My personal style signifier is a discreet elegance. I am interested in philosophy and clothing knowledge as well as color, sculpture and material. The nobility of the material is particularly important for me – I do not wear viscose, nylon or something like that. The design must be generative visually and aesthetic, with a connection to the place where the element has been made. Clothes should say something.
The last thing I bought and loved Was a pair of jeans of my dear brother, Lamine Badian Kouyaté, founder of the XULY Label, which is one of my fashion gods. I call it a fashion suicide bomber because it is without being there. He is Malian-Senegalese, lives and worked in Paris and went fashionable after training as an architect. It makes clothes that adapt to the body of black women in a space that is somewhere between streetwear and high -end fashion. This pair of jeans is, like the fifth iteration of a style that he has been doing for over 20 years. They are very wide and dark and hip-hop, and when you reduce them, you can see the XULY Bët logo in red. They are so flamboyant.
The place that means a lot to me is Dakar, Senegal – My everything. This is where I reached age professionally, where I really became a curator and exhibition manufacturer. Dakar made me who I am today. There is a natural elegance for Senegalese culture and people. Of course, there is a material clothing element, but I speak of the elegance of the mind and the mind. Senegal has this extremely welcoming ancestral pacifist culture. I'm in the course now but, mentally, I live in Dakar. It is the one and only place for me.
I never buy memories. It's cheesy, it's sticky, it's stupid. What I bring home is my experience with people, who is emotional, intellectual and spiritual.
The best book I have read in the past year is a book on African philosophies, Researchers' ink: reflections on philosophy in AfricaBy Souleymane Bachir Diagnie, one of our brightest thinkers. He questions the idea that there is no philosophical framework for African societies. There are ideas that Africans are the great architects of hospitality and the diagnosis reflects on the African approach to humanity. What does it mean to be careful, attentive and attentive? It is not only a question of welcoming people to your home or feeding them. Hospitality transports people, puts people at ease in your environment – it is intellectual and emotional. Everyone should read the diagnosis, a complete stop.
I don't listen to podcasts – I prefer radio, which is less built.
My style icons are my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother has passed and my mother is aging, so she doesn't spend as much time on style, but I learned the elegance of them. Women of this generation would make clothes for themselves and their children. My grandmother was very, very traditional. What I liked in their style is that everything was effortless, what many people tell me about my own style. I don't really pay attention to what I wear most of the time. I wake up in the morning, I'm in a mood and I choose something. Nothing is planned. It's like the kitchen – the kitchen of the pantry!
The best gift I give Is chocolate, generally Cameroonian or Swiss. I also give a lot of clothes. The best plan is to hang out with me while I am absent. I will never really shop, but sometimes when I have a moment between meetings and I am in a place where some of my favorite creators are, I will find a moment to visit somewhere. Whoever is with me will always have something too.
And the best gift I received is the loyalty and love of my friends – artists Otobong inactivate And Julie Mehretuamong others. Their support and belief in my work and my vision. . . This is the best gift I can have.
My favorite building is water building in Dakar. I love traditional African architecture, but this building has a mystery behind its origins. During the longest, it would have been built by Le Corbusier, but it was never proven. And I like where it is. When you come to the city center, this is the first building you see.The last music I downloaded was Massive Attack's first album, Blue lines. I have listened to it for three weeks and I don't know why. I haven't listened to it for years, but I’m completely coming back at this time of massive Bristol attack.
I have a collection shoes, but you can't call it a collection. I would call it an obsession. They understand Wudé studio,, Marni,, Prada,, Nike And Stefi.
The best way to spend £ 20 – About 500 South African Rands – is on two whiskey mice in Between us at the CAP.
I recently discovered I have a problem with the concept of discovery – the term is misleading. When we say that we have discovered something, what we mean is that it is the first time that we are personally exposed. But you are not the first person to interact with this thing. There are many conservatives and creatives who say: “I discovered this, I discovered it.” It is super advantageous to think that you discovered anything in the 21st century.
In my refrigerator, you always find ginger juice, butter, chili paste and champagne – I like Ruinart Or The LUDEA natural sparkling wine. Beside the water, champagne is the only thing you can drink at any time of the day, from breakfast to dinner.
I couldn't do without My glasses. I wear a pair by Field field.
An indulgence that I would never give up is good food! All the big African dishes – I love them to death. And, of course, Japanese cuisine. Delicious food does not need to be super-elaborated; I love comforting food like Callaloo Jamaican or a good Brazilian Feijoada. I'm kidding that you can always corrupt me with food, especially Gombo soup. I have a group of friends and we call ourselves “okrapolitans”; I am the high priestess of the Gombo church.
My beauty guru is Hattie Makelele, who has been fidgeting my cornrows and my hair has been headed for Cape Town since 2019. I like super traditional braiding. I am interested in everyday people who are good in their job.
I believe In life after death because I come from an ancestral black education where we believe in parallel life and realities. There is neither “after death”, “before death” or “during life”. It doesn't matter as much. I believe in energies – living or dead – and cosmic strength.
The basic food that I am never without is pure shea butter that we buy on the market for $ 2. It is the best, especially for black skin.
My favorite room in my house is my room, which is both a refuge and a workplace. I work a lot from the bed. I wake up quite early – about five, five and a half hours – and it is between this date and eight that my best ideas meet. I bring my thoughts together, I take notes and write emails. As I get up, I have already worked for two or three hours.
The artist who has changed everything for me was the Senegalese concept artist Issa Samb. I have always understood art as an objective, a merchant materiality. With Issa, I entered this sphere of understanding art as a philosophy of life, as something that can be intangible. This led me to my current position where I see it as an extension of life.
On my Instagram page “for you” You will find a lot of art and design. I read very critical magazines – The Atlantic,, THE Brooklyn rail,, Africa is a country,, The diplomatic world – So it all appears. And also styles of braiding such as Cornrow.
In another life, I would have been a midwife. I almost trained at some point, but I entered art. I am thinking of warning like another form of midwife, insofar as you allow the work to be born.
My favorite application Maybe Google Maps is. It changed my life. Above all, I am an silly it; An analog survivor in the digital world.
When I need to feel inspired, I'm going to sleep. For ages, I have felt that sleep has been a waste of time. I would boast: “Oh, I don't need more than three or four hours.” Then, I became smarter and I understood that the accumulation of fatigue has incredible repercussions on your life, on your body, on many things.
The best advice I have ever received must have been aware of the dead angles. Nobody never really knows each other. You are never what you think you are. Since I became executive director and chief curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art AfricaWhere I run more than 70 people, I had to depend on the mirror of others to see myself completely. By increasing your self -awareness and becoming more aware of the fact that there are things you cannot see, you become more alert on things in you and the people around you.
