Barthélémy Toguo is a multiple disciplinary artist whose work addresses migration, colonialism, race, exile and displacement.
Born in 1967 in Cameroon, he lives and works between Bandjoun and Paris. After studying at the fine arts academy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Toguo made his way to the fine arts academy in Grenoble, then the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Freely encompassing drawing, sculpture, video, installation and performance, his creations draw inspiration from his experience, travels and encounters. Watercolour has a central place in his work.
Toguo plays with the spaces where different materials overlap. He created pathways between Western and African traditions and observes the language and new identities that arise therein. His cultural and social engagement is evident in the Bandjoun Station art centre that he created in Cameroon in 2013.
Toguo's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon; Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Kunstsammlungen der Stadt, Düsseldorf, among others. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at institutions including Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden; Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne, France; La Verrière by Hermès, Brussels; Fundaçao Gulbenkian, Lisbon; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Languages: French and English
Political geography and personal encouters
