Abdoulaye Konaté - Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logos

Idéogrammes, signes, symboles et logos (hommage à Youssouf Tata Cissé et Germaine Dieterlen) 
Abdoulaye Konaté
On view: February 12, 2020–January 12, 2021

This new, monumental work by renowned artist, Abdoulaye Konaté, is an appliqué tapestry that was conceived especially for the museum’s iconic four-storey-high atrium wall. The installation consists of numerous overlaid fabric strips of deep rouge and indigo, that were individually cut and hemmed by hand. The work explores semiotics rooted in West Africa and honours two iconic thinkers distinguished for their pivotal contribution to culture, ethnologist and Malian historian Youssouf Tata Cissé and Germaine Dieterlen, a French anthropologist.

Much of Konaté’s work has referenced motifs and apparel of Malian masquerades, foregrounding important African knowledge systems. Over the last forty-four years, his work has engaged with socio-political and environmental issues, including HIV/AIDS, freedom of expression, Islamic fundamentalism, and political satire.