Lien Commun: Ge'eza's Group Exhibition at IFAN, Dakar

"Lien commun" (French for "common bond") is a group exhibition presented by Ge'eza at the IFAN Théodore Monod Museum in Dakar from 16 to 31 October 2025. It brought together three Senegalese artists, Saadio, Ibou Diagne and Tampidaro, and its opening night took place on 16 October from 5pm to 10pm. Several canvases from the hanging, such as "Sans titre I" and "Sans titre II" (acrylic on canvas, 2025), can now be seen at the Ge'eza gallery in Point E.

An exhibition outside the house

Ge'eza is first of all a villa in Point E with a gallery salon. "Lien commun" was a chance to step out of the house and present a hanging in a museum: the IFAN Théodore Monod Museum of African Art, a well-known institution for Dakar residents and visitors alike, located on Place Soweto in the Plateau district. Théodore Monod, a French naturalist, directed the Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire, IFAN, for many years, and the museum carries his name.

Choosing that venue places the show in a longer history of presenting African art in Dakar. If you want to know more about the museum itself, our article on the Théodore Monod Museum introduces it.

Three Senegalese artists

The show set Saadio, Ibou Diagne and Tampidaro in conversation. We stay with the facts: three artists from Senegal, gathered under one title. Their profiles are on the site: Saadio, Ibou Diagne and Tampidaro. We invent no career details beyond what is written there.

The title says the intention. A "common bond" is what draws together different painterly voices without making them alike. A group hanging does not impose a theme, it proposes neighbourhoods: one canvas next to another, two palettes answering each other, one way of painting the human figure shedding light on another. Each visitor composes their own route.

The 16 October 2025 opening

The opening was held on Thursday 16 October 2025, from 5pm to 10pm. Five hours is long for an opening: a wide window to come at the end of a working day, look calmly, talk, come back. The exhibition then stayed open until 31 October.

The event page for Lien commun keeps a record of the presentation. If openings are new to you, our guide to attending an art opening in Dakar gives some pointers.

The canvases you can see at the gallery

Several works linked to this hanging are on view in the villa's gallery salon in Point E:

• "Figures (2025)" by Saadio, mixed media on canvas. The work has its own page: Figures, Saadio.
• "Sans titre I" and "Sans titre II", from the Lien commun hanging, acrylic on canvas, 2025.
• "Foule", oil on canvas, 2025, a crowd rendered in touches of colour.

Prices are given on request. Every work sold leaves with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Payment is by Wave, Orange Money, bank card or on the spot, and you can collect the work in Point E or ask for shipping outside Dakar on quote.

How to look at these canvases

A few suggestions, without claiming to tell you what to see.

Start from a distance. Stand three or four metres back. The large colourful canvases read first as groups of masses and rhythms. Details come after.

Then step closer. Acrylic and oil do not behave the same way: the first often gives crisp flat areas, the second a thicker surface and softer transitions. Looking at the surface shows you how the artist worked.

Give it time. A painting does not reveal itself in thirty seconds. The salon sofas are there for that.

Ask questions. The gallery team can tell you about the works on show, their techniques and their availability.

Why this exhibition matters to the house

From its founding, Ge'eza has aimed to be a hub for dialogue between Ethiopian and Senegalese civilisations, a bridge between two Africas. "Lien commun" is a painterly version of that idea: Senegalese artists, presented by a house founded and directed by Maraki Germa Bekele, an Ethiopian, in an institutional museum of Dakar. The starting idea, still today, is to show artists from the continent and the diaspora, East African as well as West African.

To place this work in a wider landscape, you can read about art galleries in Dakar.

Coming to see the works

The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 10pm, the same hours as the restaurant, at 656 avenue Birago Diop, Point E. Closed on Monday. You can ask about the works on WhatsApp at +221 78 660 07 07 before visiting.

A hanging that keeps living

A group exhibition does not end on its closing date. The canvases that made it up carry on: some remain visible at the gallery, others find a buyer, others are shown in a new context. That is one thing the museum and the gallery have in common: the first keeps, the second circulates. Coming back to a work a few months later, under different light, often changes how you read it.