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"Benin, listed by the World Bank as one of the poorest countries in the world, is not generally considered a paradise by Europeans. However, for Hazoumè himself, it is. 'How many Europeans do you think would prefer to be here fishing with me now?' he asks, 'But they're sitting in their offices. They have to work and don't have any time'. Conversely, many Africans dreams of Europe as paradise. Hazoumè thematizes these reciprocal views in his works."
Published by Irish Museum of Modern Art. Text by Enrique Juncosa, Seán Kissane, Gerard Houghton, Yacouba Konatè, André Magnin.
Romuald Hazoumé (born 1962), one of Africa's leading visual artists, has worked with many media throughout his career, but it is for his assemblage-masks that he is best known. These masks consist of discarded oil cans ubiquitous objects in Benin, which Hazoumé repositions to resemble faces. The use of oil cans implicitly criticizes the presence of multinational oil companies in west Africa.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Martin Henatsch, Bartholomäus Grill, Daniela Roth.
The Beninese assemblage virtuoso Romuald Hazoumè (born 1962) transforms plastic jugs and other discarded materials into masks and sculptural installations that explore the nexus of ritual and industrialization. Hazoumè mines the space of economic and psychic transaction between Africa and Europe--both the literal exchange of goods and the mutual delusion that paradise lies within the other.
Romuald Hazoumè: My Paradise