Hamedine Kane The Resources #2. The Belly of the Atlantic #1 (detail), 2025, Installation composed of drawings on embroidered textiles, objects, pieces of fishing nets, and videos
Photo: Estudio em Obra / Bruno Leao. Courtesy of Selebe Yoon, Dakar
Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes is a large-scale exhibition project that takes you on a powerful and inspiring journey through themes of collectivity, migration, diaspora, and cultural identity.
The exhibition opens on 20 December, 2025, and will occupy the entire house of Marres. Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes is being developed in close collaboration with the renowned Senegalese art institute RAW Material Company (Dakar). From their team, two young and promising curators have been appointed: Haja Fanta and Ndeye Filly Gueye. In addition, RAW is organizing the preparatory online residency program and contributing to a thought-provoking public program filled with experts and in-depth conversations.
Collective process
Seven artists with roots in West Africa—Yacine Tilala Fall, Selly Raby Kane, Maguette Dieng, Ican Ramageli, Hamedine Kane, Eva Diallo, and Babacar Traoré Doli—are jointly creating a multi-sensory total installation incorporating sculpture, sound, textiles, video, and performance. While each artist maintains their unique signature, the extraordinary collective process of creation is central. The exhibition seeks to explore what it means to build an artistic universe together, in which every background and perspective is given space.
Right to Opacity
Inspired by the thinking of Anne Dufourmantelle and Édouard Glissant, the exhibition also explores the codes that remain hidden and the “right to opacity.” Nurturing the quiet grounds of culture supports the preservation of identity, while also serving as an act of respect and a source of intimacy.
Public program
Alongside the exhibition, the project presents an extensive educational and public program addressing themes such as heritage, cultural identity, migration, and the power of sensory experience. The program includes multilingual guided tours , film screenings in collaboration with arthouse cinema Lumière, workshops on West African traditions and music with DAR Cultural Agency, storytelling evenings, podcasts, and conversations with international experts.
News
Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes artist Hamedine Kane is participating in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, on view through January 11, 2026. His work Les Ressources: Acte-#2 examines the depletion of natural resources, particularly in the marine environments of Senegal and Brazil.
Curators
Artists
RAW Material Company
RAW Material Company is a center for art, knowledge, and society. It focuses on curatorial practice, art education, residencies, knowledge production, and the archiving of art theory and criticism. It fosters artistic and intellectual creativity in Africa. The program is transdisciplinary and draws from literature, film, architecture, politics, fashion, cuisine, and diaspora.
The organization is based in Sicap Baobabs and Zone B in Dakar. Zone B, a former 1950s Modernist-inspired home, was renovated as a starting point for research on the role of architecture and urban planning in shaping contemporary African cities.
RAW Base, the library, holds books, films, and other resources on contemporary art, with a focus on African practices and ideas. It is activated through book clubs, public programs, exhibitions, and installations.
RAW Académie is an experimental residential program for recent graduates in art, curatorial studies, and the humanities. It offers space for reflection, exchange of ideas, and collaboration, and is tuition-free.
RAW Residency — Kër Issa consists of several residency programs (open calls, local artists, the Académie, and guest practitioners). They provide space for research and exchange and often serve as a springboard for long-term collaborations.
rawmaterialcompany.org
Grand opening Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes
With great pleasure, Marres invites you to the festive opening of the group exhibition Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes.
Date: Saturday 20 December 2025
Time: 5PM
Location: Marres, Maastricht
free entrance
Press
For press requests, imagery and interview requests, please contact communicatie@marres.org
Partners / thanks to:
The support of Cultuurfonds & VSBfonds
Marres receives structural support from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Province of Limburg and the Municipality of Maastricht.
RAW Material Company, DAR Cultural Agency