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until 29.10. | #3615ARTatBerlin | ARTCO Galerie Berlin presents from 14. September 2022 the exhibition Umrissene Welten by the artist Saïdou.
At an early age, Saidou Dicko (born 1979 in Burkina Faso) realised that he could see clouds not only in the sky but also in the sands of his home town. As a young Fulani shepherd, he looks into the red sands of the Sahel and traces the pillowy shadows cast by the migrating clouds above. First the outlines of his sheep, later the silhouettes of people, all are captured vividly by Dicko on the walls of houses or on the colourful fabrics embroidered by his mother. These shadows remain the core element of his visual storytelling – spanning across his photography, film, installation work and painting.
“As a child, I looked at them (shadows) the way others look at clouds, and invented stories. It started by drawing on the floor and walls, then on fabrics that my mother embroidered,”
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In his early series of works, THE SHADOW THIEF, he follows his family and friends with a mobile phone camera, tracing their paths and action. But the shadow thief does not rob these people’s identity; instead, the alienation of these perspective-broken silhouettes bring us closer to the intimate gestures of the people depicted – emphasizing the role of childlike play, hard work, and the complex yet familiar family dynamic. Here, abstraction is adopted in the artist’s work as a trick to draw the viewer’s attention more intently to the social contexts in each scene. We see the characters at petrol stations, sat in conversation on the porches of houses, or riding their bicycles through the capital city of Ouagadougou.
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Now living and working in Paris himself, Dicko goes one step further in his new works. He dips the figures in the photographs in black oil, creating another physical level of the image. Anonymising the people through thick brushstrokes aims to further level out individual criteria of the people depicted (such as age, wealth, faith). It is now much more about dynamic composition against the background of colourful textiles that take him back to his homeland. A poetic world in which people are far more than mere shadows. The outlines are rather an invitation to step into this recess and become part of this outlined world.
Dicko’s works have been on display for years in various international exhibitions, collections and museums.
Parallel to the exhibition, a selection of the works will be shown at the Positions art fair at Tempelhof Airport from 15-18 September.
Vernissage: Tuesday, 13. September 2022 – from 4 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Wednesday, 14. September – Saturday, 29 October 2022 – ARTCO Gallery, Frobenstr. 1, 10783 Berlin
POSITIONS Art Fair: Thursday, 15. September – Sunday, 18. September 2022 – Tempelhof Airport, Hangar 5 & 6, Tempelhofer Damm 45, 12101 Berlin
to the gallery
Image Caption: IG_POST_Saidou_Dicko_4_56
Exhibition Saïdou Dicko – ARTCO Galerie Berlin | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
