Regard sur le présent is a collaborative documentation of the Grand Boubou.
“My work is informed by the connections I find after thoroughly examining different cultural aspects that on first glance seem to be far apart. How can a connection between diverse styles enrich and uplift one another? What drives me is not simply choosing one or the other, but finding a way in which they can complement each other and therefore creating unfamiliar styles. Over the years my interests became more personal. My father is from Burkina-Faso and my mother from the Netherlands. The main connection I was looking for was one that united my bi-cultural identity.
For my internship I went to Bobo-Dioulasso the second biggest city in Burkina-Faso. I went here to learn a specific technic that is used to make a very luxurious fabric called: Bazin-riche. In addition, I did research on the different cultural ideas of what constitutes being “well dressed” in Burkina-Faso in comparison to the West-European ideas.”
This is one of multiple collaborative projects by Bodil Ouédraogo and Anne Lakeman.