It is the gradual resumption of cultural activities in Senegal following a total closure linked to the coronavirus pandemic. In Dakar, art galleries welcome a limited and masked audience, but a new exhibition is to be found especially in the gallery le Manège of the French Institute: “Volatile”.
The signed soundtrack gives an idea of the atmosphere at the Manège Gallery: flying migrants in wire and recycled metal, created by the Mauritanian Oumar Ball, appear to be in dialogue with the birds painted by the Senegalese Ousmane Niang. The birds here are symbols of freedom. Oumar Ball observed them for a long time as a child in the valley of the Senegal River. “This freedom that I could not have because all these people said, ‘No, you can not.’ You can not go there. “These feathers that are on the ground are the feathers they are trying to take away from me.”
Ousmane Niang’s birds assume human form. To him, feathers like weights are bad thoughts. One of the artists puts the feathers in the washing machine, the other releases them in front of a fan. The painter uses his own pointillist technique with dots in dots.
Bringing the two artists together was obvious to Olivia Marsaud, director of the Manège Gallery. “Me, I call it the Bird Conference. It is always the one that allows us to look higher. And so today in the streets of Dakar with the bird sellers we make wishes and we get our wish to go with the bird. It is beautiful. We are still in this idea of poetry, freedom and flight. ”
An exhibition until October 31 to visit earphones with a musical choice linked to the bird’s theme.
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