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Art in Embassies

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U.S. Department of State

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Dakar, Senegal

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artist exchange

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Mickalene Thomas

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Art in Embassies commisioned Mickalene Thomas to create a large

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scale photography mural at the US Embassy in Dakar.

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A collaboration with mosaic artist Stephen Miotto

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and Senegalese artist Ibrahima Niang “Piniang”

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the mural represents a unique exchange of arts,

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culture and values.

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Stephen Miotto (labeled) Mickalene Thomas (labeled)

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(Mickalene speaking) It was really phenomenal for me, working on that mural project

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and prior to the conception I had the opportunity to

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visit Dakar Senegal

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and during that trip we took some photographic

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documentation of the surrounding area

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of the US embassy as well as visited

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several artisans and artists and other creatives throughout Dakar

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that gave me some inspiration to the project

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and so once gathering images

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and photographs for some of the concepts I had behind the mural

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project, we came back here with those images and I created a collage

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from those photographic images

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Collective Mural created by Viye Diba, Amadou Lamine Ngom, Ousseynou Mbaye, Fode Camara, Ibrahima Niang

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I am Viye Diba and these are artists from Senegal

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and I am confident of this project

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in the US embassy in Dakar, this is a very interesting

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experiment for us to share (unknown) and ideals about this project.

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(Mickalene speaking) As an artist if I am invited to

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to an area or an environment to make something,

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to consider the community, and to integrate them

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into my process and practice.

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The Mural: is 95 feet long and 9 feet tall

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made out of ceramic and glass

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it took over 6 months to create the mosaic

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Yeah these are all photographs

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that I took while I was here

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so that this mural is for the people

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It will be outside, on an exterior wall,

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it’s for the people that walk by here every day

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to sort of acknowlege the fact of that integration

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of Senegalese and American history, of

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of the people in this community

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It was a great experience for me because my

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first mural was the mural in the embassy

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and to have also a, my work in also another collaboration

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it is something very nice for me

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because it was like having a piece

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inside and outside of the embassy

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For me it was more important

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for each to represent iconic things

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then to put people, we are within

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the landscapes

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so it was important to have the reference

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sort of mirrored

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back to us

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Dakar Mosaic by Mickalene Thomas and Piniang

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Art in Embassies U.S Department of State 2016

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Collective Mural, US Embassy 2016

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And the title of this piece?

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Dakar!