Environnement 2.0

An exhibition by Momar Seck as part of Art for Social Impact 2020

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition
Exhibition: 1^st September - 2^nd October 2020

Momar Seck is an award-winning visual artist, painter and sculptor, who, among the many awards he has received, was the recipient of the UNESCO Award for Promotional Visual Art in 2004. Hailing from Senegal, he trained at the National School of Arts in Dakar (1994) before pursuing a fellowship with the Swiss Federal Office for Culture (1996). He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure d’Education Artistique in Dakar and the School of Fine Arts in Geneva, and completed his PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Strasbourg in 2012. He is a teacher and the head of visual arts at La Grande Boissière campus of the Ecole Internationale de Genève. 
 
Momar Seck uses painting and sculpture as his chosen mediums, focusing on recycled elements such as wood, plastic, tin and fabric found on the streets of Dakar. His work is not simply the search for beauty or cheerfulness, but an involvement in society, a way for him to contribute as a citizen to the evolution of society and in the preservation of the environment. 

The singular diversity of each of his creations works as a metaphor for the intrinsic diversity of the world and humanity. His ''pluralistic units'', as he calls them, display textures and colours, and the blend of materials symbolises the fragile interdependent unity between different cultures and cosmologies. Momar Seck's use of recovered materials and their reuse comply with his views of the ''artist as a contributing citizen'' in the ongoing campaign to recycle, protect and preserve the environment and wildlife. His works seek to immerse viewers in the realities of everyday life, including waste and debris, while summoning up memories and traces of their origin, as well as their metamorphosis. They reflect our current existence, enhanced by the character, enjoyment and re-creation of discarded objects. Common themes found in his art often address societal issues such as consumerism, global communication and the environment. 
 
Momar Seck's work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon, France, Belgium, Italy, Cuba, Canada, Tanzania, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Nigeria. He has also regularly participated in Dak'Art (Senegal), the Havana Biennale (Cuba) and the International Symposium of Art in Baie Saint Paul in Quebec.  

"Environnement 20" is part of the exhibition "Art for Social Impact 2020: Languages and Shapes of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise".