Ladji Diaby, who's gonna save the world?

For his exhibition Who's Gonna Save the World? at Lafayette Anticipations, Ladji Diaby presents an installation built from furniture found on the street or sourced second-hand. Each piece has been transformed by the artist, echoing his mother's habit of decorating and embellishing furniture in her home to imbue it with spirituality and a closeness to God.
Ladji Diaby uses furniture as vitrines for discarded objects, each work becoming a symbolic collaboration between the artist and an object's unknown former owner. While these objects and artifacts carry little material value, they are perceived differently installed in an art space. Through the act of exhibition, the artist interrogates the systems which determine cultural value in the West.