Christian Sanna is a Malagasy-Italian artist photographer born in 1989.
He lives and works in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Rooted in analog photography, his practice examines how stories make a place or a body. Between documentary writing and fiction, he sets these stories against the material reality of the present and builds his bodies of work through echoes and visual rhymes. He extends his images into sculpture and installation, treating the print as a physical material.
His work has been shown at the Rencontres de Bamako (2017), Aperture Gallery in New York (The Way We Live Now, 2018), Fondation H (Paris in 2020, Antananarivo in 2021), Hakanto Contemporary (2023) and Sabrina Amrani Gallery in Madrid (2024). He took part in the Résidence 1+2 in Toulouse (2017) and received an honorable mention from the LCC Program in Casablanca. His work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Mali, Fondation H and the Yavarhoussen Collection.
Education :
2013 - 2016 : ETPA photography school, Grand Prize distinction, Toulouse, France.
Selected solo exhibitions :
2021 Dear Embona, Fondation H Antananarivo, Madagascar.
2020 - 21 Letters to Embona, Fondation H Paris, France.
2018 Morengy, Institut Français d’Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Selected group exhibitions :
2025 - 25 HOME ALMOST HOME, Flow Gallery, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
2024 Y SI MADRIR FUERA MI CASA, Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
2023 LAMBA FOREVER MANDRAKIZAY" Hakanto Contemporary, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
2023 From A to A, Aux Docks d’Arles, Arles, France.
2020 - 21 Welcome Home Vol.II, LCC Program, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morocco.
2019 ALMOST HOME, Galerie RX, Paris, France.
2018 The Way We Live Now, Aperture Gallery, New York, USA.
2017 - 18 Afrotopia, Les Rencontres de Bamako, African Photography Biennial, Bamako, Mali.
2017 Traversé(e)s, Résidence 1+2, Musée Paul Dupuis, Toulouse.
2016 Fady Kambana / Morengy, Festival Manifesto, Toulouse.
Collections :
Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Hasnaine Yavarhoussen (private collection), Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Musée National du Mali, Mali, Bamako.
Residencies, Grants & Awards :
2018 Honorable mention LCC Program prize, Casablanca, Maroc.
2016 Grand Prix ETPA, Toulouse, France.
Press & Publications :
Chris Broughton, "My Best Shot"in The Guardian (Nov. 2023).
Roxana Azimi, "La scène artistique Malgache trouve de nouveaux mécènes” in L’hebdo du Quotidien de l’art (Mar. 2021).
Christian Sanna, “Photo Journal Monday: Christian Sanna” in Musée Magazine online at [https://museemagazine.com/culture/2021/1/4/photo-journal-monday-christian-sanna], (Jan. 2021).
Jeanne Mercier, “Lettres à Embona - Interview de Christian Sanna”in Afrique in Visu
at [https://www.afriqueinvisu.org/lettres-a-embona/], (Jan. 2021).
Christian Sanna, Chère Embona. Antananarivo: Fondation H, 2021.
Christian Sanna, “Portfolio: Morengy”in Indigo Magazine n°4 (Apr. 2019).
Christian Sanna, Afrotopia in the catalog of 11th edition Rencontres de Bamako African Biennale of Photography, 2017.
Ariño, Moquin, Sanna, Traversé(e)s”. France: Éditions Filigranes & Résidence 1+2, 2017.
Eric Karsenty, “Sur les traces de l’Aéropostale” in Fisheye Magazine (Sep. 2017).