Omar Ba is returning to Paris after a six-year absence with a brand-new project. Leading light of the French art book world Diane de Selliers invited Omar Ba to illustrate the famous Fulani narrative, Kaïdara, as collected and transcribed by Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ. Omar Ba spent over a year creating a masterful body of forty works inspired by the African literary classic.

Mirroring the free verse allegorical poem from 1968, the exhibition recounts the story of three traveling companions guided by a mysterious and omniscient voice to the hidden land of the dwarf-spirits. They meet eleven enigmatic figures, including a chameleon, a scorpion and an inexhaustible spring, embodying a philosophical and spiritual significance that encourages them to continue their journey until they finally meet Kaïdara, the god of knowledge and gold. On their return journey the only traveller to survive will be the one who aspires to nothing more than knowledge and has rid himself of his material possessions.

Omar Ba depicts an array of hybrid figures and ancestral references emerging from backgrounds first covered in black, yellow and orange paint. He offers us a poetic cosmogony in an explosion of colours, motifs and textures, subtly translating the mysteries and lessons that pave the path to Kaïdara. The exhibition, far more than a simple illustrative work, gives the artist an opportunity to explore African realities and myths.