Yellow and the Quest for a City
In a series of photographc works, designer Selly Raby Kane explores Dakar
Portrait of Senagalese fashion designer Selly Raby KaneOriginal Source: Design Indaba
Meet Selly Raby Kane
Selly Raby Kane is a Senegalese fashion designer and a central figure in Dakar's new wave of creative practitioners. Kane belongs to a new generation of urban, curious and open-to-the-world artists and designers who are bringing a new energy to Senegalese culture.
Medina by DayDesign Indaba
A thriving, creative neighbourhood
The neighbourhood of Medina has grown to become the creative heart of Dakar and Senegal and is the home of contemporary arts, music, sports, literature and cinema.
Medina by DayDesign Indaba
The influence place
Prominent names from the Senegalese art scene were born or influenced by this working class neighbourhood that encapsulates an everlasting memory of the country’s originality.
Medina by NightDesign Indaba
The color of Medina
At night, Medina switches on its signature yellow lights and creates the perfect movie set for conviviality, conversations, laughter and the planting of seeds of ideas. The choice of yellow in this project references alchemy, fertility, vibrance and life force.
In Medina, language is different, occupation of space is different, in-and-out living is the <i>art de vivre</i>. You’ll find houses where Djibril Diop Mambety wrote works of art, others where Amilcar Cabral had his meetings, places where Youssou Ndour grew up, where Fatimata Coulibaly or Anta Mbow create radical and original art programs to keep children out of the streets. This is a place where families ask graffiti artists to treat their facades as a canvas. Eventually there was so much street art that an open-air street art museum in Medina was created. Artists from around the world have come to paint in this curious space.
Medina by DayDesign Indaba
Art lives on
Speaking of her project, Selly writes ''Art is a way to immortalise Medina’s radicality, to keep its heritage as a source of inspiration, creation and reflection. This becomes the field from which to explore the immensity of possibility, from a free and anchored ground.''
