On this day, luck was not on their side

This painting is from the city of Grand-Bassam.

Corrupt police from the African state of Côte d’Ivoire, also known as the Ivory Coast, have collected their “fees” from the bazaar as usual.

But on this day, as the artist explained to me, luck was not on their side!

I don’t think the police were driving so fast around the market that they would have crashed into that pole, let alone to their death. This is mostly likely hatred from the artist – a victim of constant extortion – reflecting itself on the canvas. Or rather, it’s a fantasy, a dream of revenge from a person who’s given the fruits of his labor, or at least part of it, to people who have nothing to do with said labor.

A police car runs into a crowd and then crashes into a pole… bystanders are disturbed and scared, as green balls of fruit fall from a basket that’s been turned on its side. The author’s naïve “childlike” manner of painting puts a strong focus on blood leaking from a policeman’s head, a tongue stuck out in fear, as well as the movement of men, women and children in the crowd. The sign in French brings an unexpected note of irony to the work: “Guerrison au nom du Christ sur place” – “On-site healing in the name of Jesus Christ”. The realities of life in a former colony turned independent country, which suffers from its own corruption as well as constant national/religious and political conflicts, reveal themselves in the immediacy of the author’s vision.

Halyna Sklyarenko, candidate in Art History

Discuss this picture on Facebook