Last Tuesday, the National Art Gallery hosted the opening of the collective exhibition coupled with the launch ceremony of the artistic and cultural season. The exhibition, which is called “The other challenge”, is in fact an incentive, an exhortation to another position in relation to the environment.
By Ousmane SOW – After Act 1 at the Villa des Arts during the last Partcours, then comes Act 2 at the National Gallery with a dozen artists to talk regarding the environment in general. Curator of this exhibition, Idrissa Diallo emphasizes that art is now at the service of sustainable development and that ecological issues are increasingly important in artistic creation. “Ecological art mixes the economy, the social and the environment at the same time. It is an effective framework for reflection for harmonious and balanced development. And in the face of climate change and pollution, the artist, in his capacity as a citizen, a social actor and a creator, is challenged”, he said during the opening last Tuesday. The exhibition, entitled The Other Challenge, speaks of the environment and therefore also speaks to human beings, according to Idrissa Diallo, who indicates that the artist is strongly inspired by his living environment and by his creation, and he must invite us to behave ethically towards the environment. The exhibition, made up of at least 60 canvases of different volumes and colors with some similarities, raises people’s awareness of the environment. And according to Daouda Ndiaye, one of the exhibitors, “the earth belongs to us and man has no right to destroy it”. Visual artist, specializing in art therapy and psychopedagogy, his works generally reflect a critical reflection on society. In his eyes, these are often metaphors that allude to societal behavior. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure d’Education Artistique (Ensea) in Dakar, Daouda Ndiaye’s productions are born from a look at the world. From his exhibition, he presented a series of paintings where he depicts human beings in the different positions that are in a kind of bulimia, consuming the wealth that nature offers. Right next to it, another installation that he calls Filet en air which, he says, is an incentive, an exhortation to a different position in relation to nature.
