David Coulson and African Rock Art Paintings. Between photography and archive
08.10.2022 from 18:00 to 19:00
8 October 2022, 6 pm
Theater
The Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to host within the program of ESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI, the conference by David Coulson (Paris, 1948) photographer and writer expert in rock painting, awarded in June 2022 by Her Majesty the Queen of the MBE (Member of the British Empire) honor. In 1996 Coulson founded with the English archaeologist and paleanthropologist Mary Leakey (London, 1913 – Nairobi, 1996) the organization TARA-Trust for African Rock Art in Nairobi with the aim of documenting the rock art present in the African continent. in safeguarding the sites most threatened by man and nature and in the dissemination and dissemination of knowledge about this heritage.
TARA therefore intends to be a source of information and archiving of rock sites on the African continent by promoting and supporting the implementation of measures for their conservation. Since 1995 David Coulson has conducted over thirty explorations in regions of Africa such as Algeria, the Tibesti and Ennedi mountain ranges in Chad, Egypt, Libya, the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, Namibia, the Aïr Massif in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and over twenty Sahara Desert expeditions. The selection of the photographs exhibited in Room 18, as part of theESPRESSIONI CON FRAZIONI exhibition, provides an example of the extensive archiving and study work carried out by him. David Coulson is the author of numerous publications including African Rock Art Paintings and Engravings on Stone, 2001, with Alec C. Campbell (Cheltenham, 1932 – Gaborone, 2012), and is called to lecture and exhibit his photographs in numerous international institutions. . He recently curated and coordinated the acquisition of 280,000 TARA images for the British Museum in London which are now accessible as part of the Museum’s online collections. TARA works closely with the communities where rock art is located and with various national and international heritage bodies, including UNESCO. His work has garnered the support and recognition of prestigious institutions such as the Ford Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Geographic Society.