barthélémy toguo - Fondation d`entreprise Hermès

Hermès
50 boulevard de waterloo, bruxelles 1000
tél. + 32 (0)2 511 20 62
waterloolaan 50, brussel 1000
BARTHÉLÉMY TOGUO
THE WELL WATER
Exposition on view 4 november to 17 december 2011
Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm
An exhibition of
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He carries all the burdens of his native Africa on his broad shoulders. Barthélémy
Toguo, 44, of Cameroonian and French extraction (decorated by the French
Republic) exhibited across five continents in some of the most selective art galleries,
already has ten monographs to his name. He is mentioned in some 80 collective
works, yet he nevertheless completely subsumes his own ego as an artist to the
“Bandjoun Station”. An opponent of subsidies sent by the West to Africa, he devotes
his energy and financial resources to this project of an artistic residency venue.
This involves building and running an ambitious and popular art centre capable of
rivalling the best in the world in the city of Bandjoun, Cameroon, the cradle of his
family with a population of 200,000. Drawing on the local spheres of education and
agriculture, he has involved the local community in building, managing and
coordinating the venue, and then in hosting major international artists in residence.
Orlan has just conducted a workshop there with her students from the École
nationale supérieure d’arts in Paris-Cergy. In the summer of 2011, the space was
occupied by choreographers and performers. These workshops involve secondary
schools and universities students and they prioritise the production of works for
the public space. As the American exhibition curator, Sheryl Conkelton, writes,
“Toguo expresses a constitutive generosity in these productive localities which
generate with dynamism the impossible, the probable, new expectations and
constant transformations.”
Determined since childhood, when he devoured books on Goya or Titien discovered
in the school library he attended, Barthélémy Toguo dreams of art as a factor for
universal development. This led him from Cameroon to the Abidjan School of Fine
Arts in Ivory Coast and thence to Grenoble, in the same school where major french
artists (Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Ange Leccia, Philippe Parreno
and Jean-Luc Wilmouth) studied too. His training was honed during a residency at
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the famous Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he confronted his subject under the
supervision of a demanding Teacher: The great german artist Klaus Rinke. Final
destination: a studio in Montmartre (Paris) where he perfected his provocative ideas.
To take just one example, he donned the green uniform of the garbage collectors,
took the Cologne-Paris train and immortalised the reactions of passengers and train
staff by photographing them. Photos that fascinated the influential art critic, HansUlrich Obrist, who included them in his exhibition, “Migrateurs”.
In Toguo’s approach, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès sees a strong echo of its
own activity. With the installation of 70 coloured barrels, this provides the artist with
the opportunity to place emphasis on water, now a rare and treasured commodity,
a prerequisite for any prosperity in drought-stricken countries. Next to the barrels are
ten ladders, sculpted by Barthélémy Toguo in Cameroon to symbolise inequality and
the dream of social betterment, of which the poet Pierre Reverdy said: “La vie est une
chose grave. Il faut gravir” (Life is serious, it is a serious struggle to reach the top).
Alice Morgaine
Artistic Director, La Verrière
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Barthélémy Toguo, 2011.
Always striking for their social sensitivity, his other works favour drawings (of
extraordinary power) like those exhibited at his gallery in Paris, the Galerie Lelong,
and sculpture, like the solid wood suitcases put on show at the Roissy-Charles-deGaulle Airport in 1996, the twenty blocks of wood coffins lined up on trestles in 2010
at the Dakar Biennial, or his giant immigration stamps marked “entry prohibited”,
“immigration office”, or “national security”. In 2011, he was commissioned by RolandGarros to convey the image of the French Open. His poster on a background of
netting/mesh with a tree full of balls/apples is a magnificent symbol of life.
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Barthélémy Toguo, 2011.
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BARTHÉLÉMY TOGUO
Born in 1967 in Cameroon, he lives and works in Paris (France), Bandjoun (Cameroon)
and New York (United States).
Barthélémy Toguo has over 35 solo exhibitions to his name. He has participated in some
180 collective exhibitions, fifteen of which were biennials or triennials, and in prestigious
events such as La Force de l’art at the Grand Palais in Paris, the Sevilla and Sydney
Biennals, the 2011 Lyon Biennal, and the 2011 Porto Alegre Mercosul in Brazil.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
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The Well Water, La Verrière/Hermès, Brussels (Belgium).
The Lost Dogs’ Orchestra, Galerie Lelong, Paris.
Cissé / Toguo, Dak’Art Biennale de Dakar, Institut français, Dakar (Senegal).
The World Examination, Centre for Contemporary Art, Châtellerault (France).
Liberty Leading the People, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (Portugal).
Lyrics Night, Musée royal, Bandjoun.
Centre culturel français, Pointe-Noire (Congo).
The World Examination, Item éditions, Paris.
The Pregnant Mountain, Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
Road for Exile, Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa, Palace of the Marquis de Pombal, Lisbon.
… et la parole fut, Frac, Saint-Denis de La Réunion (France).
The World Examination, Item éditions, Paris.
The aids issue cannot be solved through the distribution of condoms.
Benedict XVI, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna (Austria).
Heart Beat, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (United Kingdom).
Spiritual Genocide, Art Brussels, Brussels.
The Devilish Human Temptations – Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna.
Purifications, Arco 2007, Madrid (Spain), by Mario Mauroner Contemporary
Art, Vienna and Salzburg (Austria).
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2006
2005
2004
2003 2002 2001
2000
1999
1998
1996
1994
La Magie du Souffle, Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseilles (France).
The Wildcats’ Dinner, Ateliers d’artistes de la ville de Marseille, Marseilles.
The Wildcats’ Dinner, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg.
The Human Mirror, École supérieure d’art, Lorient (France).
The Sick Opera, Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Swallowing the World/Avalez le monde, Aliceday, Brussels.
La guerre des sexes n’aura pas lieu, École régionale des beaux arts, Valence (France).
Pure and Clean, Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee (United States).
Puk, Puk, Puk, Centre de création contemporaine, Tours (France).
Emergency Exit, Le Lieu unique, Nantes (France).
Épidémies, Goethe Institut, Yaoundé (Cameroon).
Das Bett, École régionale de beaux-arts, Dunkerque (France).
Art Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel (Switzerland).
Barthélémy Toguo, The Box Associati Gallery, Turin (Italy).
Virgin Forest, La Criée, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rennes (France).
Pénicilline, Centre culturel français, Turin.
Baptism, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in der Tonhalle, Düsseldorf (Germany).
Migrateurs, ARC, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.
Barthélémy Toguo, Galerie François Barnoud, Dijon (France).
Parasites, Centre d’arts plastiques de Saint-Fons (France).
Barthélémy Toguo, Goethe Institut, Yaoundé.
Pôle européen, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, Grenoble (France).
Barthélémy Toguo is represented in Paris by the Galerie Lelong and in Austria by the Mauroner
Contemporary Art Gallery (in Vienna and Salzburg).
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