The group exhibition “Au pays des Hommes intègres” (In the Land of Honest Men) takes place at Christophe Person Gallery from June 08 to July 27. This exhibition is an extension of the Ouagadougou International Sculpture Biennial (BISO), and aims to showcase Burkinabe artistic creation. Seven Burkinabe artists will present their works, offering Parisian visitors a unique and enriching vision of their reality, full of universal teachings.
For this new exhibition “Au pays des Hommes intègres”, the Paris gallery welcomes artists Siriki KY, Olga YAMEOGO, Nyaba Léon OUEDRAOGO, Abou SIDIBÉ, Christophe SAWADOGO, Abou TRAORÉ and Mouss BLACK. In a series of innovative works in a variety of media, the artists take a personal approach to the theme of “Au pays des Hommes intègres“.
Siriki KY
Siriki Ky, a talented sculptor, is originally from the Ivory Coast and now lives in Burkina Faso. He studied art at the Ecole of Fine Arts in Abidjan, then at the Academy of Arts in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, before settling permanently in Burkina Faso to live and practice his art.
Convinced of the enriching effect of public participation, Siriki Ky creates his works in situ, offering viewers the chance to admire the creative process. Working in bronze using traditional techniques, he creates his works outdoors, firing the molds over a wood fire and casting the bronze in a traditional forge.
Creator of the Laongo International Granite Sculpture Symposium, a bi-annual residency festival designed to stimulate the creativity and talent of contemporary sculptors, Siriki Ky has participated in symposia in Canada, France, Asia and Africa. He also initiated and supervised the Ben Amira sculpture symposium in Mauritania and the Afrikabidon symposium in Ardèche, France. In addition to contributing to contemporary creativity and conservation, Siriki Ky’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries around the world.
Olga YAMEOGO
Olga YAMEOGO, an artist who likens art to a form of therapy, sees the discipline as a creative and stimulating way of bringing lightness to life. Originally from Burkina Faso and now living in France, she has always been convinced of the saving and liberating dimension of art, ever since she was a child. After starting out in art therapy, she turned definitively to artistic creation, marking the beginning of a new-found freedom.
Placing the individual at the heart of her paintings, Olga YAMEOGO favors the portrait to explore and share with the public contemporary history influenced by migratory flows. She incorporates the métissage of her Franco-Burkinabé identity into her canvases, drawing inspiration from the ideas of Édouard Glissant. This creative approach captivates the viewer with its cultural fusion, offering a new dimension to her art.
In the exhibition “Au pays des Hommes intègres“, visitors will have the pleasure of discovering the result of this fusion of cultures and realities. With ochre tones reminiscent of Africa and blues reminiscent of Toulouse, and portraits imbued with a profound humanity against intense backgrounds, the African artist plunges us into the intimacy of her life and her family, questioning the way we look at others.
Nyaba Léon OUEDRAOGO
Nyaba Léon Ouedraogo, renowned artist-photographer and co-president and co-founder of the Ouagadougou International Sculpture Biennial (BISO) alongside gallery owner Christophe Person, lives and works between Ouagadougou and Paris. Originally from Burkina Faso, his photographs highlight the realities of life and work in Africa. Finalist for the Pictet prize in 2010 and winner of the European Union prize at the 9th Photography Encounters in Bamako, Nyaba Léon Ouedraogo is an internationally recognized artist.
One of his most striking works is ” Theater Popular “, a photographic documentary project that highlights the frescoes of an emblematic Ouagadougou venue. Created by Thomas Sankara, the Theater Popular was a meeting place for cultural vitality, open to the public. Now abandoned, these frescoes are reborn under the artist’s lens, offering a poetic and political tribute to a place steeped in history and symbolism.
Abou SIDIBÉ
Abou Sidibé, an Ivory Coast-born artist based in Ouagadougou, is known for his artistic approach that combines recycling and creation. By giving objects a second life, he reinvents their original purpose and transforms them into original works of art. His work environment and inspiration enable him to create relevant and profound works, reflecting his artistic sensibility.
After his artistic beginnings at the KIYI village cultural exchange center in Abidjan and academic training at the Technical Arts Center in Bingerville, Abou Sidibé developed his artistic practice by exploring the role of objects in African society. He interrogates the continent’s constant recycling and reuse of objects, highlighting their creative and innovative potential.
In the exhibition “Au pays des Hommes intègres“, Abou Sidibé will present a series of works entitled “Puisette“, inner tubes transformed into buckets of water, then re-imagined through his artistic eye. By giving a third life to these already recycled objects, the artist accumulates new materials around them, creating works rich in meaning and symbolism. This profusion of meaning reflects Abou Sidibé’s singular perception of his environment, offering viewers an immersive and thoughtful artistic experience.
Christophe SAWADOGO
Christophe Sawadogo, a painter born and resident in Burkina Faso, is known for the captivating visual beauty of his canvases. Although his initial interest was in medicine, he eventually turned to the visual arts, studying art and communication at the University of Ouagadougou from 1992 to 1997. He also trained as an art critic at the University of Dakar in 1999, before devoting himself fully to painting.
Fascinated by poetry and calligraphy, Christophe Sawadogo creates a pictorial universe imbued with idyllic characters through drawings on paper in Indian ink or colored pencil. For him, letters are plastic elements that he integrates into his compositions, where characters merge into fragments of enigmatic sentences. He focuses mainly on women, praising their courage and endurance throughout his works.
Every detail is meticulously crafted by the artist, from loincloths to hairstyles, to create serene atmospheres blending warm, luminous colors such as sunny yellow, deep blue, warm orange and diaphanous green. His canvases sometimes evoke the earth’s crust in the background, against which dreamlike silhouettes stand out. By suspending the gaze between dream and reality, Christophe Sawadogo’s work opens up perspectives towards new horizons, inviting the viewer to a thoughtful, poetic contemplation.
Abou TRAORÉ
Abou Traoré, a native of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, draws his artistic inspiration from a rich creative heritage inherited from his long line of blacksmiths. After starting out in the family tradition, he devoted himself fully to art, attracting the attention of the Cultural French Center of Bobo-Dioulasso, which put him in the spotlight on several occasions.
From 1984 to 1991, he was a member of Groupe Fuzion, a collective of Swiss and French sculptors, with whom he exhibited throughout Europe. His work explores the animal mask tradition of Bobo culture and fuses it with modern elements, seeking to ease tensions and promote the values of coexistence, tradition and respect for the environment.
Using small wax sketches as a basis for his artistic reflection, Abou Traoré develops his ideas in three dimensions. His art is inspired by the schematic representation of the animal mind and its transformation into abstraction. He insists on the importance of staying in Burkina Faso to create art rooted in its local culture, thus asserting his artistic identity.
Mouss Black
Mouss Black is a young visual artist born and living in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Trained at the Fondation Olorun, an artistic creation center founded by Christophe de Contenson, he has been exposed to a variety of artistic influences that have enriched his work.
Navigating between sculpture, painting, drawing and installation, his creations are characterized by a blend of the dreamlike and the mystical, oscillating between the real and the unreal, the visible and the invisible. Mouss Black’s versatile and resolutely contemporary work positions him as one of Burkina Faso’s most promising artists.
