Since the Métiers d’Art show at the former Palais de Justice in Dakar at the end of last year, Chanel has been continuing its work in Senegal, hosting a plethora of events in the capital city. Among these was an exhibition courtesy of Chanel’s artistic hub la Galerie du 19M. Entitled ’Sur le fil’, the exhibition opened in January and featured 38 different works across many disciplines including sculpture, painting, photography and fashion. 

Now, after three months, the exhibition is leaving Senegal behind and heading for Paris. From May until July, the exhibition will be hosted at the Le19M Paris/Aubervilliers building on the outskirts of the city. Following the same formula as the exhibition’s stint in Dakar, the Paris edition features the same 28 artists – 19 from Senegal and nine from France, South Africa and Mali. Alongside these artisans, Chanel has called in four of its resident artisans at le19M’s Maisons d’art and six different collectives creating a dynamic space highlighting some of West Africa’s burgeoning talent.

Among the 28 artists is Marie-Madeleine Diouf, a Dakar native and medical assistant-turned-fashion designer who specialises in using experimental practices, such as indigo dyeing, on traditional fabrics. Other artists include Khadija Ba Diallo, founder of the brand L’Artisane and of the boutique Le Sandaga, which aims to offer a modern take on the West African boubou, and Parisan-born artist and textile designer Johanna Bramble, who created a performative installation in collaboration with Fatim Soumaré. Elsewhere, Cheikha Sigil is a dynamic, self-taught artist and designer who works across sculpture and clothing with a particular focus on denim, and Alioune Diouf is a visual artist, lecturer, researcher, and art critic whose work ranges across multiple mediums.

Below we spoke to these five Senegalese artisans about their craft, passion for the arts and the future of Sengalese talent.

MARIE-MADELEINE DIOUF

Where do you look for inspiration? 

Marie-Madeleine Diouf: My source of inspiration is the experiences of the people and the women I collaborate with regarding natural dyeing in the villages of Senegal. Each of these villages has different and particular approaches as they all have different and authentic natural raw materials.

This is Chanel’s first project in Africa, what makes you most passionate about the Senegalese art scene today?

Diouf: What fascinates me on the Senegalese creative scene is the diversity and authenticity of their creations.

What advice do you have for people who want to follow a creative path similar to yours?

Diouf: What I advise people who want to follow a creative path is to be authentic and to live of their passion and love for their profession.

What are your hopes for the future, both for you and for future generations of artists in Senegal and across the African continent?

Diouf: There is great hope for the future of the younger generations! I think they have a lot of audacity and motivation.

ALIOUNE DIOUF

Do you remember your first piece?

Alioune Diouf: I started doing my art when I was still doing carpentry, there were new artistic mediums that were starting to come out. But I do remember my first sculpture, it was a collection of lost and found objects that had animal heads and wore my clothes. I hung it from a tamarind tree. There is even a woman who entered the courtyard and thought the sculpture was me. I painted a lot on the walls too.

Could you talk a little bit about your creative process?

Diouf: Wow, this will be messy. In my creative process, I aim to bring alive our love, our heart, and our whole body to create with what we have. All materials are good to express: it is to be open with materials, to use what surrounds us. A grain of sand can do many things! Even the atoms that we don’t see, that don’t live in the eye, exist and are part of the process. For the process to exist, one must make his love live in matter.

What advice do you have for people who want to follow a creative path similar to yours?

Diouf: Never stop and try to improve yourself to live your art better. Because we must not forget that there is life too. When you have everything you want, you do different things than when you don’t have much. When one never suffers, one does not know what can be in suffering. You have to suffer to understand what you need and what your goals are. And it’s when you don’t have what you want, that you can go and find it in art. We are capable of being another world to ourselves within that world. 

What are your hopes for the future, both for you and for future generations of artists here in Senegal and across the African continent?

Diouf: My hope for the future does not end in Africa. It is the future of this world that matters, that must work together to improve the lives of all. Instead of taking us into a world of borders, madness, wars… Art in reality has no borders: we do not stop at the border of Africa for art. “Revolutionize art and let everyone continue to carry out their mission”.

CHEIKHA SIGIL

When did you decide to pursue a career in the arts?

Cheika Sigil: I think I’ve always been in the arts. I was born in Espace Medina, a place of Dakar culture where art, crafts and religion coexist. I started sewing at the age of 15 but I had my first professional sewing machine from my grandmother, who understood that I was not made for school at the age of 17.  At the time, there was a real passion for brands, and the workshops focused on making very beautiful copies, especially of Levis jeans. And I could sew pockets like no other! 

Surrounded by many artists, rappers, rollers, dancers, musicians and others, I quickly understood that I could artistically draw them an identity, an image that fit with their imagination. It was part of my taste for collaborations, working together and drawing together, which produced great projects. It is in this line that I continued to work.

Could you talk a little bit about your creative process?

Cheika Sigil: I continue my artistic path in a transversal way because I am convinced that this is my way today. I look towards film, music, digital arts, and visual arts. Artistic direction sometimes leads me to be an “artist” for the projects I serve, so to speak. My own reflections, linked to my personal creative challenges, are realized like this. I am also very interested in getting out of my natural environment. I like to ’take out’ my pieces in workshops that do not work with textiles, and imagine what can come out of them.

Where do you look to for inspiration?

Sigil: Life inspires me, but I am particularly interested in the social mechanisms that exist in my country, the aesthetics and imaginations that emerge from our history, but also the traditional cosmogonies that our societies inherit. They are, for me, not to put in opposition, but rather to reflect together, in order to draw the paths that are open to us for tomorrow.

JOHANNA BRAMBLE 

Could you talk a little bit about your creative process?

Johanna Bramble: I don’t have a creative process per se. Like the installation I proposed for le19M Dakar, weaving is a real language for me, both universal and singular. I speak through it. It can be improvisation or planning and it is an ongoing dialogue between materials, know-how, and gesture. 

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

Bramble: My inspiration comes from observing the elements, from my environment, I am a great observer, from a bird’s feather to a conversation, my sensitivity can unfold without limits.

This is Chanel’s first project in Africa, what makes you most passionate about the Senegalese art scene today?

Bramble: What fascinates me the most and what has always fascinated me is this paradox: this infinite potential, this idea that everything is possible and at the same time this lack of confidence to vibrate with authenticity.

What advice do you have for people who want to follow a creative path similar to yours?

Bramble: I would tell them that they must feel free, accept outward looks with humility and determination, I would also tell them that we are our own limits, so be mindful of the limits you impose on yourselves, because overcoming these limitations is sometimes the key to finding your own way.

KHADIJA BA 

Could you talk a little bit about your creative process?

Khadija Ba: It is very spontaneous. I notice that I create a lot of accessories based on current events of daily life. I have a ring that I recently created with a candlestick that my mother broke and I’m thinking maybe I wouldn’t have created it if this incident hadn’t happened. 

I draw a lot of inspiration from the street, from the colours of nature to the colours of birds. I used them to associate certain colours with embroideries. I divert a lot of everyday objects that are mundane and give them value.

Where do you look to for inspiration?

Ba: Many things such as The Dakar of the 60s and 70s (the lively art scene: photography, cinema, music, icons, lifestyle of this period); my grandfather and grandmother’s dressing room; the architecture of the old districts of Dakar; effortless street style: the style of Senegalese that we meet in the markets without much thought but that gives a sparkling and unique look and the art of recycling. 

What are your hopes for the future, both for you and for future generations of artists here in Senegal and across the African continent?

Ba: To show the world the capacities and riches of the African continent. May artisans and artists be recognized for their worth and that let it be known we are more united between us and independent. For example, by having factories to produce equitably, we would have an impact on the economy of the African continent. I want us to collaborate with the world. As a Senegalese proverb says: “Niari Nite seddo bene nak, mo gueune kou nek dem ak sa bëy” (It is better to share a cow than for an individual to go with their goat). To collaborate is to share, to love, to transcend, to discover.

The exhibition opens today until July 30.