From 7 October 2023, Franco-Senegalese artist Diadji Diop will be taking over the Comptoir des Mines Gallery art space with a brand new exhibition entitled “خوةُ أُ Fraternité“. This artistic presentation will be spread across several spaces in the exhibition venue tackling strong themes that erect the urgent need for union and togetherness.
In his work, Diadji Diop explores notions of spirituality, dignity and immigration, themes that he has studied over the last two years while travelling through the regions of Tétouan, Dakar, Paris and Marrakech. In his exhibition at the Comptoir des Mines in Marrakech, the artist, a child of another south, ‘gives substance’ to the word Fraternity and enriches the lexicon of plastic expressions known in Morocco with sculptures, small, simple effigies, gushing, colossal, monumental, which fill with an infinite quietude, face the trials of the world with great effort and empathy.
In the words of the artistic director of Dak’Art 2022, El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Diadji Diop belongs to that category of artist who, through his art, builds bridges between people. As someone in constant transit between two continents, his work is inspired by a market of ideas in constant construction of critical spaces, which like mirrors reflect our own condition. Numerous themes underpin his art practice, including notions of birth and death, duality and spirituality, among others, and behind the figures he sculpts lie feelings, myths and utopias.
Diadji Diop says: “The work calls for a mixed world where skin colour is no longer a factor of discrimination. At a time when borders are closing all over the world, this sculpture is an invitation to travel, to dream and to utopia.” Three years after his first collaboration with the Comptoir des Mines, where he presented “Distance Ardente” in 2020, this new exhibition allows the public to share his intimate reflections on the meaning of the word ‘fraternity’. Through sculptures numbering in excess of twenty, Diadji Diop proposes a reading that initiates a strong encounter with powerful characters of vivid colour and curious serenity.
It is in this inspiring spirit of Diadji Diop’s work that the founder and director of the Comptoir des Mines gallery, Hicham Daoudi, declares: “On 7 October, I am delighted to share Diadji Diop’s works with the public who will be visiting the Comptoir des Mines. These are works that reveal a great deal about a range of values, but also questions specific to so-called southern societies and the relationships they have with each other. This collaboration with Diadji – over and above the works and the timing leading up to his exhibition – is a journey into a land of fraternity that erases perceptible differences and pits people against each other to show only the values that can still bring them together.”
