Hervé Yamguen

Herve Yamguen (born 1971 in Douala) is a Cameroonian painter and sculptor. Autodidact, he launched himself in painting, sculpture and he discovered a passion for the writing which enables him to wonder about its daily live. He currently works on plays.

Hervé Yanguem
Hervé Yanguen during a performance, Douala, 2010
Born(1971-06-17)June 17, 1971
Douala Cameroon
NationalityCameroonian
EducationEcole Superiore des Arts Decoratifs in Strasburg
Known forPainting, Sculpture
Notable work
Le temps de la saison verte (1998),

He grew in Douala where he lives and works in one of the most popular districts of the city, New Bell. It is this environment which nourishes the imaginary of Hervé whose plastic work turns around the face, the body and the place of it in the world.

Works
Hervé Yamguen,oublie ton corps à la vie, 2007

Herve Yamguen was born into a family with deeply rooted traditions, who initially refused to accept his choice to become an artist. From childhood, he was attracted by the way in which artists interpret reality in their works. He realizes that making art guides one out of ignorance and lets one wonder about the human being. He started painting at the age of 17 and fully embraces the profession of artist by the late 1980s, after refusing to enter the monastery. After that his family encouraged him to continue on his path of artist. Self-taught, he learned by reading about art history, which led him to develop his singular vision of art. Subsequently, he received a year of training (2000-2001) at École des Arts Décoratifs (ESAD) in Strasbourg, France. He has done many study and production residencies in Cameroon and abroad.

Hervé Yamguen is also known for his writing (several publications) about the visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture). He has made a few forays into photography, performance, installation and has regularly done stage designs for the theater. The themes present in his work are eroticism, the questioning of the human-plant-animal and bird. Through these themes,[1] he tells the story of humans and invites one to look at life with wonder; the small details of daily life that represent the beauty of the world and make life more pleasurable. Yamguen is inspired by the work (technical, power of the work, style) of several writers and artists who work on wonder, whimsy and imagination: Matisse, Picasso, Henri Michaud, and the surrealist poets. The artist wants to invite the public to reflect on his humanity in order to become better. According to him, the reception of his work is not enthusiastic: either it is too risqué or inaccessible.

Hervé Yamguen is one of the members of the Cercle Kapsiki.[2] As a member of the cercle, it took part in Scénographies Urbaines, (Urban Scenographies) in January 2003, a project born from the meeting of Cameroonian artists. The idea consists of a residence of artists from all over the world located in the popular district of New Bellin Douala: the project aimed at leading artists to express themselves and exchange with the inhabitants of the district of Douala whose reputation was not the best. The stereotypes had to be broken to create new words. The communication had to be reinvented. It is during the workshop in the district New Bell that the Kapsiki circle (Hervé Youmbi, Hervé Yamguen, Blaise Bang, Salifou Lindou, Jules Wokam) and the collective Skurk (J-C Lanquetin, François Duconseille) invited other artists from Cameroon, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lebanon, to share with the district’s population details of their lives.

He exposed in 2003 a work at the Mam gallery within the framework of the project Pièce Unique, initiated by the French Cultural centre of Douala. He also published a long poem Le temps de la saison verte (The time of the green season), in 1998. A new book is published by the French Cultural centre of Douala.

Recently inducted as a notable in the village of his father (Bandja-Balassie in the upper Nkam), he reconnects with the codes of the rituals and customs, while maintaining his posture of contemporary artist.

His work has been shown in various countries around the world. In France and Germany repeatedly and recently in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal (2015 and 2016). Beside his work as a creative, Yamguen has served other functions in the art world. He taught fine arts at the secondary level (in 2005 and 2006 in Douala). He was the artistic director of the three editions (2011, 2012 and 2013) of the Marché des Arts Plastiques de Bali (a district in Douala).

  • Néons d’Amour, 2007
  • Les mots écrits de New-Bell, 2010

Publications
  • Le Temps de la saison verte, poetry, Les Solitaires intempestifs, 1998
  • La Nuit cristalline, livre objet, 12 copies, poetry, 2000
  • Entre brune et cratère, livre objet, 10 copies with sérigraphies, poetry, 2000
  • Le déluge en soi n'est jamais trop loin, poetry, drawings, CCF Blaise Cendrars, Cameroon, March 2005
  • Sous les airs du Wouri, Pas de quartier- Brigade d'intervention poétique, édition du CCF Blaise Cendrars, 2006
  • Respiration in "Interdit de laver sa mobylette", poetry, collaborative work, illustrations by Hervé Yamguen, éditions Opoto, 2007
  • Hervé Yameguen in carnet de la création, éditions de l’œil, 2011
  • Les oiseaux, dessins et sculptures, doual’art, 2015

See also

Further reading
  • Nijami, S. "L’oiseau-counteur" Hervé Yamguen. Fondation Donwahi Art contemporain.[3]
  • Schemell, A. (2015): Visual Arts in Cameroon– A Genealogy of Non-formal Training 1976-2014, Langaa Research &Publishing Common Initiative, p. 137
  • Manga, L. (2014). Cameroon une vision contemporaine IV. Le Bureau de la Banque Mondial.[4]
  • Africultures, Hervé Yamguen.[5]
  • Langaa Research &Publishing Common Initiative, p. 137
  • Lessing, E.B. (2015): Urban Safety and Security. FrancoAngeli, p. 73.
  • Les Franco phonies en Limousin (2014): Hervé Yamguen.[6]
  • IAM – Intense Art Magazine. (2014). Hervé Yamguen, un esprit libre in IAM#01 CAMEROUN | CAMEROON, p. 062.[1]
  • Pensa, Iolanda (Ed.) 2017. Public Art in Africa. Art et transformations urbaines à Douala /// Art and Urban Transformations in Douala. Genève: Metis Presses. ISBN 978-2-94-0563-16-6

References
  1. "Intense Art Magazine" (PDF). Iam-africa.com. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  2. "eternalnetwork.org". Archived from the original on 2008-11-13.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-07-01. Retrieved 2017-06-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Cameroun, une vision contemporaine, Acte IV" (PDF). Worldbank.org. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-08-10. Retrieved 2018-02-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.