Frédéric Bruly Bouabré

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (* 1923 in Zéprégüé, Ivory Coast, † January 28, 2014 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast ) was an Ivorian poet and painter who lived in Abidjan.

Life and work

To the world came Frédéric Bruly Bouabré 1923 in Zéprégüé in the then Federation of French West Africa, Ivory Coast today. He belonged to the Bété, the third largest tribe in the country, and was educated in a Catholic school. He is best known as the author of numerous poems, as narrator and as a graphic artist. It dealt mainly with the issues of language and identity. Bouabré as an artist was self-taught and worked in the Navy, the railroad and as a clerk.

"I was first officer of the French colonial power, later the Ivory Coast. I took care of the identity cards. With independence, we got like all African nations a president, the late lamented Félix Houphouët -Boigny. He was very friendly art, and the dancers and singers often appeared before him. I asked myself: Are dance and music have all the art? Can Like I said, I think, can speak is art, art is seen, can swim is art. Art is something universal that lives in every human being. In school, I had learned to draw, and so countless drawings, with which I tried to circle that emerged. I have hung these drawings, and the president has the Accrochage then also be visited. "

On March 11, 1948 Bouabré had a religious vision that led him from now on to work for decades in various cycles of works who want to depict the world in a large, interconnected in all areas of work. Based on this experience Bouabré got the nickname Cheik Nadro which means: The one who does not forget.

Among the various cycles of works, where Bouabré worked for decades included:

• Knowledge of the world
• Museum of African Faces
• Antique Art Africain, a cosmogony, the Sun and Earth are at the beginning

A graphical alphabet of his native language Bété in syllabary he created, not only to leave the culture of his tribe to the oral tradition, but to verschriftlichen them and thus to snatch from oblivion. The cultural identity of Black Africa in the present is dependent on the written tradition. The African explorer Théodore Monod ( 1902-2000 ) published the Bété font for the first time in 1958.

On the relationship between Scripture and oral tradition, the artist commented:

" I look only rarely on TV. Africa lived until a few decades ago almost no writing. They spoke on the stage of " orality " of the oral tradition. The priority and position of power in Europe towards Africa was based on Scripture. Writing is thinking. That's why I'm interested in the font so much. When I look on TV, I think: That's orality! A new culture of orality in the middle of Europe - like in Africa before literacy by the Europeans! "

With colored pencil and ballpoint pen on small boxes, about postcard- size ( 15x9, 5 cm ), he drew a kind of daily pictograms and knew each drawing with a French, symbolic framing. On the back, the images are always provided with the day, sometimes the hour of events.

" Suppose I draw a mythical person with a large belly. If I do that, I must also supply the caption, so the person in the story or the story has a big belly and so on. You have to explain pictures. Because a picture can mean all sorts of things, but when it comes to thinking beyond also, you have to show it. The thinking is as important as the images, such as the pleasure for the eyes. "

For some time the work Bouabrés were read and appreciated by a wider European audience.

" The art historian Olu Oguibe says Bouabrés works today are not appreciated in the West because of the sophistication that Okwui Enwezor has rightly recognized in them, but rather because he works outside the parameters of conventional Western criteria and therefore unintentionally doubtful, perverted desires and expectations wake. Formally, they are beyond the standards of the West; they symbolize the desired distance between the West and Africa, and they satisfy the desire for fantasies, fetishes and shamanism. "

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2013 55.Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, Italy
• 2009 Apartment 22, Rabat, Morocco
• 2002 Documenta 11, Documenta, Kassel
• 2007 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
• 1999 Art Worlds at Museum Ludwig dialogue, Cologne
• 1997 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
• 1996 23.Biennale of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
• 1996 10.Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
• 1995 46.Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, Italy
• 1993 Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen
• 1993 Portico, Frankfurt am Main
• 1991 Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
• 1989 Magicians de la Terre Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Film

• Nadro, France 1997, 85 min, directed by Ivana Massetti, Cast: Frédéric Bruly Bouabré