ABDOULAYE KONATÉ (English translation): The textile in Africa has been there for centuries. When we look even from the work of Malian and Dutch archaeologists who excavated the caves of the Dogon cliffs, we see very ancient textiles from the eleventh and twelfth centuries that are still in the caves.

ANGELIQUE KIDJO (NARRATOR): That’s contemporary artist Abdoulaye Konaté who lives and works in Bamako. Africa’s magnificent textile traditions have been a point of reference to him both as part of daily life and in galleries like these.

ABDOULAYE KONATÉ (English translation): Museums give us the opportunity to discover and draw inspiration from our cultures, universal cultures, not just from Africa but from around the world. I seek elements of inspiration. I place particular emphasis not only on objects from Mali, but on objects from around the world, because I believe that today, the chance we have compared to other artists from the past is that the world is open to us.

ANGELIQUE KIDJO: Konaté reflects on the aesthetic dimension of color, which spans art, history, and nature, demonstrating color’s vital role in the variety of textile creations of West Africa.

ABDOULAYE KONATÉ (English translation): Color is important to me. With textiles, we can have all the colors we want and use in painting. Color, for me, is as important as the content, as the forms, because it’s an effect of light that gives us this variety, this richness, this range. Color, for me, is also an observation of nature, insects, bees, butterflies, flowers, but also the cosmos. So, color for me has weight, value, and space, and color allows us balance.