Magola Moreno is an artist who fully defines the term "Ars Gratia Artis”, Greek phrase that describes that action that involves creating art for the sake of it, without an objective or definition, leading it to be present with no other purpose than its mere presence, alien to academism, immune to its criticism and subordinated only to her pictorial expression and her creative process. Magola paints in isolation from the outskirts of a marginalized settlement in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, Pueblo Bello (also called ‘Arumake’ or 'sanctuary' in the local ethnic language), a rural village surrounded by Amerindigenous settlements of the Arhuaco and Kogui ethnic groups, and with a population that is primarily Afro-Colombian; it is from this plural community that the characters that inhabit her paintings emerge.
Through the intimacy of her work, Magola Moreno proposes an immersive approach to the environment of her characters; for them, she creates idealistic conditions with the purpose of giving new meaning to their presence in a place foreign to their own, an imaginary opposite to the reality they inhabit where they recover not only their right of citizenship but also exercise a sense of aspirational idealization and opulence about themselves.
The title of the exhibition, "Je suis veritablement un goutte du soleil sous la terre," –“I truly am a drop of sun under the earth"- refers to one of the most famous phrases of the Martinican doctor, philosopher, politician, and writer Frantz Fannon, part of his historically acclaimed book: "Black Faces, White Masks," a historical reference treatise published in Paris in 1952 that asks us to reflect on the post-colonial Afro identity in post-war Europe. Magola Moreno's work draws from the writings of Fannon and her compatriot Aimee Cesaire, both committed to redefining the emerging Afro identity within the French cultural elite of their times and whose philosophies deliberate on creating a reflection that leads racially marginalized communities to be aware of their humanity and the aspirations that arise from such.
