Ouattara Watts, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech

When: February 24th-25th, 2018
Where? : La Mamounia, Marrakech

Info :
Bio Ouattara Watts (pdf)
Press

www.1-54.com
www.ouattarawatts.com

B O N P I E D | B O N Œ I L
Hale and hearty
(literally, good foot, good eye)

Farmyard banter:
Bon pied bon œil as we say! Strong posture and sharp eyesight! Now, that’s good health! (the rooster)
Or maybe vigilance instead? (the duck)
Vigilance against what? (the rooster)
Against the evil eye, for god’s sake! (the hen)
But the eye is not evil, even though, through it everything we see is relative and not necessarily true (the guinea fowl)
You are all wrong, it is the foot that matters, strongly rooted to the ground (the marabou)

The eye, symbol of knowledge, desire and power, watches and sometimes judges. For some, the eye is hostile and harmful. In ancient Egypt, Horus eye, oudjat, offered protection against the evil eye. An amulet, a hideous mask, a talisman, a red thread, a fig, the khamsa… all offer protection against the evil eye. But the eye is also multiple, Mata Hari, the eye of the world, the eye of the heart, the third eye, the eye of the soul, a wink… the eye is for seeing although maybe, like for Tiresias, only blindness allow us to really see. More important, eyes must remain wide open to capture the beauty and the treasures of the world.

And the foot, firmly planted on the ground in order to stand upright. The footprint of Buddha teaches that the foot contains the entire body. The foot does not lie; it is the absolute truth. The representation of the vestigium pedis runs through Watt’s work. It is the origin of conscience, the flourish of inspiration, the source of life. You have to be barefoot to walk on sacred ground, to feel more rooted to the ground, to be part of the whole. Doesn’t having both feet on the ground avoid disillusion?

What if art could reconcile heaven and earth, reality and dreams? Feet grounded and eyes looking to the stars? My foot, says the sceptical. That’s wicked, responds the artist!

Sitor Senghor, February 2018

Ouattara Watts, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Marrakech

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