“It is said that Egypt is a gift of the Nile and Saint-Louis is a gift of the river,” writes Nyaba Léon Ouédraogo. Whoever says river says imagination, and whoever says imagination says myth. Any visitor to St. Louis needs a gourd with cream cheese for Mame Coumba Bang, the river goddess. »
When he arrived in Saint-Louis to stay at an artists' residence, at the invitation of the collector Philippe Malfait, the Burkinabé photographer known for his series on copper (Copper Hell) and on the Congo River (The Ghosts of the Congo River) I had no specific plans. However, his more recent work, as well as his research surrounding the traditional mask (Visible from invisible) pushed him towards a difficult question for a photographer: how to portray the immaterial?
Invisible but everywhere
A question that forms the basis of the exhibition-sale “Mame Coumba Bang” organized by the Christophe Person gallery, in Paris, curated by art historian Marie Moignard, until July 29th. “When I arrived in Saint-Louis, I had read writings about Mame Coumba Bang and I said: 'I want to know who Mame Coumba Bang is, to say Nyaba Léon Ouédraogo. I wanted to understand for myself the power of imagination, the power of Mame Coumba Bang. But when I told people I came to get her, they laughed. »
Mame Coumba Bang is a spirit embodied by all inhabitants of Saint-Louisians
However, whether in the Guet Ndar district or at the mouth of the river, with the fishermen or with their wives and children, the illusion is very present. Offerings are made to him: chickens, pieces of meat, rice, curdled milk. Invisible, it is everywhere.
Helped by Samba, a fisherman and son of a fisherman who had tried to reach Spain several times, Ouédraogo explored the city and its surroundings with a bag of questions, and without a camera. “I started taking photographs from the moment I met a Muslim theologian who laughed and told me: 'Mame Coumba Bang is in each of us Saint-Louisians. It is a spirit embodied by all the inhabitants.” »
Mystical abstraction
Away from documentaries, the photographer ventured into a sensitive approach where, according to Marie Moignard, “reality tends to be diluted in a dreamlike vision”. By chance or reminiscence, the photographer made blue the color of his dreams, although the Spanish painter Joan Miró created, in 1925, a painting-poem in which we could read these words “Photo. This is the color of my dreams”, he adds with a touch of blue paint.
I've been looking for this blue since 2011, between dreams, fear, anguish, beauty and poetry
When leading us in search of Mame Coumba Bang, the artist immerses us in a dense blue obtained by the magic of digital technology, thanks to alchemical post-production work. “Since 2011, I’ve been looking for that blue, between dreams, fear, anguish, beauty, poetry”, he says. Between coldness and dreams. » Very elaborate, the images in the series gradually move towards abstraction and gradually bring the viewer closer to this representation, of what it is or what it could be.
“The blue variation gradually evolves and is enhanced with other colors”, emphasizes Marie Moignard. Particularly orange-red, color additional blue, which may represent the world of the living. We can think of Western artists Joan Miró and Yves Klein – even though Nyaba Ouédraogo more easily cites Picasso's blue period.
Ritual and territory, 2022. An inkjet print with barite artistic pigment. © Nyaba Léon Ouédraogo/Courtesy Galerie Christophe Person
The power of imagination
But that's not the main thing: what the photographer proposes is a rupture. If his series on copper and granite breakers confronted the artist with hard and realistic materials, his recent evolution focuses on water – this fluid of life that is everywhere even when we cannot see it. “I realize that a large part of my subjects revolve around water, with which I have a mystical relationship. Men have always approached this because they are convinced that spirits come from water. This is something that intrigues me. »
How, then, can we transform photography into a surface that, like water, reveals its depths? “I have already started this approach to the invisible with The Ghosts of the Congo River. As photography evolved, look for the boundary between this practice and painting. What interests me is what I'm looking for in my imagination. »
Blur effects, dilutions, reflections, overlays. His gallerist Christophe Person, who is also his accomplice in organizing the Ouagadougou International Sculpture Biennial (Biso), does not hesitate to talk about abstraction: “I want to create a program that allows artists to express themselves with their courage. I am very sensitive to what is abstract and helps stimulate the imagination. » Léon Nyaba Ouédraogo specifies: “It is a poetic abstract based on imagination. If the photo was just flat shapes and lights, I wouldn't be interested. »
His next project could take him home to Burkina Faso to work on Bazoulé's sacred crocodiles. “To believe or not to believe, we must perpetuate tradition,” he writes. Furthermore, hasn't the spirit of Mame Coumba Bang been roaming the banks of the Seine these last few days?
Mame Coumba Bang, by Nyaba Léon Ouédraogo, Christophe Person gallery, 39 rue des Blancs Manteaux, Paris. Works in 70×100 (2 Cups) and 70×50 (4 Cups) between 5,000 and 8,000 euros.
To see soon at the Museum of Photography (Mupho) in Saint Louis.
