Exibition of Mabeye Deme « Golf Sud »

Born in Tokyo in 1979, Mabeye Deme lives and works between Dakar, Senegal, and Grenoble, France. Trained in film studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, he has been developing, since 2012, an artistic and documentary practice focused on the streets of Dakar and the relationship between photographer and subject. His work is based on relational devices, including a tent built in 2014 with Kader Ndong and moved through working-class neighborhoods such as Golf Sud. This “inverted studio” has become a place of encounter, recalling the tents used during life-cycle ceremonies. From 2015 to 2022, he wandered through Dakar at night, capturing the unique aesthetics of Gudi Dakar (nighttime in Dakar, in Wolof). Far from brightly lit clichés, he explores a subdued and contrasted light that reveals fragments of everyday life, professions, places of refuge, and nocturnal encounters. His work also reflects on the disappearance of popular cinemas in Dakar in the face of inaccessible multiplexes. Through his chiaroscuro photographs, he reveals a living memory nourished by fleeting encounters and visual narratives that question our relationship to darkness and the invisible realities of everyday life.