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In memory of the great Ivorian artist, UiU shows a selection of photos of his wonderful drawings in exhibitions that we have featured since 2001.
Feb 2014On 28 January 2014 passed away in Abidjan the artist, thinker, poet, and creator of cosmologies, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré.
Born in 1923 in Zéprégüuhé, Ivory coast, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré is famous for his astonishing drawings in postcard format, using a ballpoint pen and colour crayons. Since the 1970s he has creatred hundreds of them.
His best-known series "Connaissance du Monde" (Knowledge of the World), an encyclopedia of universal knowledge and experience, and "Alphabet Bété," an alphabet of 448 pictograms of phonetic syllables, to preserve and transmit the knowledge of the Bété people, were exhibited in 2013 at the 55th Venice Biennale's main show "The Encyclopedic Palace", curated by Massimiliano Gioni. Further works of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré were also part of the Pavilion of Ivory Coast in Venice.
In his own words: "Now that we are recognized as artists, our duty is to organize into a society, and in such a way to create a framework for discussion and exchange among those who acquire and those who create. From that could arise a felicitous world civilisation." [1]
>> A selections of photos of his works
Universes in Universe has admired and followed Frédéric Bruly Bouabré's work since many years, and featured it as part of the following exhibitions:
The Short Century
Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 - 1994. African Art and History. Exhibition in Munich, Berlin, Chicago, New York, 2001 - 2002. Curator: Okwui Enwezor.
Documenta 11, 2002
8 June - 15 September 2002, Kassel, Germany. Artistic Director: Okwui Enwezor.
Africa Remix
Exhibition of African art in Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Tokyo, Johannesburg, 2004 - 2007. Artistic direction: Simon Njami.
Biennale Bénin 2012
8 November 2012 - 13 January 2013, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, Ouidah, Abomey, in Benin. Artistic direction: Abdellah Karroum.
55th Venice Biennale 2013
The Encyclopedic Palace. Central exhibition in the Arsenale. Artistic director: Massimiliano Gioni.
Venice Biennale 2013: Ivory Coast
Pavilion of Ivory Coast. Spiazzi, Castello, Venice. Curator: Yacouba Konaté.
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré passed away
on 28 January 2014 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast