Art as a cure against COVID-19?

Those times of uncertainty we have been living for more than a year have at least the virtue of unleashing inspiration. All over the world, artists, no matter their domain, are using the torments triggered off by the coronavirus disease to feed their creations: painting, music, poetry, sculpture, every single form of art is achieving the mission humanity untrusted them: a duty of memory and oblivion at the same time.

In Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon, Alioum Moussa uses his art to convey a bunch of messages as well. The visual artist, who also works as a computer graphic designer to make a living, has been painting the world under the sway of the pandemic since last March. He completed more than a hundred paintings, which are gathered in his workshop of Yaoundé under the name of “God and the masks”.

The messages depicted in Alioum Moussa’s paintings are numerous. First of all, as he says himself, the world is terribly fragile since the pandemic appeared. You can be well-off or poor, Black or White, slim or fat, the COVID-19 does not care. Anyone can be hit, no matter where he or she comes from, a vulnerability the artist wanted to illustrate thanks to his paintings.

What about the fake news and nonsense stories we regularly see on social networks, sometimes relayed by the media? Alioum Moussa also used his art to condemn the stupidity of certain people, who are convinced that the pandemic is merely a Western plot aiming at killing human beings, especially Black people. Yes, some people do think that…

But his creations are the opportunity to propagate hope too, through lively and colored shades. He often paints children, sometimes carrying a mask, sometimes picking up flowers, as a way of claiming that in the end, life will win this fight and smiles will flourish again.