“The forest has its own atmosphere, its perfume, its light, its chiaroscuro, its shadows” wrote the art historian Émile Mâle. This particular atmosphere that characterises the forest is what the Senegalese artist Aliou Diack depicts through his works, which are exhibited at renowned international fairs such as Art Basel in 2022, where the solo show “Earth Memory” was dedicated to him. He is inspired by his childhood memories of his rural village of birth, Sidi-Bougou. He lets his nostalgia for a nature that is both indomitable and mysterious express itself on his canvases. Through the confrontation of white and black, shadow and light, punctuated by light particles of colour, the artist tells of his fascination for the woods that he has never ceased to explore, discover and rediscover since his youth. Aliou Diack exploits his memory and reveals to the spectator the amplitude of the surprises offered by the fauna and flora of his native country, but which proves to be universal, where each tree, each foliage seems to whisper a secret, where each branch seems to be able to hide an enigmatic winged creature. In addition to these figurative evocations of the past, there is the experimentation of new, more abstract forms favoured by a period of recollection imposed by the pandemic crisis of COVID in 2020. It was during this period, while in residence at La Galerie 38, that Aliou Diack created all the works presented in the exhibition Les cimes de la pensée. Come and explore his universe and wander through his phantasmagorical foliage from 17 March to 28 April 2023 at La Galerie 38 in Casablanca.