DAYÊGUÊ, a dual exhibition presented simultaneously at the Donwahi Foundation and the Cécile Fakhoury Gallery in Abidjan, is a first in many respects.
In resonance with the First Prize awarded to the artist at the Ouagadougou Sculpture Biennale (BISO 2023), this exhibition marks the beginning of an unprecedented collaboration between two major institutions of the African art scene, in service of a singular artist.
It also signals a turning point in Sadikou Oukpedjo’s practice: an introspective, radical gesture, where material becomes the outlet for an intimate memory long kept silent; a decisive step in the artist’s journey, who—through drawings, paintings, and sculptures—offers a deeply personal body of work, in direct dialogue with his own story and his questioning of humanity.
Dayêguê Oukpedjo
Sometimes, a name given at birth becomes a burden. DAYÊGUÊ — “all is well,” said the father, in the Tchamba language.
A name that sounds like a blessing, yet rejected by the artist for the painful ambiguity it carries.
Here, it becomes the guiding thread of a narrative of resilience and transformation. Carried by a powerful and free artistic approach, the exhibition unveils the multiple dimensions of a body of work that transcends form to reach the universal.
From the wound, creation is born. DAYÊGUÊ is an intimate journey, a return to the source, an attempt to shatter the mask.
Here, forms do not seek to soothe. They express inner tension, identity vertigo, the search for a broader truth. Each work is a scar, a prayer, a stifled cry. But also an act of reclamation: by shaping, drawing, and painting, Sadikou becomes the master of his own story.
Both a return to the self and an opening to the world, DAYÊGUÊ invites us to face what we often prefer to keep silent. And to understand, perhaps, that art begins where language fails.
Illa G. Donwahi
Abidjan, April 8, 2025
