A few words about your artistic journey

After an artistic training at the Regional Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Abengourou (Côte d´Ivoire), I currently live and work in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). I am the father of three children and own my own studio. My daily passions are mainly art paintings and graphic design.

How long have you been an artist ?

I have been working as a visual artist for 14 years.

Why did you apply for this grant ? How will this grant support you ?

My project is to create works without making use of technical and academic materials, using only the cardboard packaging as the main medium of expression as well as natural and / or food pigments to make works .

What are your concrete artistic objectives after this residency ?

I want to open up to the world and share my vision of the plastic arts, in particular art painting without a brush, canvas or acrylic tubes or other academic standards.

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What did you achieve during this creative residency ? What is the result (created work) ? Who was involved in the creation process ?

Africalia’s grant "Creativity is life" allowed us to create about twenty works of art using cardboard packaging and natural pigments as raw materials.
It also allowed us to cover the studio’s expenses : electricity, water, internet and others. There were three of us during this residency. My assistants took pictures and assisted me in editing the videos, cutting out the cardboard and framing the works.

How do you think these activities contribute to a reflection on today’s world, in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, and/or on the shaping of the future ?

"Knowing how to reinvent oneself" would be the theme that I could give to my creation residency.

The whole world shaken by the health crisis of COVID 19 will have to reinvent itself to face a new way of life.

Just like the cardboard packaging that was originally a free tree in the forest, Man too was in the past free to move around (voyage rencontre etc....).
One evening, the tree is felled and transformed into cardboard and is used as packaging material very often less noble than it. Just like Man, who one morning is cut down with all his movements and is forced to remain confined to his home and change his way of life. Often less noble than what he used to live (more human warmth, more collective varnishing, etc.) Cardboard, after having been used as packaging, ends up in the trash, just like Man, after having built so many life projects, finds himself kneeling by the world health crisis.

So we recover the cardboard packaging from the trash can to make it a masterpiece, just as Man will have to stand on his legs to face the disease on all levels. (Artistic, cultural, economic, social. etc....)

How did you feel during the residency ? And at the end of it ?

During the residency, our feelings were those of feeling and conviction to overcome the health crisis. And at the end of this residence, our feelings were those of freedom, a true freedom of expression and emotions.
We were able to work as we imagined without too much pressure and with a lot of love and conviction.

One difficulty we encountered was at a time when the rate of COVID-19 patients had regained momentum in the Burkinabè capital. At that time, we spent days without having the courage to open the studio, but thank God we recovered immediately when together we watched pictures of the residence.