RAAYA

Stemming from a thesis on Senegalese art, it translates research on contemporary creation into critical design. The international design scene frequently expects exoticism from Senegalese creators, a projection that directly contradicts the reality of contemporary local practices. RAAYA directly challenges this commodified gaze. By confronting the deep historical legacies of slavery, the project interrogates how postcolonial narratives are validated, consumed, and reduced to market trophies today. The link between Gorée and Senghor is the critical pivot of this design. Gorée’s House of Slaves, a site of historical trauma, is today consumed as a passive tourist backdrop. Meanwhile, Senghor’s vision of a sovereign, hybrid art is betrayed whenever the Dakar Biennale awards its Grand Prix to creators reduced to stylistic exoticism. Reinterpreting Gorée’s horseshoe staircase into the trophy’s form directly bridges these two misreadings, reclaiming historical memory to confront institutional commodification. My research questioned how object rhetoric could intervene during the awards ceremony itself, the exact moment of media exposure. To embed this critique into the object, I experimented with raw basalt composites, material typography, and retro-reflective elements that react dynamically to camera flashes.