La sélection de / Sadikou Oukpedjo: Musique, lieux, art et philosophie

26 June - 3 July 2020
  • In the section 'The selection of', the artists take the floor and plunge us into their universe by sharing the...

    In the section 'The selection of', the artists take the floor and plunge us into their universe by sharing the works that have marked their imagination.

     

    This week, discover the selection of Sadikou Oukpedjo.


    Photo credit : Antoine Tempé

  • L'homme et l'animal

    The animal and man's connection to his animal nature is a central theme in my work. I believe that animals have had the misfortune of crossing species like us on their path, and that if we eat them, it is only to convince ourselves that we are not animals. We lie to ourselves, and I try to reveal this hypocrisy and inevitable duality in my painting. SO (Sadikou Oukpedjo) 

     

    "A bullock, a cockerel. A hen, or, rather, a guinea fowl. A nanny goat, a billy goat. Human bodies. Carcasses. Hybrid beings. A painting brought to life. Swathes of colour simultaneously blur and obscure the false clarity of the forms. A streaky or smudged blue. Bright white patches. A sombre, trans- parent and sometimes grainy grey. A colourful halo and yellow where feet are buried. Red spots. An opaque black paradoxically illuminates a strange scene. A red or bluish hue delineates new spaces. Shreds of pictorial matter congregate in an organised chaos. The painting therefore contrasts with the natural order of things. The dual presence of shapes and materials contributes to the intensity of Sadikou Oukpedjo’s large canvases : a space to show, tell and reflect. There are outpourings (of sympathy or pain). Above all there are mysteries, secret rituals, hidden things and the inexplicable. A whole mythology is at work behind the image, full of hybrid animals and enigmatic figures. In the face of death, do animals have a soul ?"

     

    Excerpt of "The Animal that I am", by Seloua Luste Boulbina

    The text of the exhibition catalogue of Silentium, by Sadikou Oukpedjo, which took place in Abidjan in 2019

    The catalogue is available here.

    L'homme et l'animal

    The animal and man's connection to his animal nature is a central theme in my work. I believe that animals have had the misfortune of crossing species like us on their path, and that if we eat them, it is only to convince ourselves that we are not animals. We lie to ourselves, and I try to reveal this hypocrisy and duality that is inevitable in my painting. SO (Sadikou Oukpedjo) 

     

    "A bullock, a cockerel. A hen, or, rather, a guinea fowl. A nanny goat, a billy goat. Human bodies. Carcasses. Hybrid beings. A painting brought to life. Swathes of colour simultaneously blur and obscure the false clarity of the forms. A streaky or smudged blue. Bright white patches. A sombre, trans- parent and sometimes grainy grey. A colourful halo and yellow where feet are buried. Red spots. An opaque black paradoxically illuminates a strange scene. A red or bluish hue delineates new spaces. Shreds of pictorial matter congregate in an organised chaos. The painting therefore contrasts with the natural order of things. The dual presence of shapes and materials contributes to the intensity of Sadikou Oukpedjo’s large canvases : a space to show, tell and reflect. There are outpourings (of sympathy or pain). Above all there are mysteries, secret rituals, hidden things and the inexplicable. A whole mythology is at work behind the image, full of hybrid animals and enigmatic figures. In the face of death, do animals have a soul ?"

     

    Excerpt from "L'Animal que je suis" by Seloua Luste Boulbina
    Text from the catalogue of Sadikou Oukpedjo's solo exhibition, Silentium
    Cécile Fakhoury Gallery - Abidjan, 2019
    Catalogue available here

     

     

  • Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora, Miriam Makeba, Malaika, 1969

     

     

     

     

    Miriam Makeba, Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora

    Miriam Makeba, Malaika, 1969

     

    I don't listen to much music because I like to work in silence, with only my chickens and nature as noise. Nevertheless, I really like the work of Salif Keita, Miriam Makeba and Cesaria Evora. SO


    Born on 4 March 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) was an ethno-jazz singer and political activist from South Africa, naturalized from Guinea in the 1960s and Algeria in 1972.

    Sometimes nicknamed "Mama Afrika", she was forced into exile for some thirty years and travelled the world, achieving many musical successes. Above all, she became one of the voices against apartheid and for the pride of the African continent.

  • Materials like wood, clay, pigments fascinate me. It is their touch that attracts me first and foremost, and that makes...

    Materials like wood, clay, pigments fascinate me. It is their touch that attracts me first and foremost, and that makes me want to use and experiment with them in all their possibilities, as in my works on mirror or under glass. SO 

     

    His representations are filled with and penetrated by the invisible and its power, by the unknown and the hidden. Man analyses the world, models the nature, tries to know the secrets which one will be able to use. He is a magician, a master, an illusionist, a savant, when the essence of live inevitably transforms itself and transcends the world of ideas.

     

    The pastel on paper, the monumental outdoor sculptures, the imposing canvas, the engravings, the ceramics and the carved stones reflect an interior state, in the tortuous silence of one's own self. This morphological anatomical study relates to the spiritual.

     

    The creature that Sadikou Oukpedjo gives existence to, in his works, constitutes a record of the human conscience, crossed by the issue of its primary origin, leading towards an uncertain future.

     

     

  • The places that inspire me are places where nature has not yet been taken hostage, small villages or abandoned towns...

    The places that inspire me are places where nature has not yet been taken hostage, small villages or abandoned towns where nature is taking back its rights. This is why I chose to settle in a still remote place in the commune of Bingerville, near Abidjan. I can go to town easily, but I have cassava fields in front of my house and a large area for my chickens. I don't need anything more! SO 

  • Atelier de Sadikou Oukpedjo

    2019, Bingerville, Côte d'Ivoire
  • Miquel Barceló, Atelier avec gorille, 2008

     

     

    Miquel Barceló

    Atelier avec gorille, 2008

    Miquel Barceló, born on 8 January 1957 in Felanitx (Mallorca, Balearic Islands), is a Spanish painter, draughtsman, engraver, sculptor and ceramist associated with the neo-expressionist movement.

     

    Although he initially devoted himself to painting and drawing - thanks to which he became one of the most prominent contemporary artists and gained international recognition at a very young age - he also turned towards sculpture and ceramics as an alternative medium for his artistic creations in the 1990s.

     

    After two years of travelling through several countries on the African continent, he settled in the mid-1990s in Mallorca, and since then has lived between Mallorca, Paris and Biandagara in Mali. In 2003, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts.

  • Platon et Socrate, Platon, La République

    Platon et Socrate

    Platon, La République

    For my reading, I always come back to Plato. Right now I'm reading Plato's Republic. I think that the symbolism of identity lies in Plato's life, which would not exist without his master Socrates, and that conversely without Plato, Socrates would have been forgotten. I am convinced that Africa has had many Socrates, but unfortunately these Socrates did not have their Plato to transmit their ideas over time. SO

    Plato is an ancient philosopher of classical Greece, a contemporary of Athenian democracy and the sophists, whom he criticized vigorously. He took up the philosophical work of some of his predecessors, notably Socrates, of whom he was a pupil. The latter explored most of the important fields, i.e. metaphysics and ethics, aesthetics and politics.

    His work, composed almost exclusively of dialogues, produced the first classical formulations of the major problems in the history of Western philosophy. The Republic is a dialogue that deals mainly with justice in the individual and in the City. Plato criticizes democracy in its degeneration into demagogy and tyranny because of the attraction of the prestige of power.

  • Sadikou Oukepdjo, 100 Titre #2, 2018
    Sadikou Oukepdjo, 100 Titre #2, 2018

    As far as films or documentaries are concerned, I am mainly interested in the themes of justice and law. Sometimes I cry in the face of certain injustices, even when it's fiction. SO

     

    The gesture and expressiveness of Sadikou Oukpedjo are driven by doubts and apprehensions of the world as he sees it. For him, the animal world is a source of essential questioning for man humans to find his place in our societies, at the risk to lose sight of certain values, traditions and precepts of nature.

     

    The process of questioning our deep origins finds its roots in the human need of gaining access to the knowledge of oneself, through multiple and ancestral attempts - cosmogony, rituals, sorcery, magic. Henceforth, the work of Sadikou Oukpedjo is one of them.