J´aime Chéri Samba

The Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain has decided to present thirty-five works of a highly distinctive artist. Chéri Samba represents himself in a variety of portraits, compelling us to look at him. "I don't see any harm in singing my own praises." This is the assertion of an independent artist. Chéri Samba has always been stimulated by the desire to show himself to others and that of showing his art to the wider world, including both his colleagues and friends of Kinshasa as well as a larger international public. Chéri Samba thwarts the trappings of the politics of identity, expressing himself in a variety of registers. A renowned artist who has exhibited in Africa as well as throughout the world, he is an emblematic figure of the contemporary African art world and an ambassador for the artists of the Congo-his colleagues and friends of Kinshasa, where he has always lived and worked. The exhibition J'aime Chéri Samba, the title of which is an explicit declaration of love, could not have been realized without André Magnin, Chéri's accomplice and curator of the exhibition, and Jean Pigozzi, the primary collector of the artist. We extend our thanks to them. Hervé Chandès Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

J´aime Chéri Samba