Biography
Between 1989 and 1993, Barthélémy Toguo studied art, first at the École des Beaux-Arts in Abidjan, in Ivory Coast, then in Grenoble, in France, and finally at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he encountered Tony Cragg, Jannis Kounellis and Konrad Klapheck.
Although he stayed in Europe and became a French citizen, Barthélémy Toguo remained profoundly attached to Cameroon, and regularly returns to the country. There he created Bandjoun Station, a foundation inaugurated in 2013 with the aim of hosting artists and academics from around the world in residential workshops, to develop propositions in harmony with the local population. This “laboratory without borders” exhibits a permanent collection of contemporary works assembled by the artist, thanks to exchanges with his peers and collectors. There he also develops agricultural projects, in a spirit of healthy and sustainable development.
Since the end of the 1990s, Toguo’s work has been noticed by critics and curators, who invited him to participate in major events: Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1999 for “Migrateurs” (ARC, Paris), Jean-Hubert Martin in 2000 for “Partage d’éxotismes” (Biennale de Lyon), Pierre Restany in 2001 for “Political Ecology” (White Box, New York), and Okwui Enwezor in 2015 for the Venice Biennal, “All the World’s Future”. In 2016, Barthélémy Toguo was one of four artists nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize and on this occasion, he presented the installation “Vaincre le virus!” at the Centre Pompidou. In 2018, his solo exhibition, “The Beauty of our Voice”, was held at the Parrish Art Museum in New York. In 2021, the Quai Branly-Musée Jacques Chirac hosted “Désir d’Humanité”, an exhibition dedicated to Toguo’s oeuvre. In 2022, Toguo presented at the Biennale of Sydney “The Generous Water Giant”, a 10-metre-long ink on canvas. That same year, he was invited to create a large installation under the Louvre pyramid. In 2025, Toguo’s work featured in the exhibition, “Where Are We Now: Highlights of the Miettinen Collection at Philara Collection”, in Düsseldorf.
The works of Barthélémy Toguo are present in many collections, including those of the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris), the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami), the Perez Art Museum (Miami), the Chazen Museum of Art (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), the Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, USA), the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), the Collection Agnès b. (Paris) and Bandjoun Station (Bandjoun). A recent commission was placed with the artist for four overdoors at the Musée Rodin (Paris).
