MASKS:
Ne ye, ne ye
Burkina Faso – Ne ye ne ye
The first edition of the project took place in Burkina Faso in 2025, in collaboration with the educational and artistic programme Ateliers d’initiation Kienta, which enables young people to explore their own history, identity and cultural heritage through art. The theme of the sixth edition, in which the MASKS project participated, focused on the meaning of personal and family names and their role in shaping identity. This theme naturally corresponded with the workshop’s exploration of authenticity, emotional intelligence and belonging to a community.
The workshops brought together children and young people aged between 11 and 18, who explored their emotions, relationships and personal potential through a range of theatrical and movement exercises and elements of art therapy. The process was conceived as a safe space for self reflection, creative expression and group collaboration. In Burkina Faso, the project was therefore not simply a workshop, but a complete artistic process, moving from introspective exploration to public articulation through a final performance that brought all the elements created during the process together. It enabled the participants to acquire practical skills, develop creative competencies and experience how an artistic idea can evolve from its initial concept to its final realisation.
The masks were created from materials found in the children’s surroundings, including cardboard, earth, plants and shells. From these elements, the participants created personal images, many of them taking the form of animals such as buffaloes, monkeys, gorillas and doves, whose characteristic qualities represented sources of strength, wisdom and inner energy. Each mask thus became a unique expression of an individual’s experience of the world, a protective symbol and a reflection of their inner landscape. They came fully to life in the final performance of the Kienta project, where they became an expression of collective imagination and the strength of the community.
Visual artist Ixone Ormaetxe Gabilondo from the Basque Country and photographer and filmmaker Borut Bučinel contributed to the project, expanding its visual and conceptual horizons through their work.
Visual and Sound Installation
The process of creating the masks and the overall experience of the project were documented through photography and video by Borut Bučinel. Together with the children’s drawings, sound recordings and other traces of the creative process, this documentation developed into an independent visual and sound installation.
The installation does not place the visitor solely in the position of an observer, but invites them into a space of experience. Through images, sounds, drawings and materials, it offers a view into the world of the children, their play, exploration and creativity, and the ways in which they use art to establish a relationship with themselves and their community. An African schoolyard thus becomes a space of encounter between the perspectives of children and adults, between the individual and the community, and between the personal and the universal.
Ne ye, ne ye therefore remains more than documentation of a completed project. The installation is an independent artistic interpretation of the process, preserving its fragments and reassembling them into a sensory experience. It foregrounds questions of identity, authenticity and belonging and opens a space for reflection on how art can become a tool for expression, listening and connection.
Project author and mask workshop leader: Inti Šraj
Artistic collaborator for mask making: Ixone Ormaeche Gabilondo
Photo, video and editing: Borut Bučinel
In collaboration with: Artistic director and producer of Atelier d'Initiation Kienta: Djibril Outtara
Coordinator for Atelier d’initiation Kienta: Drissa Sanou
young artists/children and youth the team Atelier d'Initiation Kienta 2025
Ouattara Grâce
Sanou Virginie
Diarra Kadi
Nacanabo Assetou
Dramé Mohamed Lamine
Sanou Alassane
Kamaré Fatoumata
Sanou Fatoumata Chidina
Sanou Urmine
Tonokodié Ouman
Sanou Amdine
Millogo Rachid
Sanou Kadiditou Nicole
Tonokodié Safiatu
Producer: Nataša Zavolovšek
Production: Exodos Ljubljana
Support: City Municipality of Ljubljana
Bobo Dioulasso, September 2025
