Barthélémy Toguo

Barthélémy Toguo (Cameroon, 1967) studied at the School of Fine Arts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and at the Grenoble School of Fine Arts in France. He lives and works between Paris and Cameroon, and his practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, performance, and installation.

His work addresses identity, belonging, politics, globalization, borders, exile, and displacement. He combines African and global cultural references through poetic and figurative gestures that connect nature with the human body. His works also address ecological and social issues, as well as humanitarian movements and crises such as #BlackLivesMatter and the plight of refugees.

He has participated in the Venice Biennale (2015), the Sydney Biennale (2011 and 2022), the Dakar Biennale (2000, 2010, 2016, 2018, and 2022), the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2018), and Documenta in Kassel. She has had solo exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the São Paulo Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Blachère Foundation. In 2008, he founded Bandjoun Station in Cameroon, a cultural center featuring an exhibition hall, a library, an artist residency, and an organic farm.