SOULEYMANE ARACHI (ANTIQUAIRE)

The son of an antique dealer and art dealer, Souleymane Arachi continues with tireless fervour the collection started by his father, El Hadj Karimini Arachi, who arrived from Niger in the 1950s and died in 2006. Before developing the activity that was to become his life's vocation, he used to travel around the town of Korhogo, collecting old glass bottles from families and households and then selling them on the local salvage market. He then began to offer art objects to the Europeans living in Korhogo and met with success, which led him to survey the villages and hamlets of the region in search of rare pieces testifying to the considerable richness of the Senoufo heritage. Some peasants, aware of his activity, would sometimes come of their own accord to sell him objects they no longer found useful to keep at home. Arachi Sr. would then reproduce the exceptional pieces he had acquired, selling the copies and keeping the authentic ones. This is how the family's impressive collection was born, along with a passion passed down from father to son, since Souleymane learned the rudiments of the antique trade at the age of 14, and since then has developed an almost anthropological knowledge of Senoufo culture and traditions, but also of Lobi, Baoulé art and certain societies in neighbouring Mali. Often traveling in the region and sub-region in search of a few treasures of arts and crafts, he collects, as did his father, the objects that the villagers no longer want and has built up over the years a collection of more than two thousand pieces covering all West African and Ivorian crafts. In the region, he is not far from the most remote village he knows. His collection, which must well fill 6 rooms of 30 m², is absolutely impressive: senoufo funeral beds, birds of culture (rewarding the village that has been the most productive), dance statues, gourds, stools, canes, helm masks, hornbills, wambêlê, wrought doors, senoufo art, bambara, handicrafts from Guinea, Mali ... You can choose one at random, Souleymane will give you its name, history and precise function. In addition to his job as an antique dealer, our man is also a sculptor (mainly specialized in furniture). His dream? To assist during his lifetime to the construction of a museum which would allow to preserve in the best possible conditions this invaluable corpus containing a whole part of the history of the country and the sub-region. "Everything has a meaning. Every piece of art has an identity and an importance in society. Through my activities, I aim at man. Culture is at the centre of everything. A cultural object, even if bought as a souvenir, responds to the idea that we keep of a civilization," explains Souleymane. My father was always ready to buy a piece. He thought that if he didn't do so, the object would disappear and his identity would be forgotten, just like certain Senoufo rituals that have now disappeared... ». To be discovered absolutely.