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the-debo.bsky.social
The débo
@the-debo.bsky.social
84 followers 97 following 270 posts
Straddling US / France* / West Africa

[Image: Mural/Stencil Art — Banksy / Timbuktu, Mali, W. Africa]
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the-debo.bsky.social
Not Like Us.
The initiated: the sacred dancers of the "Nwantantay", a Bwa plank mask of rural Boni, Burkina Faso, West Africa. [Jean-Claude Moschetti, series: Magic on Earth"] Carved from a single piece of wood, the Nwantantay's vertical superstructure with its bold geometric designs represents Bwa ideals of social and moral behavior: zigzag lines denote ancestral paths, x-shaped markings echo Bwa scarification marks, checkered patterns, duality or opposites, concentric circles, the cosmos ... a white crescent moon at the apex.
December 4, 2025 at 4:10 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Like defacing scratches on glass, satellite-streaks crisscross the night sky above the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park, Western Australia. [Joshua Rozells]
December 3, 2025 at 12:02 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Improbable, right?!

(Mucca Pazza and Justin Timberlake's ensemble are right up there!)
Chicago's Mucca Pazza, a performing arts marching band, "jammed" behind the Tiny Desk (even up on cabinets!) Justin Timberlake, backup singers, musicians spread behind (and over!) the Tiny Desk.
December 2, 2025 at 10:03 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
[Record scratch sound effects]
From the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC): The star field of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). "In just 15 minutes of acquisition, we counted 1,659 satellite trails (about 400 individual ones). Words cannot describe the pollution of near space".
December 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
We're on it.
The photo that gained viral traction in the days following the Louvre heist: French police officers block the museum's access. While seeking to capture the security cordon, Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus snapped this picture, drawn to the mysterious (but random it turns out!) passerby —a "fedora-ed, Hercule Poirot-like" detective, at least in the public imagination!
November 28, 2025 at 5:56 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
In parallel: An aesthetic nod to West African women and, parenthetically, to the ethnic Serer equine-culture. [Franco-British street artist YZ Yseult's open-air female warrior portrait framed simultaneously by a horse and cart, ubiquitous in Senegal]
November 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Yup ...
November 24, 2025 at 10:02 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
When Africa is in on the equation ...
Fibonacci on a macro scale: the continent of Africa overlayed with the Fibonacci spiral. [11/23 Fibonacci Day]
November 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Sandcrafted:
Drawing a line in the sand
November 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
On the lookout at the Louvre.
For French street artist Le CyKlop, an ordinary metal delineator post becomes an extraordinary canvas, topped with his single, unblinking, signature eye. * A nod to Marcel Duchamp's 1919 "L.H.O.O.Q, Mona Lisa with Moustache". (Bollard positioned in the Louvre's main courtyard.) *Nod to Marcel Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q, Mona Lisa with Moustache" (1919).
November 16, 2025 at 1:34 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
🎶 Looking Back / Over my shoulder ...
A raffia-clad, traditionally-masked Bwa ceremonial dancer emerges over the shoulder of a master tama-player, whose very drumbeats give rhythm and cadence to his steps. Dédougou, Burkina Faso, West Africa. [Anthony Pappone, Series: "The Spirit of the Masks"] *Reference to "Over My Shoulder" lyrics by Mike + The Mechanics
November 14, 2025 at 12:11 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Swapping out political slogans with pop culture/literary references: "Wait 𝐹𝑜𝓇 It" replaces "Zohran 𝐹𝑜𝓇 NYC" in the Bollywood-inspired font originally created for Zohran Mamdani by the small design cooperative, Forge. [The University of Indiana's Mamdani Poster Generator: https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/for.html] Ellipses ... Mamdani-inspired!
November 13, 2025 at 11:42 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
Irresponsibly posting my location on social media.
Mali relief location map: Lake "Débo", in the inner delta of the Niger River, between Djenné and Timbuktu. Coordinates: 15°19′0″N 4°6′0″W.
November 11, 2025 at 3:07 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Color theory.
A black & white followed by color version of a Dan wooden ceremonial mask highlights how colors are organized, combined, contrasted, and perceived by West African traditional society. [Liberian Preservation Society Collection] A horizontal, now visibly red eye-band and a textured headdress of color-coordinated feathers and cowries are expressions of the Zakpai Ge mask, spirit protector against wild fire, of the Dan people of the Ivory Coast and neighboring Liberia.
November 9, 2025 at 1:30 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Meanwhile, back at the Louvre ...
... 1947. French photographer Pierre Jahan documents another historic Louvre moment: the restoration of the museum's Grand Gallery and the return of its hidden artworks after WWII. *Framed: The photograph 'frames' an empty frame, which in turn 'frames' a series of hung frames (and workers) in the background.
November 6, 2025 at 10:48 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
Started / Going: Halloween Edition
“Le violoncelle sous la pluie” (The cello in the rain), Paris. Photo: Robert Doisneau (1957). In an artistic collaboration between French photographer Robert Doisneau and cellist Maurice Baquet, the musician holds his umbrella, not over himself, but over his beloved instrument. This devotion to art is amplified by the soaked painter in the background, still humorously standing at his easel undeterred by the pouring rain. Doisneau's celebrated cello in the rain is reimagined as a classical, levitating, sheet-draped ghost.
October 31, 2025 at 10:25 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
The Lineup.
A back view of the usual Halloween suspects, from the Reaper to Dracula, facing a wall of urinals in Heineken's 2003 seasonal opus: "The Restroom".
October 30, 2025 at 1:08 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 10:19 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
Brings to mind ...
The master traceur / master thief Vjeran Tomic, whom the French press referred to as the Spider-Man of Paris, likens theft to an act of imagination. [Still shot, "scaling the wall", from the Netflix documentary "Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris"] Location: The Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Date: May 20th, 2010. Time: 3:30 AM. Event: The astounding theft of five iconic 20th-century paintings by Vjeran Tomic [Still shot, "painting heist', from the Netflix documentary "Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris"]
October 28, 2025 at 4:50 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Entre-temps, un changement de slogan chez Böcker aussi: «Quand il faut faire vite»!

"Le Böcker Agilo peut transporter jusqu'à 400 kilos de trésors, à une vitesse de 42 mètres par minute, grâce à un moteur aussi silencieux qu'un murmure"!
L’entreprise allemande Böcker a publié une photo de son monte-charge déployé jusqu’au premier étage d’un coin du Louvre - prise par l’AFP le jour du vol - avec le slogan humoristique: «Quand il faut faire vite»!
October 24, 2025 at 10:57 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
Ladders in the limelight.
Notched wooden Gurunsi ladder, Burkina Faso, West Africa. [Stephen Kamin] Handcrafted, Y-shaped granary ladder.  Tiebélé, Burkina Faso, West Africa. [Dan Heller] Traditional Dogon sculpted ladder. Mali., West Africa. [Stuart Redler] The extendable ladder used by three thieves in the 7-minute Louvre heist propped on the museum's southeast corner, Quai Francois-Mitterrand, on the banks of the River Seine. [Getty Images]
October 21, 2025 at 9:50 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
If the heist had been ladderless ...

[+ dramatic music]
October 20, 2025 at 10:58 AM
the-debo.bsky.social
France nods, knowingly.
Head nod to a headless (singing) Marie Antoinette who is recreated at a window at the Conciergerie, where, along the Seine river embankment, the queen was held captive during the French Revolution.
October 18, 2025 at 4:23 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Cover art of Victorien Malmont's "La Révolution des Grenouilles" (The Frog Revolution), reimagining Eugène Delacroix's celebrated masterpiece "Liberty Leading the People", homage to the French fight for liberty, equality, fraternity and reason.
October 18, 2025 at 12:46 PM
the-debo.bsky.social
Mood.
A Parisian waiter in traditional 'garçon' attire — black pants, vest, bow tie, impeccably starched white shirt and long waist-apron — on break, cigarette in hand, lost in thought, leg propped against the wall. [P. Torper]
October 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM