Institutional area
For institutions and the press
This area brings together what is needed to carry the project with the right attribution: the dossier signed by the author, the official credit line, the images and the press kit.
Official credit line
SANKARA, L'ÉTERNEL VEILLEUR, Hamed Ouattara, 2026,
Corten steel.
Parco Thomas Sankara, Via Ugo della Seta, III Municipio, Rome, Italy.
This credit must accompany any reproduction of the work or of its images, in print, online, on television and in publishing. The author's name may not be omitted, abbreviated, or replaced by that of a fabricating workshop or a subcontractor.
Extracts from the statement of intent
Burkina Faso has a national Memorial raised to the memory of Comrade President Thomas Sankara. This monument belongs to an approach that is complementary and distinct: to carry the memory of the President to the Burkinabè community settled in Europe, and to make it visible in an Italian public space used every day.
The decision taken is that of a contemporary steel sculpture rather than a figurative statue. That choice answers three considerations: the nature of the place, an urban park people walk through, where an upright work legible from every angle belongs better than a figure in the round; durability, Corten steel withstanding European weather without maintenance; and consistency with a practice of metalwork pursued for more than twenty years in a plastic language developed in Ouagadougou.
A monument installed abroad is not a work that moves away from the country, it is a work that carries it forward. It brings to Rome, into a public park Romans cross every day, the name and the face of an African head of State who refused debt, refused tutelage and defended the dignity of his people.
What this monument exports is not a souvenir: it is a living skill, a living aesthetic and a living memory, produced in Burkina Faso and recognised abroad.
Documents to download
The full statement of intent, the reading of the numbers, the description of the work, the illustrative drawing of the faces and a biography. A translation of the second edition of the French dossier, current with the finished work.
A short version for the newsroom: specification, the reading of the numbers, the story of the project and the credit line to be used.
The French original of the institutional dossier, second edition, Ouagadougou, 6 October 2026, remains the reference document: in case of any divergence of interpretation, it prevails. Download the French original (PDF).
High-resolution photographs are available on request from the workshop: studiohamedouattarabf@gmail.com. Any reproduction must carry the credit line given above.
The institutions concerned
- Ministry of Communication, Culture, Arts and Tourism (Ministère de la Communication, de la Culture, des Arts et du Tourisme) — the supervising authority.
- Thomas Sankara Memorial, and the Projet de Construction des Infrastructures du Mémorial Isidore Noël Thomas Sankara, which bears the recurring costs of this site.
- Bureau Burkinabè du Droit d'Auteur — registration and protection of the work.
- Embassy of Burkina Faso in Rome and Haut Conseil des Burkinabè de l'Étranger — relays to the diaspora.
The institutional dossier has been submitted, for information and for adoption, to the Burkinabè authorities competent in matters of national memory and culture.
The Sankara movement and the “Ma brique pour Sankara” campaign