Dak'Art: Soly Cisse & Barthelemy Toguo @ Festival

Senegal Thu 13-05-2010

Dak'Art: Soly Cisse & Barthelemy Toguo @ Festival
Maggie Otieno/AfricanColours.com

Senegalese artist Soly Cisse and Cameroon artist Bartholemy Toguo are showing their work at Galerie le Manege, located at the heart of Dakar CBD.

Right at its entrance, one is welcomed by an array of installations. On one side is a row of coffins numbering 30, lined up as though for an inspection parade.

In the opposite direction are buckets surrounded with charcoal. Inside each bucket, a mirror is placed, such that when you look inside your face stares back at you.

Robinet Public by Soly Cisse

These two very prominent artists with varied styles bring a whole new dimension to contemporary art through their work at the biennale.

I do not meet the artist Toguo but his biography at the entrance of the exhibition tells me what I need to know about him.

Born in 1967 in Cameroon, the multi talented artist Toguo lives and works in Paris and Bandjoun. An experienced artist his mediums of work include photography, video, watercolors and sculptures.

His installations are specific; they do not beat about the bush, nor give one a hard time seeking their meaning. His works portrays political dimension to it.

It engages his viewer and draws them to what one would refer to as a silent dialogue. Such attributes can be found in the work titled ‘Road to exile’.

Road to exile by Barthelemy Toguo

Looking at the work, one cannot help but notice that someone must have been packing for a long voyage. Items wrapped in textile, heaped in what looks like a boat are arranged meticulously.

The boat is surrounded not by water but by green bottles. Lanterns and plastic containers hung on the luggage. This work as many of his other works is inspired by the artist’s daily life.

Soly Cisse’s work is very profound. The kind that needs the artist to explain what really is going on. A charming character, Cisse is one of Senegalese most acclaimed artist and in high demand.

One of his installations at the festival is the Mou foundation | Peinture acrylic sur bois.

Mou fondation, Peinture acrylic sur bois by Soly Cisse

On this installation, two sheep are tied in a black and white patterned box. At a quick glance, one can mistake the animals as having a natural fleece of black and white.

At a clear peek, these white animals are actually painted in black! Their new coat blends well in the box that contains them. They eat and drink oblivious that they are part of a work of art.

Next to the sheep is an elegant installation of shoes, sprayed in an aluminum coat and tied up in what looks like a growing plant or a tower, the artist leaves this to the observer’s imagination.

As a painter, Cisse sketches a lot, observes people and animals, how they present themselves, their faces and expressions they make.

Shoes by Soly Cisse

He then seeks the vocabulary, so to speak, with which he can create pictures. For Cissé, reality is always an occasion and an excuse for creating art.

His installation Robinet mirror is a reflection of how he sees the world, the destruction and the chaos man has made of his environment.

Here buckets surrounded with charcoal have a mirror inside. This complex installation is a symbol of humanity’s mockery to its own environment.

The taps are fixed on to a mirror that shows the reflection of the person opening the tap as to quell the thirst of the earth. Under the tap is a bucket with a mirror inside, an illusion that the bucket has water inside.

Robinet Public Wide by Soly Cisse

Charcoal, a symbol of environmental degradation surrounds the bucket. ‘I want to ask the observer, who is really fooling who?’ says Cisse.

The Dakar Biennale is supported by the government of Senegal for the sole purpose of maintaining the reflection on the visual arts in Africa.

Related articles on Dak'art:

Dak'Art: The Art In Pictures

Dak'Art: Moridja Kitenge Banza Wins Président Léopold S. Senghor Award

Dak'Art: Art Is Not A Luxury

Dak’Art: God Created Birds & Trees But Man Built Cages’

One On One With Ousseynou Wade, Secretary General Of The Dak’Art Biennale

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Your Comments

Eunice Makau: YHis is nice art

Aarti: Did the sheep remain permanently tied up? Were they given freedom to graze several times a day? I saw some caged birds at the relatively new modern art museum in Stockholm (in the mid-nineties) and was not impressed... Otherwise I like many of the pieces described/shown here.

Maggie Otieno: Unfortunately the sheep are not given the freedom to graze outside of the box. They are fed inside the box. My guess is that they are staying there until 7th June 2010 when the exhibition concludes before they enjoy their freedom.

Gerda Engelbrecht: I am a paper conservator and have one of Soly Cisse's damaged art work in my studio. I would like his e-mail address to discuss treatment with him.

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