Ganvié (Benin) (AFP)
Between the canoes that sail around the hundreds of huts on stilts of Lake Nokoué, in the south-east of Benin, a giant painting takes shape on an island of earth.
For more than three hours, and despite the 41 degrees, Saype, a world-renowned French "land-artist", has been working with a paint sprayer to transform a playground in the lakeside town of Ganvié into a work of art.
In the course of his incessant movements towards the paint buckets, the grass on which he projects paint is transformed.
From green, it turns gray, then black, and shapes appear.
All around, fishermen, fish sellers and lake kids perched on stilts observe the scene with a certain astonishment.
In the sky, a drone flies to take videos.
"No one yet knows what the man is doing," says Sonagnon Dagbédji, his gaze focused on the artist's work.
At 33, this inhabitant has already seen artists paint on canvases at the Ganvié gallery.
"But a painting on the ground is the first time in my life".
The fresco is not the only attraction.
The artist himself is an object of curiosity: "To see a white man come to draw figures on the ground in Ganvié is an event", says Sokin Agodokpédji.
"We have been told that the best is yet to come, so we wait," said a cheerful 25-year-old fisherman.
Finally, the inhabitants discover on a small screen the images taken by the drone: seen from the sky, the paint stains take on all their depth and in reality draw two intertwined hands.
This work is part of a much larger project, symbolically creating "the largest human chain in the world", explains the artist, whose real name is Guillaume Legros.
Leaving from the Champs de Mars in Paris, these intertwined hands passed through Andorra, Berlin, Geneva, Ouagadougou, Yamoussoukro, Turin, Istanbul and Cape Town before Benin, tenth stage.
"It is a symbol of mutual aid and benevolence between peoples to try to create bridges", maintains the artist.
© 2021 AFP