The Farnesina Collection welcomes the piece of work “Grand-Bassam” (2019) by Raffaela Mariniello (Naples 1961). The photograph was taken in 2019 during the artist’s stay in Côte d’Ivoire, at the Italian Embassy in Abidjan, for the project “Under The Spell Of Africa” curated by Adriana Rispoli and sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as part of the “Italy, Cultures, Africa” programme.
The image, part of the “Nature, Culture, Artifice” series, depicts the ruins of a palace that dates back to the colonial era, built in the historic centre of the ancient Ivorian capital Grand-Bassam – abandoned in the early 20th century following the spread of an epidemic and later declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 2012.
