Eléphant, 2025

Salfo Dermé (Yabré)  

Salfo Dermé (Yabré) is an artist from Burkina Faso, born in 1974 in Ouagadougou.

He comes from a family of art casters, who have been working in this field for five generations, Salfo Dermé « Yabré », the name of his grand father, also a brass caster), and has been creating his sculptures since the age of 18 and pours lost wax on them in his studio in Koudougou. He lives and works in Africa, where he manages a team of 5 employees, to whom he passes on his know-how.

Since 2002, he has been traveling in Europe (mainly France and Belgium) to supervise introductory courses, where all the steps, from wax to bronze, not to mention molding and furnace manufacturing are addressed.

In Africa, lost wax bronze is a thousand years old know-how, which is passed on from one generation to another. However, one has hardly been able to achieve the same mastery as Salfo Dermé, and his experience allows him to make gigantic sculptures today, of which the largest can reach 3.60 m and 600 kg.

Salfo Dermé also created an association, Nerketia to promote emergence and artistic exchanges in Burkina Faso. He donates a part of the profits to schools and health programs in Burkina.