The creative process that Hervé Yamguen and Hervé Youmbi have embarked upon over the last ten years has focused on expressing the cultural diversity of their surroundings in terms of their relationship with the world. Steeped in the culture of their environment, which is linked to the practice of rituals, their work as visual artists has led them to explore performance and installation art.
This projection of photos and videos of their work provides the opportunity to explore their respective imaginary worlds that are in constant contact with both the local and global environment, classical and contemporary approaches and both political and spiritual themes.
The presentation will be individual at first and then based on a joint project.
The poet and visual artist Hervé Yamguen is a member of the Kapsiki collective. He shares his time between Douala and his native village Balassié. The storytelling bird, a recurrent figure in his work, is a celebration of life.
Hervé Youmbi was born in 1973 in Bangui (CAR) and lives and works in Douala (Cameroon). He studied at the Institut de Formation Artistique de Mbalmayo (Cameroon) and the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg (France), which was later renamed the Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin (HEAR). He teaches the visual arts at the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Douala in Nkongsamba.
Building bridges between the cultural realities of the past and the present lies at the heart of his current creative practice.
The Dialogues Across the African World cycle is presented by école des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Cité internationale des arts, and run by Dominique Malaquais (CR, CNRS-IMAF), Julie Peghini (MCF, Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint Denis University-CEMTI), Christine Douxami (MCF HDR, Franche-Comté University-IMAF) and Sarah Fila-Bakabadio (MCF, CY Cergy Paris Université-AGORA).