Cameroon: The artist who wants to heal the world with pictosculpture

In Cameroon, the visual artist Jean Michel Dissakè wants to use his art to heal the world of the crises that affect it. The artist develops an aesthetic form that he has named Moudiki.

Moudiki means the vine. It is the symbol of the electrocardiogram, it is the symbol of life and it is the symbol of love, explains the artist; as an element of creation we decided to use the license plate because the whole existence of man is punctuated and regulated by the numbers, he adds.

In his laboratory located in the 4th district of the city of Yaoundé, we cut and sew to unite or to gather. Jean Michel Dissakè and his collaborators combine materials of various kinds and give them a second life in the form of a work of art

It is a part of materials that we are going to assemble on the big work that is outside, explains one of his collaborators occupied with weaving

The large work is a gigantic canvas that needs several arms to be deployed. A work that Jean Michel Dissakè finds already very beautiful, not only on the form, but also for the message it carries.

It is Dibala, Dibala to speak of the sacred house. Through this work Dibala, I invite all the peoples of humanity to sit down on a table and try to see how we can try to give back to the human being his soul, says Jean Michel Dissakè.

In this laboratory, which at first glance does not pay for mines, works are produced that are exhibited in galleries in the country and even beyond its borders

In the CIPCA gallery, for example, the work of the artist is exposed to the expert eye of Fabiola Ecot Ayissi, curator and president of the International Center for Cultural and Artistic Heritage.

What interests me in this work of assembly is the association that he makes between his reference points of the traditional Sawa culture and this artistic practice very anchored in the daily life, in the triviality, the collection of waste, of elements that have been abandoned by the city dwellers; affirms the expert in art.

The world has discovered this self-taught promoter of pictosculpture, which he defines as the point of intersection between different forms of plastic art. In his home, which looks like a small museum, he is currently preparing an exhibition scheduled for February 2023 at the French Institute of Cameroon, Yaoundé branch.