Salif Sawadogo

Salif Sawadogo is a building design technician by training who worked between 2001 and 2010 as a construction designer and site manager in central Mali in West Africa where he supervised the construction of administrative buildings. Drawing from his team work experience, of working with local communities, of planning logistics as well as his extensive linguistic expertise, Salif worked from 2009 as an interpreter, translator, cultural mediator and logistic planner on three research projects on West African wild silks, slavery and natural dyes.

Salif speaks ten West African languages and dialects including Bambara, Mooré, Dogon and Fulfulde. In 2019, Salif joined the project: »West African wild silks techniques: Preserving Marka-Dafing’s heritage of knowledge« sponsored by the Endangered Material Knowledge Program (EMKP/Acadia Fund, The British Museum) as a collaborator. He has also contributed to two research projects in MoA’s »Weaving« project on wild silk cocoons and fermented textiles.

Finally, at MoA, Salif is currently working on the material contents and language aspects of the interdisciplinary »Daoula/sheen« exhibition that will travel from Berlin to Ouagadougou and to the village of Safané in Burkina Faso in 2023.