A Franco-Beninese mixed blood of Brazilian origin, Sica Christelle Yaovi (de Souza), born in Strasbourg in France of a Beninese father and a French mother. Universal Citizen, Plastic Artist Painter for 20 years on the sidelines. Formerly destroying his works like therapy. Finally, for a few years (2007), he has been willing to share his world with his strong, sensitive, sensual, austere, contemporary painting full of contrasts and promises.
Its installations, its steps, its meanders, its History ... Which lead to others ... To the other ... To stories ... To a world of light ...
She lives everywhere, here and elsewhere, exhibits everywhere, here and elsewhere, outside the framework. A creativity nourished by badly healed wounds, the tragic entrenched in the guts but above all with hope. This hope that emerges and unfolds like a golden glow at dawn.
“My painting tells my story, the story of each one, of the link between each story. A patchwork of lives. An emotional color palette. My art also tells and sings the collective memory, the collective tragedy, the collective magic and the unshakeable hope that resides in life. - SCY.
The World of Sica
I am black
I am white
I am Métis
I am all the colors of the universe
I am Sica
Art is obvious to me, therapy. Today my link with the world. A daily step, a dance to tell my story, the story of each one. I started by discovering plastic art at school, then continued in a school, but there was a form of rigidity of mind that I could feel, I continued alone. Destroying my works. And there was the day when it was time for me to share my world. Intimate, timid and then fulfilling exhibitions that led me to the Biennale and to other horizons. Painting, Drawings, Sculptures, Installations, Videos, Writing c'est mon monde: Le Monde de Sica. Which became my concept. The work of a Painter? Make your brushes dance, give life to what is hidden in the depths of your guts, of your Soul ... , to question, to shake up habits, certainties ... A need to be in dialogue. Dialogue with the world. An endless dance. My works tell me how they content life ... From the present to the past! I like to say that I am telling a collective memory, a collective tragedy, a collective hope. My works speak quite naturally of all human emotional palettes. Joy, forgiveness, compassion, mutilation, from hell and obviously Dreams! Art brings emotions and dreams to life! All of my interactions with others inspire me. Women's Stories inspire me. Everything around me inspires me! A smile inspires me, Suffering, everything that binds us to each other inspires me. “Art lives in me as much as I inhabit it! My heritage flows in me, flows in my works! My crossbreeding is my wealth. I don't have to be, I Am! My Art Is! - SCY.
Artistic approach
At the beginning, my work essentially told the wounds due to our stories, healing, resilience, the strength of women, hope, today my Beninese culture, my heritage as an Amazon Queen allows me to tell the beauty, the power, the true story of the African continent. The cause of women remains unchanged in my world. I use local materials such as red earth, cowries, a symbol for me of feminine power, pigments and classic materials, acrylic, oil paint and everyday objects...
I am resilience incarnate, my Slave Queen Slave Colonist DNA gives me this transcendence which can be read in my work to offer liberation and legitimacy as much in our light as in our darkness. The complexity of such a heritage is drawn in a multitude of facets which could border on schizophrenia and yet it is the very origin of the beauty and depth of my works which challenge and disturb...
Sica C.Y
Presence in the world
Artist passionate about travel and culture, my works and my art are present in more than 15 countries around the world:
Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, England, Turkey, Kosovo, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, United States, Canada.
I travel through my art, and I make my art travel with me. My various experiences have forged me and I transmit culture, passion and love of life in my paintings, my paintings and my sculptures.
My Workshop
Out of any merchant mind
Talking about my world, talking about my artistic approach weighs on me sometimes. With a sense of justification. But above all a feeling of obligation to somehow receive a approval.
I am not looking for any approval, I am looking for the exchange that plunges into the real depths that grant us our singularity, which grant us the legitimate right to give what we want.
I offer the right to displease just as much as to please. To displease only translates a disturbing mirror effect. Therein lies the real freedom and the acceptance of who we are in our authenticity.
I Am, translated, the other Is ...
Legitimate in each of our steps.
Le Monde de Sica, each of my exhibitions, each of my works do not exist to please or seduce, they exist to offer a vision beyond all illusion, beyond all appearance or search for belonging, they express a progress in all its humanity, they encourage sincere questioning without masquerade, they ask to get out of all judgment and to just accept and accept the reality of the other.
It is well known that understanding the world of artistic works comes much later in an uncertain future.
A down to earth understanding that is not essential to us as an artist who has a fearless vision without a mask, a Divine and surgical vision.
The World of Sica, my Workshop, my Vision
Sica
References
Between 1991 and 2006, courses, research, work (destroyed)...
November 2010 Exhibition with other Swiss Residency Artists
February 2010 Exhibition Workshop
Year 2011 Different exhibitions in my Studio
March 2012 Exhibition in Illéwa Cotonou-Benin
October 2012 to January 2013 Biennale Regard Bénin
January 2013 Mava Residency/Installation with Meschac GABA
April 2013 Exhibition at the German Ambassador's Residence
June 2013 Exhibition at Maison Rouge (Exhibition curator)
June 2013 Residency / Installation in Baku (Azerbaijan) Maison Rouge Cotonou, Benin
February 2014 The World of Sica/Expo with Diagne Chanel, Daphne Bitchatch and D. Zinkpe
November 2014 The World of Sica / Expo with D.Zinpke Azalai
December 2014 Starting Block/with Meschac Gaba, Thierry Oussou Maison Rouge Cotonou - Consult the Catalog
March 2015 L'Envol/ The World of Sica Dina and Sébastien Boko Air France
July 2015 Métisse AquiAfrica Video (kulturforum/Brazil)
October 2015 In My Way Expo The World of Sica at Air France
October 2015 Residency at the Art and Culture Center with B.CLARKE and S. PANCREA'H Kouvito
January 2017 Exhibition at 59 rue de Rivoli Paris (égun gun Hovi)
March 2017 Exhibition at Aya Na films Paris (The Spirits' Walk)
May 2017 UNESCO African Week Exhibition nan mi ali
September 2017 Vodoo To Go Festival Utrecht Holland Performance/Expo/Video
September 2017 Festary Suhareka Kossovo Residency/Exhibition
April 2018 Résidense Nidgle Türkiye/Expo
April 2019 Exhibition at HOME (Inspiring Women) Cotonou
February 2019 Divine Feminine Exhibition Cotonou/Workshop
December 2019 - Exhibition in complete freedom - Exhibition at the artist's studio - Consult the catalog
March 2020 - Just a woman, Everyday heroine - Online exhibition - Consult the catalog
September 2021 - Meeting and dialogue - Exhibition at the SKM Agency - Consult the Catalogue
January 2022 - Chinese International Biennale - Beijing, China
February 2022 - Exhibition "What will they tell us?" - Off the exhibition Restitution of Benin's Cultural Property by France
March 2022 - "Women's Rights" Pop-up Exhibition with USAID and the American Embassy
March 2025 - "Causeries" Exhibition at the National Institute of Women - Cotonou Curator, Scenography, Exhibitor.