ousseynou gassama
species of spaces
The gallery presents its first monographic exhibition of Hassan (known as Ousseynou Gassama), featuring a selection of 24 drawings on wooden boards from the collection of Kathrin Golda-Pongratz and Thomas Golda, who discovered the artist in 2008.
It was on the sidewalks of Barcelona’s port district that Hassan (known as Ousseynou Gassama) meticulously drew flat-roofed houses and geometric furniture hovering over the raw grain of salvaged wine-crate boards.
His sole possessions were a suitcase used to store his tools and artwork, and a radio to listen to music.
A former blacksmith in Senegal, he harbored a deep fascination with angles—both symbolically and commercially—convinced that their multiplication determined the value of the work.
In lieu of a signature, he inlaid and polished small copper plates stamped with the number 4.
Between rigorous abstraction and selective realism, his silent compositions retain all their mystery, as though these suspended spaces were telling a story whose narrative eludes us.
In 2008, Kathrin Golda-Pongratz and Thomas Golda discovered his work and supported him until his disappearance from the city in 2012. Since then, no one knows what became of him. In 2025, they contributed to his first exhibition at the Casa Museu Mater, while his work has since entered prestigious collections, notably that of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Of Senegalese origin, Hassan found domicile in the wince cellars’ area of Barcelona’s port. Secretive, not talking much or not at all, he lives in the street isolated and looks as if he were in his thirties. According to “a friend”, he comes from a small village and has a daughter. As soon as he gets a bit of money, he buys himself batteries for his radio and enjoys listening to music. He draws on the wood boards of wine cases which he has sharpened with a saw or a cutter, flat-roofed houses, functional geometrical furniture. He works meticulously, pounders and precisely disposes his instruments before making a line. As signature, he uses copper pieces which he includes in th wood,[…]