In this column, art critic Carl PIERRECQ puts in conversation the works of artists Mamadou CISSÉ and Préfète DUFFAUT both exploring humans and movement under the prism of cities and architecture.

Author : Carl PIERRECQ

Mamadou Cissé : A singular aesthetics 

Mamadou Cissé develops a singular aesthetic that gives his creations lasting significance. His works demonstrate a fascinating artisanal meticulousness and reveal a technical and creative achievement as revealed in his latest group exhibitions Rubiks, Sur le motif, and Quand on arrive en ville… du rêve à la réalité (Galerie Christophe Person.) Thematically, they evoke, in several aspects, the work of a master of Haitian popular painting, Préfète Duffaut (1923-2012), known for his imaginary "cities" and "villages." In their compositions, two distinct visions of urbanism and the representation of cities emerge, but their perspectives converge in a unique aesthetic and environmental approach, where the topos (the place) and the anthropos (the human) creolize to foster a reflection on human civilization.

Mamadou Cissé’s Topos

Mamadou Cissé, with his imaginary cities, is a painter of topos in its purest and most abstract form. Aesthetically, he is not interested in humanity as a corporeal or carnal entity but rather in how humanity shapes space. His drawn work is an unrestrained homage to vast urban spaces. In his work, the city is viewed from above, from the sky, as an object of contemplation, detached from any direct human presence. This aerial perspective recalls the detached gaze of a philosopher observing the world from an omniscient point of view. It also resonates with, among others, Australian Aboriginal art, which often presents an aerial view of the world on a physical, symbolic, spiritual, or even transcendental plane. The lines, circles, and abstract shapes in Aboriginal creations are linked to what they call the Dreamtime.

Cissé’s cities are rigorous, rectilinear, yet utopian in their academic perfection. Their artificiality expresses a vision of a world where humans have triumphed over nature, taming it to create a geometric, harmonious, and controlled space. In his work, this geometric perfection—signifying human control—masks the absence of the human figure, revealing spaces as objects shaped by humanity. On an aesthetic level, his places exist and derive meaning on their own. Neither romantic, with a vision of nature as a peaceful oasis, nor Baudelairean, with the idea that nature is sometimes abominable, Cissé is a lucid artist who prioritizes balance between these two worldviews.

With luminous buildings, moving boats, and circulating cars, his works subtly suggest human presence but erase the human body and face. In this way, the viewer becomes the only present being, contemplating what civilization can achieve in its passion for urban space. His work stands as a philosophical reflection on humanity’s role in urbanism. Cissé is a creator who conceptually shapes spaces but, in perfecting them, erases humanity from the visual field of the artwork. He is a painter of abstract urbanism, where the topos is both a living space and a space for observation and contemplation.

Préfète Duffaut’s Anthropos

Préfète Duffaut, with his imaginary cities and villages, places the anthropos at the heart of his painting. His urban landscapes are inhabited, alive, and vibrant with visible human activity. In his paintings, the multitude reigns. He diverts his gaze from the isolated individual to focus on the collective. He examines humans in their relationships to space, others, and the world. He never lingers on the individual’s interiority, singular thoughts, or personal psychology. What fascinates him is communal movement, social dynamics, and the collective spirit, which gives his work a profound anthropological dimension.

Where Cissé presents us with megacities devoid of human faces, Duffaut immerses us in circular spaces where humanity, nature, and architecture coexist harmoniously. His cities are not dominated by humans but shaped by a continuous interaction between the artificial and the natural.

Duffaut, as a creator of utopias, offers a humanistic vision where urbanism is designed for humans and linked to their most primitive activities, such as planting trees or raising animals. His cities are marked by daily life and the forces of nature—rivers and seas, for instance. He creates spaces where nature retains uncontested power that does not hinder urban flourishing. In this perpetual movement of humans and vegetation, Duffaut’s works illustrate an organic vision of civilization, where humanity’s most futuristic and primitive impulses unite, making urbanism a vector of life and a possibility for extraordinary coexistence rather than an act of human domination over nature.

In most of his paintings titled “imaginary city” and “imaginary village,” Duffaut curiously omits animals to focus on humanity through numerous metaphors, whereas Cissé builds cities and erases the builder’s face. Inspired by certain places in Haiti, Duffaut’s paintings, like Cissé’s drawings inspired by megacities, are works whose contemplation inspires wonder and amazement.

Expressing the Anthrotopos

Despite these evident differences, Cissé and Duffaut’s works share a philosophical kinship in their treatment of urban space as a reflection of civilization. Their works are vibrant and possess a utopian character. Cissé is academic, while Duffaut demonstrates a certain naivety in the morphology of his characters, subject placement, and the different planes of the canvas. In both cases, the cities are constructions of the human imagination, each reflecting different aspects of our relationship to space.

The introduction of the concept of “anthrotopos” can help understand this meeting point between the two artists. If Cissé focuses on the topos—the place itself from an aesthetic perspective—Duffaut focuses on the anthropos, the human at the heart of this place. Yet, ultimately, these two notions intersect in their works, as Cissé’s city only finds meaning through the implicit presence of humanity and human observation, while in Duffaut’s work, humans are inseparable from the places they inhabit and transform, retaining aspects of their rural origins. The “anthrotopos,” this philosophical neologism, symbolizes the place where humanity, nature, and urban space unite. In Cissé’s cities, humanity is present through architecture and the perfection of shapes and lines, even if the body is absent. In Duffaut’s cities and villages, humans and nature are in constant dialogue, and this dialogue is precisely what breathes life into the space. Thus, the anthrotopos becomes this ideal space where topos and anthropos converge, where humans and places become inseparable in the creation of an imaginary space.

Cissé, as an artist of the topos, erases the physical presence of humanity to better contemplate the grandeur of human constructions, while Duffaut, as a painter of the anthropos, places humans at the center of his pictorial universe, celebrating the coexistence of humans and nature. Together, their works invite us to reflect on how we inhabit and transform the world, especially on the place we give to nature and ourselves in this space.

Realizing the Anthrotopos

Cissé’s imaginary cities are conceived vertically. He proposes a model of vertical urbanization that preserves rural spaces essential for food production and biodiversity conservation. His vision is both aesthetic and philosophical. By rejecting the horizontal expansion of cities, he advocates for measured and responsible land use, in harmony with villages and natural spaces. His works carry an eco-responsible discourse, aligned with current environmental concerns. They offer practical solutions to issues of urban density and ecological preservation.

Préfète Duffaut’s imaginary cities and villages, on the other hand, extend more horizontally, celebrating a utopian and poetic coexistence between urban and rural spaces. The artist thus presents a visual policy of space, where the coexistence of humans and nature is conceived as an ethical and aesthetic imperative.

The difference in their approaches ultimately reflects the same quest: rethinking human habitats to make them more environmentally respectful. They share a common vision where art becomes a tool for social transformation and a reflection on coexistence in a changing world. They explore the inseparable link between space and humanity. Each in their own way, they offer answers to fundamental questions of our time: How can we inhabit the world responsibly? How can we coexist with nature without destroying it? In this sense, Mamadou Cissé and Préfète Duffaut embody a practical philosophy, where their art, beyond its expressive, inventive, and poetic strength, becomes a form of commitment to a more sustainable and harmonious future.