Contemporary African artists
from Burkina Faso and Senegal

Soly Cissé

The theme of CISSE's paintings is repeatedly the duality between tradition and modernity As an example, he uses arrows to separate Good from Evil, in vertical and horizontal lines to picture life
and death and also to contrast colors.They show an extrem fury of the individuum towards a world
left to its own.
Cissé shows the individuum which has dropped his ethnic identity and is now entangled in his
self made restrictions .This impersonality reflects also in the play with silhouetts, profiles and
shades, all of which have their roots in the aesthetic tradition of Africa. However, in his pictures
 these plays have lost their original meaning.The pictures show the isolated human , left alone to himself as a shadow of his true being.
Soly Cissé sees the growing danger of selfdestruction by increasing dissolution of moral thresholds, but he does not intent to advise.Cissé sees himself as a person of his epoch who tries to reach
people's conscience to show the grief and the misery of the society . His aim is to train people's
understanding what he lives for , what he suffers and not least, to remind him of his freedom which
has to be defended with all might.
"Lines guide me when I paint" -A request to the spectator don't only explore the spacing inbetween.




Biography
Was born 1969 in Dakar, Senegal. He lives and works in Dakar.

• 1995    Workshop photography and exhibition at the centre culturel français de Dakar, organized by Kodak, Dakar (Senegal)
  Education as a scene-painter in Dakar (Senegal)
• 1996    Diploma at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-arts de Dakar.
  Training-colleges in photography at the Ecole de recherche Graphique (Belgium)

     
Participation in Exhibitions

• 1997    Jeux de la francophonie de Madagascar, Antananarivo (Madagascar)
• 1998    Galerie ATISS during the Biennale DAK'ART 98, Dakar (Senegal)
  "Ouaga - garages" Workshop and exhibition of photography at the Centre Culturel Français de Dakar (Senegal)
  Biennale de Sao Paulo, " Roteiros, Roteiros, Roteiros", Sao Paulo (Brazil)
  Agency Mc Cann-Erickson, Paris (France)
• 1999    Tanzhaus nrw die werkstatt, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2000    Biennale de Dakar, Crypte de la Cathedrale, Dakar (Senegal)
  Guarene ARTE 2000, Fondazione Re Rebaudengo (Italy)
  Biennale de Havane, Cuba
• 2001    Prix de la francophonie in Montreal, (Canada)
• 2002    "Multicultural 2002", La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)
  Biennale DAK'ART, Dakar (Senegal)
  KuBa Kunsthalle, Wolfenbüttel (Germany)
• 2003    Orangerie, Grugapark Essen (Germany)
  Viterra Energy Services GmbH & Co. KG, Münster (Germany)
  Plasticiens en mouvement, De Markten, Brussells (Belgium)
  Exhibition L'Europe fantôme, Espace Vertebra, Brussells (Belgium)
• 2004    ARCO 2004, Madrid / Spain
  "Animismes" Galerie DA Vinci, Nice / France

     
Individual Exhibitions

• 1997    Centre Culturel Français, Dakar, (Senegal)
  Galerie ATISS, Dakar (Senegal)
• 1999    Exhibition at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne (Germany)
• 2001    Galerie ATISS, Dakar (Senegal)
• 2002    Exhibition MAM - Douala (Cameroon)
  Galery ARTEFACT, Point E Dakar (Senegal)
  Galery ATISS, Dakar (Senegal)