The ship Diaby present document Who will save the world? at Lafayette Expectations in Paris from April 1 to July 19, 2026. The exhibition presents an installation made from furniture collected on the street or sourced second-hand. Daiby reworks each piece, drawing from the way his mother decorates the furniture at home. In her space, objects brought a connection to spirituality and closeness to God. This reference shapes how each piece in the exhibition is shaped.
ART
Diaby works with furniture as display structures for discarded objects. These items have little material value in everyday use. Within the exhibition, their status changes. Each work links the artist to an unknown previous owner, creating a shared authorship that remains open and unresolved.
The facility wonders how the price is formed and who sets it. Objects that once had no meaning take on new meaning within an art institution. Diaby places them in this environment to examine how Western systems confer cultural value.
Within the installation, the works take on a talismanic role. Political, spiritual and artistic ideas come together through the objects that Diaby selects and processes. He treats these materials as tools of self-liberation, allowing him to pursue a life beyond the destiny set by Western social hierarchies for a Malian man of Muslim faith living in France.
The title Who’s Gonna Save the World? asks a rhetorical question. Diaby sees the collapse as part of a larger process that enables reconstruction. He suggests that accepting this condition opens up the possibility for new forms of collective life. The projects point to shared responsibility, where change depends on collective action.
He has curated the exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations Ben Broome.
Ladji Diaby was born in 2000 in Saint-Denis and lives in the greater Paris area. He studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. His practice combines found objects, image and video, engaging political and social questions through installation. His recent solo exhibition No one has ever told their child hunger took place at the Kunstverein Nuremberg from 2024 to 2025. His work has also appeared in group exhibitions such as Felicità 2025 at the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2026, Partenaires Particuliers at the Fondation de CAB and Beauxhistoria in 2025 2024. Previous presentations include exhibitions in Paris, Geneva, Cologne, Lausanne and Corsica. In 2024, he joined a collective residence at the Villa Medici in Rome, a guest of Les Chichas de la Pensée.
