Pascale Marthine Tayou - Rendez-vous

The museum has been following the work of Pascale Marthine Tayou for several years now. In 1996 he took part in group exhibition ‘De Rode Poort’ here in the museum’s then new depot spaces. In 1999 he presented an intervention in city exhibition ‘Trafique’.

With this solo exhibition the S.M.A.K. delves deeper into the diversity and development in the work of the Cameroon artist. The exhibition and catalogue came about in co-production with MARTa Herford, Jan Hoet’s new museum that will be opening its doors in the spring of 2005. An updated version will be on display in Herford in autumn 2005. The show concerns a self-willed overview of the development of Tayou’s work, yet it is not a retrospective. This work continues to develop and cannot be reduced to a single subject or theme. The exhibition’s content concerns past, present and future, as S.M.A.K. and MARTa found it important to select both older work –some of which has never been seen in Europe before – as well as recent work for this exhibition.

Pascale Marthine Tayou was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 1967. After having lived in Stockholm and Paris he now lives and works in Ghent. Tayou is part of the generation of African artists that redefine post-colonial culture and mix experiences of their birthplace with those of Europe.

Tayou’s work is varied and consists of drawings, sculptures, installations, videos and performances. His work has the feel of a diary; Tayou includes aspects of his nomadic existence, his family and his life in Cameroon. It also raises daring questions regarding cultural and national identity as well as more existential thoughts on, for example, AIDS or the cacophony of city life. These profound works examine the permeability of boundaries, the self as defined by personal history (and meetings with others) and questions regarding economy and migration.

Africa, especially native country Cameroon, is always present in Tayou’s work, symbolised by special objects or present in photos and moving images. Although Tayou avoids the ‘African artist’ label, he must admit that Cameroon plays a vital role in almost every project: ‘the relationship has to do with origin. Cameroon is my registered trademark, the basis where it all began. I was born and raised there by my parents, my friends and the street. I want to show this in my work, so everyone who follows me there can see that everything’s possible.’ Cameroon has a major role in several new works that were specially made for the 2004 SMAK exhibition, work in which the artist broaches the theme of cultural and economic interchange. In his work we see various aspects of Western and African trade stand side by side. Although Cameroon has to deal with debt and unfavourable terms of trade, it still has one of the better basic needs economies in Africa south of the Sahara, an economy mainly based on farming and oil. Import/Export includes logos of Cameroon companies in a collage of stickers, photos, packaging labels and neon lights. These symbols of Western-style trade are juxtaposed with typical African street markets in Fashion Street, a piece consisting of several photos and posters depicting local textile sellers.

For local installation/performance Comptoir 693 Tayou transferred a typical Cameroon street shop from Yaoundé including furnishings. He reconstructed the entire shop in SMAK’s main hall on the first floor. It will be accompanied by a new film on Cameroon market trade and during the exhibition’s opening a Cameroon trader will be selling local goods to the museum’s visitors. Not only does Tayou present the open atmosphere of an Africa street market in a European museum, he brings the Western economic forces on which his country depends up for discussion. Belgium is one of Cameroon’s major European trade partners as well as being an importer of Western commodities. In Comptoir 693 Tayou reverses this relationship: Africa is the exporter and the Belgian public becomes the user of African goods.

Beside the presentation of new work, Tayou also reconstructs some work from an earlier period. One of these recreations is the La Folle de Gand chante encore, LOOOBHY installation that he presented in ‘De Rode Poort’ in 1996. Tayou used his typical materials for this work such as shreds of paper, plastic bottles, fabric and cardboard boxes, but also drawings and stacks of red brick. Back in 1996 Tayou handed out parts of the work to visitors. As a result of the exhibition, Tayou asks everyone who has part of the 1996 installation to contact SMAK, to trace the work’s path. Pascale Marthine Tayou never considers an exhibition to be ‘finished’. To him every project is an artistic source of new ideas traversing past certainties, pushing back our social and intellectual borders along new routes to the uncertainties of tomorrow.

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Pascale Marthine Tayou - Rendez-vous