Mbaye Diop

L’Arbre à Palabre à l’arbre Numérique (2019), La Becque, Switzerland

Mbaye Diop (b.1981, Richard Toll, Senegal) completed a masters in contemporary artistic practice at the Head School of Geneva in Switzerland as well as at the Beaux-Arts of Dakar.

Mbaye Diop is an attentive observer of the daily urban landscapes and architectural forms of Senegal and the socio-political movements that continuously redefine the links that exist between the African continent and the West. From video, performance, drawing, to installation, the singularity of his work lies in his exclusive and almost obsessive use of black and white, allowing him to neutralize the scenes represented. His work reveals the paradigm shifts currently at play in African societies, especially the dichotomy between tradition, urban infrastructures, and new technologies that tend to transform collective life and one’s relationship to the environment. His research portrays a country that is experiencing continuous growth, where colonial architecture, decaying buildings and urban cluttering intermingle. His conception of urbanity opens the way to a true geography of sociability spaces in the city.

At the crossroads of testimony and fiction, he usually approaches the exhibition space as a whole, with large wall paintings, and the use of serigraphy such as silk-screening, linocut, or the Japanese technique of Suminagashi on various materials (wood, cardboard, wall). With the use of performance, the artist reveals his body as a political subject and questions the way of inhabiting space in overloaded urban environments (Je lutte donc tu es, 2019, performance conducted in Saint-Louis). The choice of performance is significant in an African country where art education remains classical. Other performances on the theme of immigration, improvised in the public space in Europe, tend to disturb and deconstruct the racial bias on the black body, of the "foreigner", with a tinge of humor, tragedy, and provocation.

Mbaye Diop also explores the evolution of African traditions in a digital world that has changed the rules of communication and made man’s ties to nature more tenuous. In 2022, he presented a video installation at the official exhibition of the Dakar Biennale, "De l’arbre à palabre à l’arbre numérique", which raises the tension between African traditions and virtual realities. In a room with walls covered with charcoal-black tree motifs, a central screen displays a video of a man emerging from a pile of branches, his gaze fixed on his phone, while smartphones are displayed around the installation and broadcast a continuous stream of messages retrieved by the artist from social networks. A contemporary version of the arbre à palabres, highly important in sub-Saharan African tradition as the tree under which the elders gather to discuss the problems of the community. But for Mbaye Diop, it is also about representing the fundamental link that binds African tradition with the natural elements, including plants, which are endangered by deforestation. He won the UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) prize on this occasion.

More recently, he has been addressing the theme of immigration, both as a collective and personal experience since his arrival in Switzerland, where he currently lives and works.

During his studies at the HEAD Geneva, he addressed the issue of migratory experience by questioning the links of power uniting the two continents, notably through the emblematic motif of the pirogue, which occurs in several artworks (La pirogue, sculpture, and video, 2021; Espace/Trépasse, video, 2021) and reminds us of the fragility of South-North trajectories. In 2021, Mbaye Diop created an animated film in collaboration with Rémy Bender, entitled "Espace Trépasse", which tells the story of two Africans who set out on a space conquest in a pirogue, addressing the broad topic of current migration between Africa and Europe through an extraterrestrial adventure. This work reveals a harsh political and economic reality at the heart of the artist's concerns, underneath its poetic and humorous aspect.

The occupation of public space is an important theme for the artist, who has studied and even participated in the informal economic systems of Senegal, which he documents in his work. Markets - places of convergence in Africa, made up of often temporary infrastructures and threatened at any moment by real estate pressure - are the subject of many of his works. Mbaye Diop filmed and then drew the famous and popular Dakar market of Colobane before creating an animated film “Colobane” (2020), based on 5,000 sheets of drawings.

Using black and white, Mbaye Diop retains the shades of light and shadow of a general effervescence, erasing the details, translating the organic and evanescent character of what he sees. Regardless of the technique used for his drawings and canvases, made based on photographs, his compositions present induced forms that must be observed for a few seconds before recomposing the image - certain elements remaining deliberately hidden, a fair reflection of a world without clear-sightedness.

Artist CV

See Residency

Available works

Works

Polythéisme, 2022, Oil pastel on paper
105 x 75 cm — Polythéisme, 2022, Oil pastel on paper 105 x 75 cm

Les fantômes du jour II, 2022, Oil pastel on paper
105 x 75 cm — Les fantômes du jour II, 2022, Oil pastel on paper 105 x 75 cm

Balle de Match, Animated film made with photographic, transfer on paper with acetone
Durée: 01:33 min
1/3 + 1EA — Balle de Match, Animated film made with photographic, transfer on paper with acetone Durée: 01:33 min 1/3 + 1EA

Espace / Trepasse (2021), Animated film made in collaboration with Rémy Bender, Length: 8min25

La Peste, 2022, Natural pigment on canvas

Performance - I struggle therefore you are,
Vidéo / Performance, 2019
Length: 6’02’’
Faidherbe Bridge, Saint Louis — Performance - I struggle therefore you are, Vidéo / Performance, 2019 Length: 6’02’’ Faidherbe Bridge, Saint Louis

De l'Arbre à Palabre à l'Arbre Numérique (2019), Serigraphy, 30 x 42 CM

Biography

Mbaye Diop is a multidisciplinary Senegalese artist born in 1981 in Richard-Toll, in the north of Senegal. He works with various media, including drawing, painting, performance, sculpture, and video, creating site specific installations.

In 2010, he graduated from the National School of Arts in Dakar and taught visual arts in the city of Saint-Louis until 2019. He now lives and works in Switzerland and graduated in a master's degree in contemporary art practices at HEAD Geneva (Haute école d'art et de design) in 2022.

He works with various media, including drawing, painting, performance, sculpture, and video, creating site specific installations. Mbaye Diop’s work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including : “Balle de Match” at Selebe Yoon, Dakar, Senegal (2022); "De l'arbre à palabre à l'arbre numérique", La Becque, Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland (2020); "Colobane", Espace eeeh! Nyon, Switzerland (2020); "Chaussures Usées", Centre culturel Blaise Senghor, Dakar (2019); "Autour du poisson" Galerie Skopia, Geneva, (2019); "Introspection", Institut Français, Saint Louis (2018); Wagni Diour espace eeeeh, Nyon, Switzerland (2018); "Mame Coumba Bang",Théâtre de l'Orangerie, Geneva, Switzerland (2018); espace d'art EEEEH!, Nyon, Switzerland (2018); "Le bon mouton", Institut Français, Saint-Louis, Senegal (2017); Galerie Ethiopique, Saint-Louis, Senegal (2016).

His work has also been selected for group shows: "Color Line", Printemps Culturels, Quartier Général (QG), Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2023); "Dérive en Péninsule", L'Atlas, Paris, France (2023); The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa (2023); "Ĩ Ndaffa#/Forger/Out of fire", Dakar Biennale, curated by El Hadji Malick Ndiaye (2022).

He has held several artist residencies, including at Selebe Yoon, Dakar (2022); Espace d'art Eeeeh, Nyon, Switzerland (2021); La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland (2020); Résidence Trelex, Switzerland (2020).

He receives the UEMOA prize for the Dakar Biennale in 2022; and the URTI/UNESCO prize for his radio project "Maam Kumba Bang" in 2023. He has also been nominated for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize in Cape Town, South Africa in 2023. `

He presented performances and screenings at numerous events, conferences and festivals, notably for "Neuchâtel empreintes coloniales" organized by the City of Neuchâtel (2024); "Ecrans Urbains", Lausanne (2023); "Apprendre de Dakar" at Plateforme 10 and "Construire Dakar”, both organized by FAR (Forum d'Architectures, Lausanne), Lausanne (2023 & 2022); the Canadian Center for Architecture at the Musée Théodore Monod, Dakar (2022); "Thiof" at Paris Internationale, Paris (2021).

His practice has also been the subject of numerous publications such as "De l'arbre à palabres à l'arbre numérique", éditions Ripopée, Switzerland (2019), "Tukki le voyageur", with texts by Saïd Ba, artist book, éditions Ripopée, Switzerland (2018); "Mame Coumba Bang", with students from the Ameth Fall high school in Saint Louis, artist's book, Ripopée Publishing, Switzerland (2018); "Le bon mouton", artist's book, Ripopée Publishing, Switzerland (2018). He had several residencies, namely at Selebe Yoon, Dakar (2022); Résidence La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, SW (2021); Espace d'art Eeeeh, Nyon, SW; and the Résidence Trelex, Trelex.

Mbaye Diop is in numerous important public and private collections across the US, Europe and Africa namely, Musée de Nyon (Switzerland), CAAC - Jean Pigozzi Collection (Switzerland), JOM collection (Senegal) to name a few.