Barthélémy Toguo

Barthélémy Toguo (born 1967) is a Cameroonian painter, visual and performing artist. He currently splits his time living and working in both Paris, France and Bandjoun, Cameroon. He works in a variety of media aside from visual and performing arts including photographs, prints, sculptures, videos, and installations.

Biography

Toguo studied at the National school of Fine Arts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at the École supérieure d'Art de Grenoble, France and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany. Some of his paintings are found in The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Jean Pigozzi. Starting in 2005 and continuing until completion in 2007, he constructed a cultural project called the Bandjoun Station. It is an art center located in his native Cameroon that includes an exhibition space, a library, an artist residency, and an organic farm. It was made to foster contemporary art and culture within the local community. The station is composed of two distinct buildings divided into different centers that are used for multiple individual purposes. The main building is designed with five armed concrete pillars and topped with a ten meter high gable; this sloped roof respects the traditional architecture or the area. The station is in a location that welcomes all sorts of traditions. People are invited to appropriate this space, to organize festivals for or related to their culture such as burials, births, and even weddings. It is all done in hopes to create social cohesion within the community.

In 2011, Toguo was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature in France for his ongoing engagement and creativity, helping to develop the arts and culture in France and throughout the world, and building bridges between nations with his art. Later in 2016, Toguo was shortlisted for the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France's most high-profile art award. He was awarded a 2018 Inga Maren Otto Fellowship by The Watermill Center in Long Island, New York. During his residency over the summer in 2018, he created some of the works for his exhibition The Beauty of Our Voice, presented at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York,

Artwork The Road to Exile is the centerpiece to The Beauty of Our Voice series. The installation addresses the migrant and refugee crisis, the desire of young Africans to escape and specifically the desire of young Africans to escape in hopes for a better life. Toguo is a multiple disciplinary artist whose work addresses migration, colonialism, race, exile and displacement. The passport had the ability to document an individual's travels across borders. This small book contains a variety of stamps that became a visual mark of the policing of humans. This concept of belonging stems from his dual citizenship in both Cameroon and France. His work has also been informed by the social movements including Black Lives Matter seen in his Black Lives Always Matter series and the refugee crisis seen in The Beauty of Our Voice Florida; 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. 2019 Urban Requiem, Lelong Gallery, New York 2018 The Beauty of Our Voice, presented at the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, from August 5, 2018 to October 14, 2018. His first solo exhibition at an American museum. 2018 Heimatlos, Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg 2017 Fragile Body, Hadrian From Montferrand Gallery, Beijing, China 2017 Strange fruit, Lelong & Co Gallery, Paris 2016 Strange Fruit, Johannesburg, South Africa 2014 The Cost of Living, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Narbonne, France 2014 A dream place for the orphans, l’Aspirateur Lieu d’art contemporain, Narbonne France. 2011 Criminal Tribunal, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna 2004/2005 The Sick Opera, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2004 La guerre des sexes n’aura pas lieu, Ecole régionale des Beaux-Arts, Valence, France 2003 Pure and Clean, Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, USA 1994 European center, Saint-Martin d’Heres, Grenoble, France

Group 2019 Perilous Bodies, Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York, USA 2018 Exile, International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, Switzerland 2014 Jaume Plensa - Kiki Smith - Bartélémy Toguo , Lelong Gallery, Paris 2005 African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, USA 2005 Hayward Gallery, London, England 2005 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France 2004 Africa Remix, Art contemporain d’un continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany 2004 Je m’installe aux abattoirs, La collection d’art contemporain d’agnès b., Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France 2003 The American Effect, Global Perspectives on the United States, 1990-2003, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA