Time Landscape now on view at the Malta Biennale is a living installation, reshaped by its surroundings, operating as both monument and threshold where memory becomes prophecy. Embedded within Fort St Angelo—Malta’s most charged witness to empire, sacrifice, and survival—the work enters a symbiotic dialogue with a site that has long mediated between land and sea, power and endurance. Confronting inherited trauma and aesthetic excess.
“I would like — you see I’m far from saying that I can do all this, but anyway I’m aiming at it — I would like to do portraits which would look like apparitions to people a century later.”
These are the words Van Gogh wrote to his sister during his final days in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. In this letter, he explains why he no longer strives for photographic resemblance, but instead seeks to capture pure expression — the good, the bad, and the ugly — in his portraits. This shift proved to be revolutionary, leading to the creation of some of his most iconic works.
Now, more than a century later, the number of people dealing with mental health challenges continues to rise. Waiting lists grow longer, and support — if available at all — remains difficult to access. This leaves us with a pressing question: where do we go from here?Sunflower to Heaven [Apparitions] — a project I have been developing over the past year — is my attempt to engage with something that remains abstract to many, yet is a tangible and urgent reality for others. The series draws inspiration from the colour palettes of three of Van Gogh’s works: Sunflowers (August 1888), The Starry Night (June 1889), and Portrait of Dr. Gachet (June 1890).Reflecting a range of emotional states and human experiences, the series seeks to give visibility to underexposed, yet deeply real, issues within our society.
'In the beginning is relation,’ reads the famous line from Martin Buber’s 1923 classic 'I and Thou'. To roughly summarize the philosopher’s plea, man is nothing without the existence of the other. My work Bébélé Zamba builds on this thought and occupies a space that is in-between. 94 embroidered portraits and a film are mediators between that which can’t be seen or said, but can be felt.
An icon shines light through which others can be seen.
Used screen-prints were used as the basis for these works. In Hidden Icons - which takes the icon out of its religious context - I portrayed women I came across on the street.
The dead are among us. In everything around us; in the shade, in the water and in the forest. Among the Bamiléké - my father’s tribe - this thought is also strongly present. It is based on the idea of human duality, with body and mind being separate entities. The immortality of the ancestor is passed on through the soul that resides in the skull. This also means that the dead never disappear, on the contrary, they are part of the community and everyday life.
Echo was presented at the Dakar Biennale as part of the presentation ‘Forger / Out of the Fire’ from May 19 - June 21 2022. The projects Echo: Homo Fabricius and Echo: Double Trilogy were part of the installation.
The project 1525 was presented at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and comprised a 25 metre high installation with 152 unique works - the series 152, which could be seen from both sides -, six films and fifty two prints.
Traces of the holy remain, but assume a different meaning in this altered, earthly context.
The idea behind this work lies in giving objects a second lease on life, by transforming and converting them into something else. For Adieu l’enfance, I took religious bronze objects and transformed them into different objects, such as a chair, a vase, a ladder and a dromedary.
In Future Nostalgia, a series of aged industrial elements articulate the standard components of a regular vehicle. As such, the handlebars, seat, and frame have been recreated by hammers, rakes, pliers, and springs. Each component has its own distinct history, with multiple forms of deterioration such as rust and scrapes randomly dispersed throughout their surfaces in ode to their previous functions.
