Adji Dieye wins the second edition of the Collective Prize for the Castello di Rivoli.

Adji Dieye (b. Milan, 1991) is the winner of the second edition of the Collective International Art Prize for Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art. Thanks to the acquisition made by Collective’s members, her work Culture Lost and Learned by Heart: Butterfly (2021) has been added to the Museum’s permanent collection as a donation.

Andro Eradze (b. Georgia, 1993) and Agnes Questionmark (b. Rome, 1995) were the other finalists of this edition. The first edition of the Prize, held in 2023, was awarded to Alice Visentin (b. Ciriè, Turin, 1993).

Established by Collective, an Italian association of contemporary art collectors founded in 2019, the Prize aims to acquire and donate to the Museum a work by an artist under the age of 35. Awarded biennially, the Prize amounts to €20,000.

Adji Dieye was selected by a jury comprising Castello di Rivoli Director Francesco Manacorda, Deputy Director and Chief Curator Marcella Beccaria, and Curator Marianna Vecellio, from a wide range of works by Italian and international artists proposed by Collective’s members.

Dieye’s practice explores the intersection of image, urban spaces, and cultural memory**. Using archival materials related to advertising and architecture, she investigates how national epistemologies are formed and transformed, questioning the visual and ideological structures that shape collective identity and belonging.

The winning work, Culture Lost and Learned by Heart: Butterfly (2021), consists of an iron structure supporting a long silk sheet printed with fragments from the Senegal National Iconographic Archive and the artist’s personal archive. The piece reflects on gestures that have traversed and subverted colonial institutional spaces through a visual interplay of bodily and architectural details. Dieye invites viewers to reconsider the archive as a site of symbolic authority, selection, and erasure rather than mere preservation.

“The Prize awarded to Adji Dieye,” say Marcella Beccaria and Marianna Vecellio, “recognizes this young artist’s ability to critically examine how the legacy of the past and the construction of memory influence our understanding of the complex present we inhabit.”

“The passion and commitment of the Collective group of collectors is commendable. The Museum thrives thanks to the support of individuals of this caliber, with whom I have been honored to collaborate,” adds Director Francesco Manacorda. “I also thank Deputy Director Marcella Beccaria for carefully nurturing the relationship with Collective and Curator Marianna Vecellio. Their active involvement in the selection process has led to an outstanding result.”

The winning work, Culture Lost and Learned by Heart: Butterfly (2021) by Adji Dieye, will be on view at Castello di Rivoli from September 25, 2025, coinciding with Inserzioni, a new program curated by Francesco Manacorda focused on new commissions for the Museum.

BIOGRAPHY

Adji Dieye (b. Milan, 1991) is a visual artist based in Dakar, Milan, and Zurich. She holds a BA in New Technologies of Art from Brera Academy of Fine Arts (Milan) and an MFA from Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including recent shows such as:
- Our Rivers Share a Mouth, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, 2024)
- Aphasia, Fotomuseum Winterthur (2023)
- Cultura Persa e Imparata a Memoria, ar/ge Kunst (Bolzano, 2022)
- Culture Lost and Learned by Heart, C/O Berlin (2021)
- …of bread, wine, cars, security and peace, Kunsthalle Wien (2020)
- A Matter of Time, Cultural Summit (Abu Dhabi, 2024)
- The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Norval Foundation (Cape Town, 2024)

She has participated in major biennials, including:
- 24th Arte Paiz Biennale (Guatemala, 2025)
- 16th Lyon Biennale (2022)
- 14th Dak’Art Biennale – I NDAFFA (2022)
- 13th Bamako Biennale – Rencontres de Bamako (2022)
- Mediterranea Biennale – Schools of Water (San Marino, 2021)

In 2025, she received the XX New York Prize, following earlier awards such as the Ducato Prize – Contemporary Award (2023), Photographic Encounters at Fotomuseum Winterthur (2023), and the C/O Berlin Talent Award (2021). Her works are held in major public and private collections, including Vontobel Collection (Zurich), Musée des civilisations noires (Dakar), C/O Berlin, Muzeum Sztuki Nowozesnej (Warsaw), and Fotomuseum Winterthur.

Image: Adji Dieye, Culture Lost and Learned by Heart: Butterfly (2021)
Installation view, C/O Berlin, © C/O Berlin Foundation, Photo: David von Becker