Iside, 2025

Maïmouna Guerresi (born Patrizia Guerresi; 1951 in Italy) is an Italian-Senegalese multimedia artsit working with photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Her work incorporates Afro-Asian themes and symbolism with traditional European iconography.

Born as Patrizia Guerresi in Italy to a religious Catholic family, in 1991, Guerresi traveled in Africa and converted to Sufi Islam in Senegal. Aknowledging a new identity and new direction for her work, she adopted the name Maïmouna. Guerresi lives and works in Verona and Milan, Italy, New York City and Dakar, Senegal.

Guerresi's work presents an intimate perspective on the spirituality of human beings and their relationship to their inner mystical dimension. West African expressions of Sufism are an inspiration for Guerresi's work. Guerresi's images are delicate narratives with fluid sequencing, and an appreciation of shared humanity beyond borders – psychological, cultural, religious and political. Recurrent metaphors such as milk, light, the hijab, trees, and contrasting white and black create awareness of the vital unifying qualities of Islamic spirituality, while Guerresi's work's embrace of hybrid spirituality and African, Asian, and European cultural ancestry ultimately reflects that of her global approach to both art and life.