Efie Gallery makes its design debut with an eclectic group exhibition titled” Dance Will Be You“, opening on January 24th, 2025. This exhibition explores traditional African practices that foster community, remembrance, unity, and strength, all rooted in a connection to the divine. In this way, the exhibition transforms into an altar where the old and new converge, forging a path forward. Featured artists include María Magdalena Campos-Pons (b. 1959, Cuba), Myles Igwebuike (b. 1992, Nigeria/America), J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije (1899–1989, British Accra, Gold Coast [now Ghana]) and Dina Nur Satti (b. 1987, Sudan/Somalia).
Inspired by Sonia Sanchez’s poem We a BadddDD People, the exhibition acknowledges Africa as the central inspiration for these artists. Just as the Black Arts Movement embraced African identity to cultivate unity and pride, this “pride” becomes a sacred, divine channel from which the artists draw power. Using mediums such as watercolour, sculpture, photography, and ceramics, the artists reconnect with the “self.” Here, the self transcends time, space, and action, engaging with the transcendent, the otherworldly, and the collective.
The photographs of James Kobla (J.K.) Bruce-Vanderpuije serves as a historical portal to Ghanaian ritual practices, particularly those arising in response to periods of famine. These rituals, still prevalent in many African communities today, often merge with religion but continue to honour traditional forms such as dance, communal gatherings, prayer, and ritualistic acts. They aim to celebrate communal progress, honour the divine, and mend relationships with ancestors or spiritual deities. Symbolic practices, like building worship spaces or slaughtering domestic animals such as goats and chickens, mark these rituals.
Similarly, Myles Igwebuike’s ECHICHE Bench draws inspiration from traditional Igbo Mbari houses, which are significant in Igbo cultural practices. Mbari houses were centres for community activity, featuring sculptures like the central figure of Ala, the earth goddess. Construction involved individuals of both genders, who lived and worked in the compound, creating sculptures by day and engaging in dances and feasts by night. The process of building these houses transformed participants, as they adhered to specific rituals such as abstinence from sexual activity and eating only land-grown food. Once completed, the sculptures created during construction were displayed to the community, accompanied by mythical tales condemning vices.
In parallel, Dina’s ceramics embody this transformative journey of the self. Her Lotus Series mirrors the resilience of the lotus flower, emerging from the water to reach toward the light. Her ceramics act as totems, honouring nature’s transformative processes. They symbolize existence within sacred vessels, where form and matter merge into the divine. Dina draws inspiration from sacred African practices such as communal worship, drinking local brews from clay pots, and gathering around fireplaces or within traditional East African homes like Simba or Manyatta. Her work pays tribute to intentional design in both traditional and modern Africa.
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’s works celebrate the multiplicity of being. Through a meticulous transformation process—from liquid to glass, from one layer to multiple layers—her art embodies the transcendent. Themes of cultural and ancestral reflection emerge, turning her pieces into portals that examine spiritual, physical, and infinite realities. Like dance and music, her works exist as transversal planes where form, matter, and self converge. They occupy a multiverse-like state, shifting in form yet retaining their essence, boundless and original.
With Dance Will Be You, viewers are invited to engage with themselves and the art, reflecting on the historical and regenerative transformations the pieces embody. This exhibition also serves as a worshipful tribute to forms of being that promote the wellness of the self, others, and nature. By embracing these sentiments in design, the exhibition encourages the audience to dwell deeply within their being.
We be a mirrored
storm,
A night of souls fire,
Dancing’
– Sonia Sanchez, We a BadddDD People (1970)
The exhibition opens on the 24th of January 2025 at Efie Gallery, Dubai. Click here to view the full press kit.
