Mbaye Diop (SG, 1981)
Residency period: July-September 2019
During my residency at La Becque, I presented a project on the theme “From the palaver to the digital tree”.
In African tradition, our relationship with nature was fundamental: water, wind, the sky, the earth, minerals, plants… An intrinsic connection that even drove some to say that these elements were the reincarnation of our forbearers’ spirits. For example, the tree occupied a central position in daily life: a gathering place, a symbolic witness to the locality’s facts and stories, a place for rituals… Nowadays, with the influence of modernity, a change of paradigm is taking place with the expansion of the “digital tree” (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.). Information and communication technology have modified the sacred connections that have always existed and shifted our sensibility towards virtual realities.
Throughout the residency, the topic was developed through installations, performances and screen prints.
Graduated from the Dakar School of Fine Arts, Mbaye Diop currently lives in Saint-Louis, Senegal. His work explores scenes of his daily life through silkscreen printing, painting, performance and video. He regularly exhibits his work in Senegal as part of the Off of the Dak’art biennale and has opened an art space in the historic center of Saint-Louis. For the past few years, he has been working on various projects and exchanges with Switzerland, notably with the Ripopée publishing house and the eeeh! gallery in Nyon as well as with the Théâtre de l’Orangerie in Geneva.