Rissa Ixa

Rissa Ixa, born in 1946 in Niger at Innates, close to the border to Mali, describes his work as follows:

„In my family, both men and women taught me touareg history , touareg arts and the writing of tamasheq (tifinagh). At that time, I drew on sand. Then, after leaving for Niamey in 1959, I continued to draw and to paint on everything available. When I met other artists, I learned various new painting techniques. I live, I work and I militate with the aim that the touareg culture may not vanish and I keep on living respecting its very essence : the respect of traditions and of mankind. "

The purpose of this painter is to paint scenes of rural life in the touareg society. These are his figurative paintings.

On the other hand, he uses traditional geometrical patterns which decorate every day’s objects ; sometimes he tries to modernize those objects in order to make them more accesible to non-touareg people. He wants to show us the characteristics of touareg society and its know-how, within an associative handicraft which is open to the outside world.