In Cameroon, visual artist Jean Michel Dissakè wishes to use his art to heal the world of its crises. The artist creates an aesthetic form he calls Moudiki.
Moudiki is Greek for vine. It is the symbol of the electrocardiogram, of life, and of love, explains the artist; as an element of creation, we decided to use the license plate because man’s entire existence is punctuated and regulated by numbers, he adds.
We cut and sew to unite or gather in his laboratory, located in Yaoundé’s 4th district. Jean Michel Dissakè and his collaborators combine various materials and give them a second life as a work of art.
It is a component of the materials that will be assembled on the large outside work, explains one of his weaving collaborators.
The large work is a massive canvas that necessitates the use of several arms. A work that Jean Michel Dissakè finds very beautiful, not only in terms of form, but also in terms of the message it conveys.
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.
Works are created in this laboratory, which does not appear to pay for mines at first glance, and are displayed in galleries throughout the country and even beyond its borders.
For example, in the CIPCA gallery, the artist’s work is scrutinized by 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 connection he draws between his references to traditional Sawa culture and this artistic practice deeply rooted in daily life, in the triviality, the collection of waste, of elements abandoned by city dwellers; affirms the art expert.
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.