Mamadou Cisse

Born in 1960 in Baghagha, Senegal. Self-taught, Mamadou Cissé arrived in France at the age of 18. There he exercises different trades while practicing drawing. From 2001, he took on the duties of security guard. This change brings another in his practice of drawing: he undertakes to represent urban sets seen from the sky. His nocturnal watches allow him to create neat kaleidoscopic sets, increasingly precise megalopolises, using pencil, ballpoint pen and felt-tip pen. These views bear witness to Mamadou Cissé's concern for wanting to “bring everyone to life” in large architectural projects imagined in a clever play of perspectives. This utopian artist-urban planner imagines architectural environments with colored walls to bring joy and gaiety to the inhabitants. It populates its cities with buildings with multiple windows, with skyscrapers along which slide highways and river ports. Our gaze must go beyond this abundance and penetrate the network of streets in order to understand the principles of town planning that govern the artist's work. A great traveler, his views of New York, Paris, Moscow, Cairo, London ... are all tributes to modern life that he has exhibited regularly since 2010.