Daughter of visual artist Kalidou Kassé, a civil engineering graduate: Discover the brilliant career of Khady Kassé, set designer for the Youth Olympic Games

While the opening ceremony of the first Youth Olympic Games in Africa captivated the world with its aesthetics and visual spectacle, the magic owes a great deal to the talent of Khady Kassé. Daughter of the renowned visual artist Kalidou Kassé, this internationally trained civil engineer, interior designer, and set designer was the creative force behind the ceremonial lectern, the illuminated seed, and the urban decor of the event. From Dakar to New York, we look back at the exceptional career of a multidisciplinary artist who is shaping the contemporary image of Senegalese culture.

Behind the powerful emotions experienced by the public at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) are talented women and men whose work contributes to the spectacle's full scope. Among the architects of this success is a designer whose expertise has profoundly shaped the visual world of this exceptional event. The daughter of renowned painter Kalidou Kassé, Khady Kassé has valiantly left her mark through a remarkable scenography, providing a refined setting for the Games' official opening ceremony.

Through her scenographic work, she has transformed spaces into veritable artistic tableaux where imagination, aesthetic exploration, cultural identity, and contemporary expression converge. Seneweb met with Khady Kassé to discover the journey of this artist who is enhancing the Youth Olympic Games stage.

Her work goes beyond mere decoration or spatial arrangement; it contributes to the creation of a truly immersive visual experience, capable of conveying emotions, telling a story, and celebrating African cultural identity. By contributing to the staging of a major international sporting event, Khady Kassé demonstrates that scenography is a powerful artistic language, at the intersection of culture, performance, and event planning. According to numerous observers and art enthusiasts, her work deserves to be recognized for its true worth, because behind every great spectacle are creators who give shape to dreams and make the extraordinary possible.

A monumental scenographic undertaking

As part of this international event, she contributed to the scenographic design of three major elements: the protocol lectern, the luminous seed and the representation of the urban environment.

The design of the ceremonial lectern stemmed from rigorous research combining institutional representation, functionality, and architectural coherence. Intended to be integrated into a large-scale ceremonial setting, this element perfectly meets the requirements of visibility, formal composition, and solemnity inherent in official interventions.

The luminous seed, for its part, constitutes a work of sculptural and scenographic dimensions. It combines form, matter and light in a composition specifically designed for the stage space, illustrating the capacity of scenography to mobilize plastic elements to enrich the visual dramaturgy of a ceremony.

The city's representation reflects an architectural approach to scenography in which the city's forms become integral elements of the stage design. This production utilizes the relationships between volumes, perspectives, and spatial composition to visually recreate the urban environment throughout the ceremony.

These major contributions to the Youth Olympic Games demonstrate the broadening of the artist's scope of work, from exhibition design to the creation of installations for large-scale international event productions. They highlight the complementary nature of his skills in civil engineering, architecture, scenography, and interior design, as well as their application in projects demanding a seamless integration of artistic ambition, technical constraints, and production coordination.

Who is Khady Kassé?

Coming from a family environment steeped in artistic creation, she showed an early interest in the organization of places, architectural forms and the relationships between spaces and their occupants.

Khady Kassé is a Senegalese professional in architecture, scenography, and interior design whose career combines academic excellence, international training, and extensive experience in designing artistic, cultural, and event spaces. At the crossroads of engineering, architectural creation, and visual arts, she develops a multidisciplinary approach in which technical mastery of structures is interwoven with aesthetic research, the expression of cultural identities, and the staging of spaces. From the Museum of Black Civilizations to New York, Khady Kassé has consistently left her mark through works acclaimed both in Senegal and abroad.

Her academic journey began with graduate studies in civil engineering, culminating in her graduation at the top of her class. This training provided her with the scientific and technical foundations of construction, including an understanding of structures, volume analysis, and the methodological rigor inherent to engineering disciplines. She then pursued further studies in the United States to deepen her knowledge of architecture and scenography, before completing her training in Canada in the fields of interior design, public relations, and corporate communications. This international experience allows her to develop a comprehensive expertise in space, from its structural and functional dimensions to its artistic, sensory, and narrative expressions.