Dramane Bamana
DRAMANE BAMANA was born in 1996 in Bougouni, Sikasso region, Mali. He lives and works in Bamako. After earning a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts, the artist took the entrance exam for the Balla Fasseké Kouyaté Conservatory of Arts and Multimedia Crafts in Bamako in 2017. He is a member of the Tim’Art collective and actively participates in the collective’s cultural events. He lives and works in Bamako.
Biography
The multi-talented artist creates his works exclusively using recovered plastic strips. Beyond this recycling aspect, his works, influenced by social figuration, depict seemingly ordinary genre scenes, where the characters, not without irony, take on the role of messengers. According to him, as an artist, they are all invited to reconnect with a peaceful life, simplicity, and solidarity, within a reinvented social cohesion.He also carries a message of hope, visible in the background through the fine grid revealed by the melted plastic. This flexible grid serves as a solid base for the material and symbolizes the fraternal bond between community members. Using this material, which the artist cuts, glues, or burns, he illustrates his daily life. Their lives are represented through everyday scenes, which are first photographed and then translated onto canvas by the artist.Dramane pays tribute to women in particular, as well as to humility and fraternity, which unite the community in the face of adversity. His faceless characters give these neighborhood scenes a universal dimension. The artist thus invites us to explore the peaceful universe of an ordinary daily life, in which everyone can find themselves.He has participated in cultural events of the Tim’Art collective, such as the “Silence Coupable” exhibition in 2019, along with many others.
