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Fr : version française / En: english version
Freedom Ride
Divisions in society were often racial in nature. In the US, transit systems were at the core of the civil rights struggle. In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, the black activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. She was arrested, jailed and sentenced. A boycott campaign was successfully carried out, led by Martin Luther King.
A few years later, the Freedom Riders set out to test the non-segregation ruling that had been instituted on the interstate buses in 1946 but never enforced. Their non-violent campaign eventually won them effective measures from Robert Kennedy, putting an end to segregation on interstate networks.
le refus de Rosa Parks
For Dak'art 2006, Ndary Lo paid tribute to Rosa Parks with a variable installation, called Le Refus de Rosa Parks (Rosa Parks' refusal), showing black and white passengers on the bus, dressed in different colors. In addition to the bone and iron present in his earlier work, he included portraits of African leaders and the African Diaspora. Beyond Rosa Parks, the piece paid tribute to those who have contributed so much in the black man's struggle for dignity.
In 2009, Ndary Lo "reinstalled" Rosa Parks in a bus at the Fondation Blachère in France.
Ndary Lo
Born in Tivaouane in 1961, the Senegalese sculptor Ndary Lo lives and works in Rufisque, a suburb of Dakar. He studied English before enrolling at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dakar. Very soon he was exhibiting as a sculptor and installation artist.
Since 1992, Ndary Lo has been exploring the theme of humanity, using iron as the basic material. His Hommes qui marchent (men walking), tall silhouettes in metal, his slender woman with undefined faces, and his scrap-metal bellies stuffed with dolls' heads won him numerous awards at art events, including Dak'art 2002 and 2008.
In 2002, Ndary Lo won the Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor at the Biennale des Arts Plastiques Africains Contemporains in Dakar for his installation entitled La longue marche du changement (the long march of change). The same year, he was made a "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Republic.