Multiplicité
'Multiplicité' - curated collaboratively by Gallery Miriam and aAKZI.ATL - features faces - sometimes colliding harmoniously and sometimes aligning albeit in fracture - but always building a whole. Multiplicité is about achieving harmony through dissonance. The overarching message appears to be about the total being bigger and better than the sum total of the pieces that went into it.
Casimir Balibié Bationo[CasziB.] is first and foremost a storyteller. The portraits with their piercing eyes beckon the viewer to venture on this haunting journey with them. The gazes beckon into an interiority full of agency and power. CasziB. is a painter of the "sensitive", the references to which he appeals are intimate and current but also totally universal and tell the story of all: our relationship to ourselves, to others, to our emotions, to racism, love, houselessness, migration, human rights, social struggles, family, and the ever eroding environment.
The images and subjects of his paintings are in constant motion resulting in a profusion of blurs and colors as if the dreams of a lifetime were taking shape here and now. CasziB's paintings are deeply singular yet allowing for multiple journeys and endless discoveries.To accept the invitation of the artist to a crossing between these faces, is to accept to ultimately journey to a place where the harsh and the beautiful meet and where the delicate triumphs over the violent.
As always, it is a pleasure to show Cheikh Keita's newest vibrant work - which showcases the incredible cool factor that Dakar has in all its aspects.
Both Casimir and Cheikh are part and parcel of what is meant by the Francophonie - representing cornerstone and foundational countries such as Burkina Faso and Senegal respectively. Creatives across francophone West Africa have hugely impacted the past and will continue to share the present and future of the francophonie. Artists like Casimir and Cheikh are rooted in their cultures and histories and also proudly claim their part of the Francophonie both in France and beyond.
