In a statement given during the 19th Festival, the Malian artist contextualizes his three large panels featured in the Southern Panoramas | Guest Artists show, in relation to his body of work and artistic concerns. According to Konaté, the primary goal of his production is to express a personal stance on problems relating to life in society, from the perspective of his own generation and his trademark sensibility. He also comments on his use of fabric, highlighting the similarities between techniques used on textiles and in oil painting. He recounts his visit to Brazil, at the invitation of Associação Cultural Videobrasil, whose outcome was the panels shown in the exhibit, and points out two broad lines of investigation: the first is the actual aesthetic aspects of the sensory pleasure that artworks afford; the second is the suffering caused by social conflicts, and the contradictory realization that the human condition is inclined to both beauty and violence.
- More about Abdoulaye Konaté in Collection