The Southern Art Hub is pleased to propose Ressentir la Magie Pure (Feeling Pure Magic), a curated presentation for 1-54 London 2026 under the curatorial vision of Simon Njami.

Bringing together the works of Bisila Noha, David Damoison, Kay Gasei, Luma Nascimento, and Sabrina Da Silva Medeiros, the exhibition explores the relationship between body and spirit, the visible and invisible, materiality and transcendence. Across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and mixed-media practices, the participating artists engage with memory, spirituality, ancestral presence, embodiment, and forms of knowledge that resist purely rational interpretation.

Rooted in Simon Njami’s longstanding intellectual and curatorial engagement with contemporary artistic practices from Africa and the Global South, Ressentir la Magie Pure proposes art not simply as aesthetic production, but as a space through which the invisible may be sensed, transmitted, and experienced.

The exhibition asks how artistic practice can give form to what exceeds language: intuition, silence, memory, ritual, spiritual force, and symbolic presence. At a time increasingly shaped by acceleration, hyper-visibility, artificial intelligence, and systems of rational control, the exhibition insists on the continued importance of imagination, mystery, embodied knowledge, and the “power of vision,” to borrow Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s expression.

20-37-31a, Vodun Voyage, Saut d’Eau, Haïti by David Damoison

Rather than reducing artists from Africa and the Global South to geographic or identity-based frameworks, the project positions them as producers of philosophical, spiritual, and material knowledge whose practices expand contemporary artistic discourse.

Within the context of 1-54 London, Ressentir la Magie Pure seeks to create a contemplative and immersive curatorial environment that invites audiences to slow down and encounter the works beyond immediate explanation. The exhibition becomes a space where matter carries memory, where the body functions as vessel and archive, and where the visible opens onto unseen worlds.

Pedaço da Penca II by Luma Nascimento

The presentation reflects The Southern Art Hub’s commitment to supporting artists from Africa, the Global South, and their diasporas through ambitious curatorial projects, international art fair participation, and institutional collaboration. Following previous participation in 1-54 London, 1-54 New York, 1-54 Marrakech, AKAA Paris, and other international platforms, the gallery continues to develop exhibitions that foreground rigorous artistic practices and meaningful cultural dialogue. Ressentir la Magie Pure proposes that art remains one of the last spaces capable of reconnecting us to what cannot always be explained yet can still be profoundly felt.