Joachim Siluè. Shaping the wisdom of things

The protagonist of this story is Kagnedjatou Joachim Silue, an artist born in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) who has been living in Italy for the past three decades. His creations are rooted in observation, respect and the artistic ‘interpretation’ of the ‘personalities’ of objects found lying around on the city streets he roams and in whose neglected forms he sees the potential to impart equally neglected lessons that are important for humanity.

In the summer of 2021, Joachim visited the Ettore Guatelli Museum for the first time to take part in the exhibition ‘Visioni dall’Infra-ordinario, TTT Tempo Terra Trame di vita’. He felt an immediate affinity to the work of Ettore, owing to the latter’s focus on marginal, lower class and scorned people and communities, from whom both saw they could draw lessons – lessons for our societies which, made wealthy through industrialisation, are growing poorer in terms of their capacity for autonomous creation.

Joachim’s talent and technical prowess give abandoned objects a voice, transforming them into bridges that allow us to access resources from worlds we can barely make out, and bring us closer to the wisdom of people we barely recognise.