Sidy Diallo will showcase his first solo exhibition Points et Itinéraires at the BRUNDYN Gallery. Points et Itinéraires meaning Points and Itineraries in English, alludes to movements to different parts of the world, continent, country or landscape and the activities that one engages in when in those spaces. The exhibition is an extension of key ideas that Diallo has explored in the past couple of years.

Among these are his fascination with the future of Africa and how it has been impacted on by global politics and economics. At the heart of this is his concern for the “African brain drain”, a phenomenon that sees numerous Africans migrating to Europe and America for education purposes and unfortunately never returning. Diallo perceives this as a loss for the continent, one that obviously requires the skills attained by these graduates that could potentially aid in the economic development of the continent. This insistence on returning to home is not a means used to prescribe and restrict the livelihoods of African scholars, but is rather a call to diversify the knowledge and skills found on the continent. The artist acknowledges the importance and inevitability of migration, which in his work manifests as a reference to the Fulani herdsmen who roam the landscapes of mainly West and North Africa, seldom settling in a fixed space. The Fulani’s nomad characteristic becomes a metaphor for migration and transnationalism that is essential in reconfiguring the borders and restrictions of the nation-state. Diallo also refers to their non-capitalistic mode of trade that mainly relies on prehistoric bartering systems.

With this in mind, Diallo acknowledges the danger in some migratory activity. Going as far back as the Atlantic Slave Trade, we notice a discrepancy with the (involuntary) movement, exploitation and restriction of people, mainly people of colour. Centuries after the Slave Trade, there is still a systematic neo-colonial forced migration, one that is primarily economic and still based on capitalist ambitions. This manifests in the one-sided marvel that is globalisation. Through his work, Diallo challenges the insistence of globalisation to further oppress and in most cases exploit areas of the so-called global south. He portrays this through his points and lines motif and technique that is indicative of movement and free flow of ideas and resources and the challenge thereof.

Sidy Diallo (b. 1986) was born in Tambacounda, Senegal. Diallo completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National School of Arts, Dakar, Senegal (2013). He has participated in a few group exhibitions, mainly at Gallery ATISS in Dakar. These include Partcours (2013) and Fesman: Technical Lithography (2010). Diallo was selected as one of the participants of Produire le Commun (Producing the Common), the main exhibition at the 2014 Dak’Art Biennale where he was awarded the International Organization of La Francophonie prize. Diallo’s first exhibition Points et Itinéraires, will be held at Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town (2014).

www.brundyn.com/exhibitions/