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 "What the youth are doing in
the streets is the same thing I'm doing in my
studio," said Ba, stepping in black paint and
making footprints on a new canvas in his airy
workspace outside the capital, Dakar.
Ba, one of Senegal's best-known contemporary
artists, has often used his art to make
political statements. A current exhibit at the
Galerie Templon in Brussels, 'Anomalies',
critiques power-hungry leaders through a series
of portraits of imaginary heads of state.
Ba said he was shocked to see such intense
violence on the streets of his own country,
widely viewed as a model of stability in West
Africa.
"These are things I had seen on TV, but never
here," he told Reuters in an interview.
"I think visual art is something I have to use
to denounce what's not working, or to talk about
what is positive, in society."
The protests were triggered by the arrest of a
popular opposition leader, but gathered pace on
a wave of anger over economic inequality that
has widened during the coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands took to the streets, hurling rocks at
security forces, who opened fire on protesters.
Some worry Senegal's President Macky Sall will
try to extend his rule beyond the allotted two
terms, following a pattern of African leaders
such as Ivory Coast's Alassane Ouattara and
Guinea's Alpha Conde who used constitutional
changes to reset their time in power.
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 Sall has not commented on
whether he will seek a third term.
Ba normally keeps his subjects anonymous, so as
to focus on themes rather than individuals, but
for his next collection he said he might depict
Sall.
"Once they're elected, (heads of state)
completely change their discourse. I wanted to
talk about that, and that's why I called this
exhibition 'Anomalies'," said Ba.
Four of the 12 paintings in the series deal with
the coronavirus pandemic, conveying confusion
and entrapment with the use of interlacing
shapes and footprints.
COVID-19 exposed inequality and corruption in
Africa, Ba said, and forced even the wealthy to
rely on the ill-equipped public health services
that they can normally afford to escape.
"Nobody could take planes to get treatment in
Europe or the United States, and that was really
great, because for once people realized that in
their own hospitals there was nothing."
(Additional reporting by Cooper Inveen; Editing
by Edward McAllister and Alexandra Hudson)
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