Mabeye Deme - Gudi Dakar

MABeye Deme
Born in 1979 in Tokyo. Lives and works between France and Senegal. The daily life of Dakar is magnified, transcended by the photographer’s lens, who, placed behind his tent’s canvas, manages to capture intimate moments of its inhabitants.
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Unlike the painter who imprints his motif onto the canvas, the photographer veils the lens to better unveil his subject. Clean canvas, blurred figure. Mabeye Deme uses the sensitive texture of the veil as a medium, like the developer of film or the pixels of digital imagery.
The tents in which he works are ephemeral constructions in the popular neighborhoods that host ceremonies and meetings of every kind. Wear marks tell of time passing, ruptures and the exile’s distance from a city that continually eludes its present.
Invited to a residency at the Blachère Foundation for African Contemporary Art in Apt, France, in 2013, his work was then shown at the Dak'Art Off Biennial in Senegal in 2014 and at UNESCO in Paris in 2016. He has also been exhibited in Marseille, Auxerre, Lyon and Grenoble.