My Paradise by Romuald Hazoumè | Photo Book

The artistic work of Romuald Hazoumè (*1962), who works in Porto-Novo, the capital of the West African country of Benin, bears witness to the mutual longings of Africa and Europe for the supposed paradise on the other side. He is known to many in Germany for his contribution to documenta 12: Dream, an open boat consisting of over 400 canisters, for which he was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize in 2007. The canister also plays an important role in his current photographic works, sculptures and installations: in Benin it is a tool and an object of survival. By making masks from these canisters, for example, and declaring them the module of an artistic language that is based on the traditions of the Yoruba, his native culture, as well as on the discourse of international contemporary art, Hazoumè breaks through colonialist patterns of thought.

Print Length: 144 Pages

Language: English / German

Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag

Published in 2010

ISBN: 978-3-7757-2645-0