Artist Talk

Bare Life

With Romuald Hazoumè
10 Jun 2018 | Johann Jacobs Museum | EN

Conversation with Romuald Hazoumè (Benin), an artist best known for his masks and expansive installations of gasoline cans. Hazoumè is an important voice when it comes to describing the African continent, the legacy and survival of colonial structures, but also Africa’s contemporary possibilities and the aesthetic power of “making.”

The conversation is devoted to “Beauty / Mania” – this year’s theme for the Zürcher Festspiele – with reference the behavior of Europeans in Africa: their madness lay in their presumption that they could get away with anything. And yet Hazoumé finds beauty in the grace and improvisation with which the people of Benin go about their daily lives.

On occasion of the exhibition L’Afrique des Colliers: Marie-José Crespin

Title image: Romuald Hazoumè, Croissant de Lune (2004), courtesy the artist.