Thiemoko Claude Diarra (1974) is a Belgian-Malian artist whose work explores the space between visibility and ritual. Drawing from his dual heritage, he merges traditional Malian symbolism with contemporary techniques, using earth pigments to create layered, transformative images. His practice blurs boundaries between figuration and abstraction, presence and memory.

Thiemoko Claude Diarra

"I consider my tapestry paintings as contemporary ‘bogolan’. ‘Bogo’ means earth in Bambara, and ‘lan’ means ‘from’. They are a dialogue, a confrontation between two worlds that continuously influence each other."

Thiemoko Claude Diarra is a Belgian-Malian artist based in Brussels. He holds a Master’s degree in Graphic Arts from École de Recherche Graphique (ERG) in Brussels. Growing up between two cultural worlds, his dual heritage profoundly shapes his vision and artistic language, bridging traditional African spiritualities and Western contemporary art practices.

His work explores the tension between visibility, memory, and ritual. Diarra uses natural materials such as earth pigments to build layered visual narratives, often walking the line between abstraction and figuration. Drawing on Malian mythology, personal history, and collective memory, his paintings, installations, and murals evoke ancestral presences and act as mediators between the past and imagined futures. His aesthetic approach is deeply rooted in transformation, symbolism, and a tactile engagement with material and surface.

Diarra’s work has been presented internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Highlights include solo shows such as reAnimism (DISKUS, Aalst, 2023), Fury (De Zwarte Panter, Antwerp, 2023), Anatopia (Kloser Contemporary Art, Brussels, 2019), and The Coronation of Aeolus, a public mural in Brussels (2014). His work has also featured in prominent group exhibitions such as Hybridation (Warande, Turnhout, 2024), Doxantu (OFF Biennale de Dakar, Senegal, 2022), Afritopia (BLAACKBOX, Brussels, 2021), and BISO – Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou (2019). His work is included in public and private collections, including the Musée de Molenbeek (Brussels), Fondation Gandur pour l’Art (Geneva), the Pas-Chaudoir Collection (Antwerp), and the Diskus Collection (Alain Verleysen).