MOUSS BLACK

Mouss Black is an artist from Burkina Faso, living and working in
Ouagadougou.
Moussa doesn’t come from a family tradition of black-smiths or
bronze smelters but as a teenager was introduced to art at the
Fondation Olorun.
Over the years, he has built up a solid reputation for his unique
sculptural works, in which he skillfully blends wood and iron,
sometimes embellished with canvas and recycled objects. More
recently, he has extended his artistic exploration to the field of
drawing, where his focus on medium’s diversity is also striking.
In his pictorial artworks, Mouss Black opts for the use of coffee,
inspired both by its singular hue and the memories it evokes,
recalling moments shared in his native Burkina. Instead of a
paintbrush, he uses a teaspoon to create his characters, which
are themselves made of coffee. He then uses pens of different
colors to accentuate movements and create visual harmony.
For Mouss Black, painting and sculpture are not separate
disciplines, but rather complementary approaches that enable
him to expressively explore the issues raised by the
contemporary world that eludes him and that he seeks to
understand. His works reflect this artistic and intellectual quest,
a constant search for meaning in an ever-changing world.
Biography
In his artistic work, Mouss Black finds inspiration in everything
that surrounds him: the cacophony of urban noises, the burning
garbage, the engine smoke mingling with the red dust, and the
atmospheres of Ouagadougou, the city where he lives. As he
observes elements such as tree trunks gnawed by termites, rusty
metal sheets, cracked, weathered walls, characters begin to take
shape in his mind. Sometimes more distinct, these figures
oscillate between the human and the animal, condemned to
remain trapped in the folds of time, unable to breathe.⁠
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As an artist, he feels compelled to breathe life into these
characters by reproducing them on paper or canvas. He often
employs coffee as his medium of choice for drawing, drawing
inspiration from its unique color and the memories of shared
moments from his native Burkina Faso. The tradition of sharing a
morning coffee at the neighborhood kiosk, engaging in
discussions about topics ranging from football to politics, is
deeply ingrained in his daily life. To emphasize the movements of
his characters, he subsequently intervenes with ballpoint pens,
allowing him to play with colors and create harmony in his
creations.⁠
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In summary, his inspiration emanates from his environment, as
well as his personal experiences and shared moments. Every
detail, whether it's the cacophony of urban sounds or a termite-
gnawed tree trunk, holds the potential to breathe life into unique
characters within his art. It is this intersection between the
human and the animal, the red dust and engine smoke, the real
and the unreal, that he seeks to capture and convey through his
artworks.⁠