The fact is that at Catinca Tabacaru the meanings of the yoruba culture revealed by the sculptures of the artist Ranti Bam within the COMMON GROUND exhibition) will merge with electro-acoustic sound vibrations of free-jazz (produced in the pemiere by the musical trio Neon / Torsan / Bălan); and a bar with specialty drinks (which the OAR Garden 'mounts' at White Night) is from the start the binder that makes the night white! Therefore, even more briefly: we will live the Night with a lust for art!:) COMMON GROUND CONCEPT: ​​There is an increasing amount of discourse today around what it means to be an African in globalized capitals. How do we, in the neo-liberal West, engage with pluralities of past, present and future African identity? Bam’s work is an intimate form of this social exploration. Clay holds narrative and curative powers. It is maleable, fragile, erotic; clay remembers. Bam approaches the material for solace, for respite, for liberation. She embraces it, fulfilling a desire for intimacy and symbiosis - the Dutch word Huidhonger is the best descriptor she can conjure for the feeling. It means skin hunger: the feeling people develop when they are disconnected from one another. Raised between Africa and Europe, Bam’s work gives form to the pluralities of her personal history: to inhabit the visual and spiritual culture of two distinct worlds as they collide today. These new sculptures are avatars for the body. They surrender to an embrace, taking the works into the in-between of the literal and the metaphorical, of abstraction and figuration. One could say that Bam exposes spirit before form. Maybe they are vessels; vessels with exteriors that resemble skin or leather. Imperfect, they pucker and crack, folded and faulted from Bam’s embrace. Their exteriors conceal pools of metallic yellow glaze that illuminate the interior - a sacred source, powerful in spite of structural deterioration. Raised between Africa and Europe, Bam’s work gives form to the pluralities of her personal history, inhabiting the visual and spiritual culture of two distinct worlds as they collide today. These new sculptures are avatars for the body. They are vessels; vessels with exteriors that resemble skin or leather. They surrender to Bam's embrace as she prioritizes spirit before form. Imperfect, the sculptures pucker and crack, folded and faulted, their exteriors conceal pools of metallic yellow glaze that illuminate the interior - a sacred source. Bam is searching for freedom from definitions. When turning her attention to Nigeria, she acknowledges the conflict upon its formation: an imposed state created by the Royal Niger Company in its pursuit of capital growth for the Crown. The forced shift from indigenous systems to wage labor, the privatization of communal land, the push into cash crops from subsidence farming, the indoctrination of Judeo-Christian beliefs, and the highly orchestrated assimilation of consumption culture and gender roles… are all acts of definition. In titling the sculptures Ifa, Bam signals their multiplicities. Ifa in Yoruba means both (ifá): divination and (I - fàá): to pull close. Maybe they are votive objects bringing one closer to the divine. As viewers, we are turned into witnesses to the performance of a ritual that has the artist transforming - a newfound willingness to share her intimate space - unadorned, raw, in process. It’s a very African act to invite us into the commune; but, it’s a universal act to invite us to be a community.