Donko, the knowledge

As he was a child in the north neighborhoods of Bamako, Drissa Konaté helped his aunt who was knitting new born cloths by drawing birds on it. Rejected by his family because he preferred painting than praying, Drissa forged the basis of his art in the street, by great frescos disseminated on the Malian capital’s walls or by the local bus decoration. He is today the leader of an artistic movement widespread throughout all West Africa under the name of “Roots art”: an adaptation of African traditional arts to modern painting. His signature, “Birdy Messenger”, appear everywhere over streets, bars or exhibitions, as the symbol of this new emerging artist generation conscious of her traditional richness.