Omar Ba: “I read “Kaïdara” pen in hand and I was inhabited by this initiatory tale”

Published on December 21, 2024 at 2:17 p.m. / Modified on December 21, 2024 at 3:49 p.m.

4 mins. reading

“It was gray” perfectly sums up the climate of that Wednesday. Geneva, Praille district, December: gray sky, cold, gray hangars of all kinds and road interchanges. Getting off the bus, head on shoulders, we fortunately know that the light will soon appear and the colors with it. A radiant turquoise blue. A beef red. A whole palette of ochres. A little lost, we look for the studio of the painter Omar Ba. “Call me when you arrive, I will come and open the door for you,” warned us the artist who since 2003 has been building his work between Dakar where he was born and Geneva where he trained at HEAD, in a movement of permanent pendulum, between immersion and distance, detail and wide shot.

The purpose of the visit is a coffee-table book from the luxury Diane de Selliers editions, a house which only publishes one book per year to refine the marriage between text and painting to the extreme. After the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the paintings of the American modernist period last year, here Kaïdaraa Fulani initiatory tale in the translation and revisitation of the Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1901-1991).

Follow the news with us and support demanding and independent journalism

→ LAST DAYS! For the end-of-year holidays, take advantage of -25% on your annual subscription ????

Quality information just a click away. Offer valid until December 25, 2024.

I subscribe

Already have an account?
Log in