Hello Hive community!
In this article, I'm going to continue sharing with you the second part of my visit to the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. If you missed the first part, you can find it again [here]. Today, I'm going to talk to you in detail about the ‘Stronger Together’ exhibition by the artist Barthélémy Toguo.
What touched me most was the way Togo uses everyday materials to create his works. He often works with recycled elements, giving them a second life, which brings an ecological and contemporary dimension to his art. Each painting and sculpture seems to carry a strong message about our common humanity.
I took the time to admire each work, trying to understand the intentions behind each brushstroke, each texture, each colour contrast.
Barthélémy Toguo is a protean contemporary Cameroonian artist who is one of the most important in the world, and he is placing this exhibition under the sign of dialogue with Moroccan culture. The title of the exhibition evokes solidarity, a central value for the artist, which includes fraternity, reciprocity, unity and cooperation. Toguo calls for solidarity between peoples, generations, artists and craftsmen to celebrate beauty and prevent societal drift. He uses a variety of artistic techniques to create a world of harmony and solidarity, affirming the power of art to act.
If, as William Morris once said, ‘it is by the learning of centuries that an artist is born in the workshop of the world’, Barthélémy Toguo reclaims this heritage of beauty, which he reinterprets with his own specific vocabulary. Interacting with the techniques of Moroccan craftsmanship, Barthélémy Toguo is fully committed to his work, which takes the form of traditional ceramics, tapestries and zellige.
A deeply committed artist, Barthélémy Toguo confronts the life of plants, humans and animals with the harshness of the world. The injustices, discrimination and exile suffered by many impoverished people drive him to create works of great humanity. In this exhibition I was able to discover recent works produced in Morocco, accompanied by a documentary and videos of performances.
Paintings
In his paintings in shades of blue and green, exhibited here, Barthélémy Toguo revisits his favourite subjects with new variations. Born of realities and dreams, these images are the result of a powerful hybridisation of kingdoms and species that creates other realities. Hands protruding from heads, standing anthropomorphic fish, female bodies that extend into plants, heads emerging from a magma of colour that swallow lianas, a skull or a leg from which a tree (of life?) springs - these are the elements of an iconography that is all his own. It signifies the importance to the artist of balance and harmony in the nature of all beings, human and non-human, animal and vegetable. The liquidity of the material gives these works the fluidity and life force that animate her universe.
Ceramics
Attracted by the rich shapes and decorations of traditional Moroccan ceramics, Barthélémy Toguo gives them a new lease of life through his unique artistic language. He draws inspiration from different types of vase, revisiting classic models such as the Khabiya, Jebbana, Thulthiya and Machmoum, as well as more modest utilitarian ceramics such as tajines, tabsils, zlafas and ghtars. His approach is to give them an original vision, while respecting the essence of these objects.
While sometimes retaining certain original decorative motifs, such as small flowers or sinuous lines reminiscent of lianas, Toguo covers the surfaces of his creations with elements inspired by Moroccan flora and fauna. Lions, dromedaries, lizards and eagles bring these works to life, adding a lively, narrative touch.
His art is deeply collaborative: he preserves the traditional shapes modelled by potters, adds his own designs, then enriches the necks of the large vases with ornamental Moroccan calligraphy. This harmonious blend of ancestral decorative art and his own personal universe creates a singular fusion, perfectly suited to the Moroccan cultural context.
Performances
I found videos projected on the wall showing Barthélémy Toguo engaging his body in action, ‘provoking a situation, a strong communication with the viewer’ is a constant for this artist. Many of his performances are rooted in distant memories of ritual practices that act on him like invisible forces.
Shirtless, impassive, the artist sprinkles water on a bouquet of dollars, which have become the new odourless flowers of merchandise. The artist invites us to look beyond the idea of a world governed by profit !
In this video, he is stained with blood, engaging in a dramatic action with his own body, and tirelessly, strikes a tree trunk with an axe, criticising the violence of such a practice. Against a society that worships the capitalist values of profit.
Tapestry
The iconography for all the tapestries comes from the Alive in a box series, engravings that the artist made during the Covid 19 pandemic, showing the aggressiveness of a situation that kept us locked in if it didn't kill us. Confinement is evoked by the grid, forming a fence like bars, the cries of the male character, the headless dogs, or the animals nailed in a semblance of an ark. Curious to see his engravings transposed into tapestry, he worked with Moroccan craftsmen and chose the texture. Enlarging the images produced a spectacular result. The texture of sabra (vegetable silk), which gives a different optical and tactile sensation, evokes the world of sculpture. Moroccan tapestry is reinterpreted here. The world it depicts is one of anxious confinement, or even metaphorical imprisonment.
Zellige
Fascinated by this traditional craft, the artist worked with craftsmen to transpose the images in some of his works into zellige. The transition from one material to another, using a noble craft technique, offers the artist the chance to see his works in a new light. This has enabled me to rediscover the infinite possibilities of a traditional art form here renewed.
My visit ended here, but before leaving the museum, I took one last look around to enjoy the surroundings a little more. I really hope to return soon, especially to discover new exhibitions!
Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope you enjoyed your visit to the museum, the exhibition and the photos I've shared with you. Don't hesitate to give me your impressions in the comments. I hope you have a wonderful day, and I'll see you soon for another visit!
Photos taken by my own phone (Samsung Galaxy A04s).
