Lausanne-based gallery Foreign Agent was founded by the Swiss Chinese businessman Olivier Chow, a former employee of the Red Cross. The gallery focuses on emerging and mid-career contemporary designers from Africa. Here, it is showing a series called Bolibana by Hamed Ouattara, a furniture designer who runs a studio of apprentices in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Ouattara’s designs are works of creative salvage, such as these consoles upcycled from colourful oil barrels discarded on the side of the road. Jimena Sougri, a green console, is on sale for SFr30,000 ($33,500).
Our pick of Design Miami/Basel: from a €6 million donkey planter to a Surrealist cage bed
Tom Seymour, The Art Newspaper, June 15, 2023