Adji Dieye’s photographic installation refers to the phenomenon of the aggressive exporting of products from the West to African countries. The artist examines the history of bouillon cubes, which have altered local eating traditions to such an extent that they have become a staple of the cuisine of Senegal and West Africa as a whole. She also criticizes the transformation of cities into spaces subordinated to advertising.

Dieye created a parody of an advertising campaign for a fictional stock cube she calls the “Maggic Cube.” The artist designed the brand’s logo using an intense palette of yellows and reds. Food manufacturers and fast-food chains often use these colors in advertising as a means of persuasion and to stimulate a consumer’s appetite. In her studio, Dieye photographed Senegalese women in a manner alluding to the archetypical guardian of the hearth, in charge of the family meals. On the visual level, through the vertical stripes of the background, she also nods to the West African tradition of portrait photography in the works of Seydou Keïta, Mama Casset and Malick Sidibé. The models in Dieye’s photographs assume studied poses and cover their faces with cut-out portraits. We don’t get to see their gazes. They blend in with the oppressive scenery of the advertising, sometimes only revealing hands from under colorful uniforms. In this way, the artist comments not only on the expansion of Western products on the markets of the Global South. She also reflects on how African identity and art become images meant for consumption.

[N.S.]