Thiemoko Diarra at the Parcours des Mondes 2025
From 9 to 14 September, Paris hosted the 24th edition of Parcours des Mondes, the leading annual art route dedicated to the arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia. Traditionally centred on ancient artefacts and craftsmanship, this year's edition marked a significant shift: the inclusion of contemporary non-Western artists.
This evolution reflects both the growing interest in non-Western contemporary art and a needed recognition of the richness and diversity of these practices. This expansion of scope is also part of a broader rethinking of how non-Western cultural production is framed, as terminology, curatorial practices and institutional definitions are increasingly scrutinised. For contemporary artists, this offered not only visibility but also recognition of their vital contributions to today’s art world.
Surréalités Africaines
Among these contemporary voices is Thiemoko Diarra, featured in the group exhibition Surréalités Africaines, curated by gallerist Christophe Person. Using animism - the belief that every being, object, and element of the world possesses a living spirit - as its guiding concept, the exhibition invited viewers to explore the links between visible and invisible, past and present, material and spiritual. The works became a basis for interrogating the forces that surround us and our deep connection with the spiritual world. In this context, Diarra’s practice resonated strongly: his creations seem to hover between the seen and the unseen, giving form to presences that usually escape human perception.
Contemporary Bogolans: A Dual Heritage
Thiemoko Claude Diarra (b.1974) is a Belgo-Malian artist whose life and work are profoundly shaped by his dual cultural heritage. Born in Belgium but having spent formative years in Mali, Diarra grew up immersed in the traditional craft of bogolan, a textile practice in which fabrics are dyed with natural earth pigments and decorated with patterns that carry symbolic and social meanings. This shaping experience has become central to his artistic practice today, in which Diarra applies earth pigments to ancient European tapestries and prints, bringing together two traditions, Malian and European, that might seem distant but are here woven into dialogue.
For Diarra, the choice of medium is essential. His pigments, he notes, reminiscent of his own origins, "proviennent de plusieurs pays.” (“come from various countries”). He explains that: “La terre, symbole d’ancrage territorial, a une symbolique identitaire importante que j’aime mettre en abyme.” (“The earth, as a symbol of territorial grounding, carries an important identity symbolism that I like to set into play”)
Mixing these pigments, Diarra creates unique colours, which he applies to tapestries, engravings, and prints sourced from Belgian flea markets. These objects, often iconic scenes painted by Flemish masters, carry cultural significance and historical weight. By intervening directly on them, Diarra subtly inverts colonial hierarchies, reclaiming European artefacts as spaces where African cosmologies and materials take centre stage. Creating a dialogue between two seemingly distant textile traditions, Diarra crafts what he refers to as contemporary bogolans. Symbolising his own cultural identity, they create unique ties between different temporalities, diverse cultural traditions, and visual languages.
Making the Invisible Visible
Diarra’s works are instantly recognisable for the abstract, organic forms that populate these classical European scenes. His universe is made of abstract shapes, bubbles, dotted vegetal patterns, curved lines, and earthy tones. These forms create strange hybrid beings, simultaneously vegetal and animal, familiar yet alien, appearing to be caught in movement and embodying an otherworldly presence. They become a visualisation of what lies beyond our perception. The air we breathe, our environments, and even our bodies are inhabited by forces and beings that escape our understanding. From microscopic life to wider spiritual forces, Diarra is making the invisible visible.
This practice resonates strongly with current global concerns. In an era where artists, philosophers, and scientists are questioning anthropocentric views of the world, these works invite us to re-examine our surroundings and the limits of our perception. They challenge us to explore the world through imagination and intuition and to ask: what wonders lie beneath the surface or beyond the reach of our five senses? By compelling us to look beyond appearances, his practice becomes a call to attentiveness. His art encourages us to rethink our relationship to the environment and to recognise that the smallest, often overlooked forces can have the most fundamental impact on our existence.
Beyond Categorisations
At the heart of Diarra’s works lies a refusal to conform to traditional, rigid categorisations, seeking to escape the binary productions of our world and embrace the unique crossings it creates. His strange, hybrid figures resist being pinned down: they are not fully animal nor plant, not entirely abstract nor figurative. Instead, they occupy an in-between space, one that mirrors the cultural crossings and interconnections of his practice.
By blending European historical textiles with African pigment traditions, Diarra has developed a unique visual language that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. In this way, his art can be read as a critique of categorisation itself, rooted in his own interconnected identity, and as a celebration of hybridity, transformation, and fluidity.
Redefining How We See the World
At a moment when contemporary African art is receiving growing recognition, Diarra stands out as an artist who not only bridges cultures but also challenges the very way we see and understand the world. His work affirms that art is not simply about representing reality but about revealing its unseen dimensions.