Cameroonian visual artist shows passion with Abu Dhabi exhibition
Belgium-based Cameroonian contemporary artist Pascale Marthine Tayou – whose solo show “Lobi Lobi” is currently running in Abu Dhabi, courtesy of the Cultural Foundation – has revealed how he looks to art to express his passions.
He told Arab News: “The exhibition actually deals with one single theme, our human passions. This theme is very important in my practice, as when I am working on a new piece, it’s a way to express all these passions that I feel inside. “I am not an artist, I am doing things, and in French I say that I am a faiseur. This term also means someone who entertains the crowd and tells stories. In other words, someone who doesn’t do things the normal way and I enter the system like everyone else, but I add my touch. “This might bring something new in the viewer’s eyes and I hope it will … so this exhibition is all of this together.”
“Lobi Lobi” presents works which examine the scarcity and excess of resources in the contemporary landscape. Named after the artist’s poem of the same name, the exhibition highlights the rich paradoxes of consumer and material culture.
Also running as part of the exhibition is “Bobo Land,” aimed at a younger audience. Visitors will be able to explore the show through the eyes of Bobo, Tayou’s persona of a dreaming child discovering and inventing their own future.
He said: “Bobo is the prototype of every child who has a big dream that will come true when they grow up.
“This project is born from a book I wrote, the story of a young boy who wants to travel to the
Moon. His journey is filled with a lot of adventures, and magical encounters. Maybe it’s a dream, maybe not.
“Turning this story into the ‘Bobo Land’ exhibition created a dream laboratory, a visual exercise book, a journey of mysteries into the heart of the unknown.”
Tayou is not interested in being labeled in any way, even shrinking away from the idea of being called an artist.
“Unfortunately, I’m not an artist, I’m just a kid who, like Bobo, has been doing things to please himself since he was a kid. And I am sharing them with the world. I built a different path in which I created.”*