“Tonnuwetchi of Gold and Light” by Aymeri Bai

This Beninese painter revisits the figure of the pietà in painting by associating it with symbols from African traditions.

Continuously from October 9 to 15

AFRICA BETWEEN MYTHS, STEREOTYPES AND MODERNITY

Artistic approach

Ton Nu Hwetchi literally means "Go out, in order to force the sun to disappear" in the "Fon" language of Benin. Through this series, the artist addresses an ode to leaving one's comfort zone to access the best of oneself and flourish.

According to the legend of Fâ, every human being has an animal double that accompanies him in the accomplishment of his destiny. A sort of totem animal. Denied and despised, the latter will remain hidden in the darkness of Man, will become sadness, rage and frustration, will wrap itself in vengeance and will slowly destroy him.

Accepted and cherished, he will prove to be tender and benevolent, offering his master to radiate so much happiness that seeing him the sun will turn pale with jealousy.

The artist: EMERY BAÏ

A graduate of the Benin School of Fine Arts, Emery BaÏ is also passionate about fashion. He studied fashion design in Bordeaux before continuing his artistic research at the Fine Arts School in Montpellier, his adopted city.

A multidisciplinary artist, he seeks in his work the impression of life, emotion. His artistic practice is intended to be the expression of a cultural mix, a hymn to diversity and openness. explores subjects that challenge him by using various mediums to achieve an idyllic and dreamlike visual oscillating between humor and drama in order to confront the viewer with contradictory tensions, illusions and the gap between an ideal vision and the real state of things. He is inspired by masters of painting such as Gustave Courbet, Alexandre Cabanel, Gustave Klimt... as well as contemporary artists such as François Rousseau, Pierre et Gilles, Kehindeh Willey ... to create collisions between art history and popular culture and propose a dialogue with the works that leaves everyone enough room for dreaming and escape. This kind of superposition, where personal narrative and collective memory are intertwined, allows the artist to approach different representations of power and to highlight the way in which it can be artificially manufactured by a painter.

Humanity is at the center of his desire for expression and he often approaches it through the nude to sublimate, question, confuse, subvert and entertain by questioning societal subjects in afro-glamorized and diverted interpretations taken from mythological, mythical, borderless images. A satirical nod to the deficits of representation that marked him as a child and to the process of identification anchored in the collective unconscious. His works mix anthropomorphism, mannerism and symbolism without creating a clear break with reality. The settings of his compositions are dreamlike, the plasticity of the bodies is voluptuous, the ports are haughty, the looks proud and seductive and the attitude enigmatic.

The result is a joyful and colorful allegory that uses stereotypes to better deconstruct them by propelling them into a playful and political poetic dimension, always with a semblance of lightness and sometimes the cruelty of children's stories.