Thursday afternoon, a group of us from the SIL Center visited the Laongo Sculpture Park, about 19 miles from Ouagadougou. The park came about through a symposium, held in 1989, the brainchild of a local sculptor/artist, Siriki Ky, who invited 18 of his fellow artists from 13 countries to sculpt in granite in this unlikely place. This, in turn, became the first of more or less biannual symposia to be held there. The result is an amazing collection of large scale works of world-class quality, and with each subsequent symposium, the 12th one being held just last year, the collection grows, with now over a hundred works in granite.
The work above, for example, represents the evolution of currency in Burkina Faso. It is made from two halves, the one face showing a cowrie shell used before the arrival of coins, the reverse the CFA coin, used today.
As you can see from this small selection of photos, there is a wide range of artistic styles found in the park. Sculptors from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas are represented here.
There was also housing and ateliers available for working artists on the grounds, along with a small restaurant.
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