC award and is widely published, among others, by renowned Actes Sud in 2004. She continues to attract attention at cultural festivals world-wide such as Les Rencontres de Bamako (Mali 2015), or in Berlin, China, Sweden, Italy, leading up to New York in 2019 at the Aperture Foundation.

At Citéco, Figures, explores Andrialavidrazana’s unique vision of colonial heritage and its impact on the eurocentric view of the contemporary world. The stark contrast between western viewpoints and that of former colonies inspires Malala to present visual accounts of intercultural relationships, contributing to the act of decolonializing images of newly emerging nations, like the Malagasy Republic.

When Malala began to superimpose her collages on Hahenenmuhle cotton rag, instead of usual photo-sensitive paper, she added an element of almost sculptural relief to her collages. Here the artist was obviously inspired by her architectural studies.

The show Figures of ten large works at Citéco is part of the Month of Photography in Paris. More of Malala’s work will be shown at booth A29 of Galerie Caroline Smulders during Paris Photo between 7 and 10 November at the Grand Palais.

La Cité de l’Economie
1, Place du Général Catroux
75017 Paris – France
citeco.fr
Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 to 18h
Saturdays open until 19h
One Thursday per month until 22h
Closed on May 1, 25 December, 1 January.
Full price: 12€
Price for 18-25 years : 9€
Price for 6 - 17 years: 6€
Group price: 29€
Tickets available and reservation for workshops
At tickets.citeco.fr