Dakar/Berlin: Mamadou Gomis und Simone Gilges

Dakar/Berlin: Mamadou Gomis and Simone Gilges
A photographic dialogue (2008–2011)
What began as a simple idea — one photo per week — evolved into a striking visual exchange between two photographers: Berlin-based artist Simone Gilges and Dakar-based
photojournalist Mamadou Gomis. From 2008 to 2011, they sent each other one photograph per week via email — each image forming a formal or thematic response to the previous one, sometimes through content, sometimes through aesthetics. Their photographs offer intimate glimpses into everyday life, into public and private rituals, and reflect both personal and collective realities. Through the juxtaposition of their images, a compelling panorama unfolds, in which the familiar becomes strange and the unfamiliar becomes familiar. The result is an intercultural journey that poetically connects two countries, two cultures, and two lived experiences — through a visual dialogue.

This exchange led to the publication of the book Dakar/Berlin (2012) and a touring exhibition of the same name, produced by the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Dakar/Berlin is more than a photography project — it is an aesthetic dialogue about space, culture, and time. Through their weekly photographic correspondence, Gilges and Gomis created a multilayered and nuanced portrait of two cities and the people who inhabit them. The book and exhibition bear witness to a successfully built artistic bridge between Berlin and Dakar.

The Photographers
Mamadou Gomis
Born in 1976 in Ndoulo, Senegal, Gomis has worked as a photographer in Dakar since 1992. In addition to assignments for national newspapers and international news agencies, he has also worked as a reporter since 2000 and has exhibited internationally since 2005. He is Vice President of the Union des Photojournalistes du Sénégal (UNJP). In 2008 he also took part in the ifa project prêt à partager.

Simone Gilges (1973–2023)
Born in Bonn, Gilges lived and worked in Berlin as a freelance photographer from 1996 onward. Her work documented urban transitions and culture-specific scenes, particularly within Berlin’s music and art scene. From 2003 to 2009, she published the magazine freier – Magazin für Befindlichkeit, which she founded under her own publishing label Neue Dokumente. Her photographs were exhibited widely in galleries and biennials, and in 2008 she also took part in the ifa project prêt à partager.

Reception and Impact
The German weekly newspaper Die ZEIT described the project as “City portraits: only the garbage looks the same everywhere” — a pointed observation of how the project focused carefully on both the elements that separate and those that unite. This comment captures the essence of Dakar/Berlin: a project that moves between difference and proximity, between everyday detail and universal experience.