and he was the artistic director of the Dakar Biennale in 2006. Jems Robert Koko Bi (sculptor, 1966) Ernest Dükü (Painter, 1958): Dükü is an artist who have engaged in dialogue with the rich systems of graphic inscription and writing of Africa but his result are highly individual, his work ask the cosmogonical world system, the spiritual systems; by using his training in architecture may explain the volume and dimensionality that situates his works somewhere between painting and sculpture. Ouattara Watts (painter, 1957): Watts is an internationally recognized neo-expressionist painter. Watts is a jazz enthusiast, who merged music and art in paintings and collages, by using recycled everyday materials. Paul Sika (fashion and advertising photographer/creative director/artist, 1985) Mathilde Moraeau (painter): Director of the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Abidjan Sidiki Bakaba (actor, scenario writer, director, 1949): Awarded for his entire career in 2nd Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers in 2009, and Best Actor for West Africa by la Fondation des artistes de Ivory Coast (FONDACI) in 2008 Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (painter, 1923, 2013): Many of his paintings are in the collection of Jean Pigozzi Ethnic groups There are more than sixty ethnic groups in the Ivory Coast, the key ones being the Baoulé in the center, the Agri in the east, the Senufo in the north, the Dioula in the northwest and west, the Bété in the center-west and the Dan-Yacouba in the west. Other groups, such as the Akan and their sub-groups the Abron, Akye, Anye, and Aowin also make up a large part of the population. Each of these groups has their own history, economy, religion, & art, although each shares many things in common with the other groups of the Ivory Coast. Migrants from other West African countries account for up to 40% of the population, and this large population also adds to the culture and customs. Akan The Akan is the major cultural group of the Ivory Coast, with a population of approximately 8 million. The Bono, Baoule, the Akye, the Anye, the Asante and the Aowin are all Akan people. Among the Akan-speaking people of southern Ghana and adjacent Ivory Coast, ritual pottery and figurative terracottas are used in connection with funeral practices that date at least to the 17th century. Much of what we know about ancient Akan customs comes to us in the form of oral histories which have survived for several