Alioune Diagne's 'Saytu' at Galerie Templon Documents Vanishing Traditions

Senegalese artist Alioune Diagne presents 'Saytu' at Galerie Templon in Paris, a series of paintings born from two years of fieldwork in central and southeastern Senegal. The title, from Wolof, means research and preservation. Diagne visited isolated villages—Etiolo, Ibel, Iwol, Andjel, Madina Baffé—to observe minority communities: Bassari, Bédik, Dialonké, and Coniagui. He documented rituals, ceremonies, and transmission forms threatened by social and cultural change. Rather than documentary, his work offers a plastic translation through his 'unconscious signs' system—accumulations of pictorial modules akin to pointillism. From a distance, scenes are clear; up close, they fragment into autonomous signs. Masks, dances, songs, costumes, and ceremonies become vibrant surfaces blending abstraction and figuration. Works like 'La jeune fille bassari' are immediately legible, while 'Sous l'arbre sacré' and 'La foule qui danse' require closer attention. The exhibition reflects on memory and knowledge circulation in a globalized era. Diagne sees painting as both archive and transformation space. His interest in female rituals and their transmission appears in 'La première ligne' and 'Rythme Dialonké.' Influenced by his grandfather, a Quranic teacher, Diagne develops a visual language of universal signs. 'Saytu' runs until July 18, 2026. Diagne previously showed at the 2024 Venice Biennale.