Ousmane Sow, Le soleil en face (1999)

This is the story of time passing, at the slow pace of Ousmane Sow, and of time rushing by, from the birth of a work to its unveiling one spring day in Paris on the Pont des Arts. For a year, while preparing the exhibitions in Dakar and Paris, Béatrice Soulé witnessed the creation of Two Moon, Sitting Bull, Chief Gall, and Crazy Horse by Ousmane Sow—Sioux and Cheyenne chiefs who, gathered along the Little Bighorn River, won the most important Native American victory against the American army in 1868, a victory that led to the death of General Custer. In the intimacy of the sculptor's home in Dakar, a home itself a place of creation, she shares with us her emotion at seeing works emerge from the sand, works that seem to journey from death to life.