Bill Kouélany

Bill Kouélany (born 31 October 1965 in Brazzaville) is a Congolese artist, writer and set designer. In 2007, she participated in Documenta 12 in Kassel with a multimedia art installation. She lives in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo.

Life and career As a teenager, B. Kouélany (as she prefers to be called) lived through the wars and violence in her native Congo. Years later the imprints of those early experiences can be found in her writings and art.

As of 2016, many of her writings have never been published.

Painter B. Kouélany's paintings reveal the artist's self-taught skills as well as their autobiographical elements, making her art sought out among international audiences in Africa and Europe. Since 2007, her work has been distributed internationally by the Peter Hermann Gallery in Berlin and the RDV Gallery in Nantes, France. In 2007, B. Kouélany was the first sub-Saharan African woman to exhibit at Documenta in Kassel. She presented her largest piece to date: a paper maché wall with excerpts of texts from several international newspapers and warped videos of her face, in which she expresses, as a mother and daughter, her empathy toward the Congolese people.

Mentor In 2012, B. Kouélany founded the contemporary art centre and workshop space, Les Ateliers Sahm, in Brazzaville, becoming its artistic director. The multidisciplinary centre supports contemporary art in Congo and is devoted to supporting young artists, not only from her country but the rest of the African continent as well. According to the Prince Claus Fund, the creation of Les Ateliers Sahm "is perhaps one of her greatest achievements."

She continues to work creatively. In 2019, she took part in the exhibition Prête-moi ton rêve (Lend me your dream) in Morocco, which featured other painters from African and was scheduled (at the time) to visit multiple countries.

Awards 2006: Prix de la Francophonie (France) 2006: Montalvo Arts Center Prize (USA) 2018: Officer of Arts and Letters, awarded by the French Ministry of Culture. 2019: Prince Claus Prize in the Netherlands.