. Hervé Youmbi | Open Restitution Africa

Hervé Youmbi is one of Cameroon’s most acclaimed and internationally prominent artists. His work broadly explores the reception and commodification of African art forms in the global contemporary art world, in international markets for “traditional” African art, and in local Grassfields communities of Western Cameroon. He attended Cameroon’s only dedicated art school at the time, IFA (Institut de Formation Artistique) (1993-96), studying art theory and installation art, which he later pursued, through both practice and research, in France at ESAD (Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, renamed Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin). While there, he produced his first video work (2000-2001). While Youmbi’s studio is in Douala, his research-centric artistic practice routinely takes him to the Grassfields to participate in ceremonies and collaborate with the sculptors, beaders, and ritual specialists, whose work he supports and integrates into his own. Juxtaposing indigenous African art traditions with contemporary global art conventions to destabilize the dichotomy is a key strategy of Youmbi ‘s series “Visages des Masques/Faces of Masks”. A departure point is to create and insert mask forms that diverge from the Western stereotypes of “African Art” for this region of Cameroon into local “traditional” Bamileke ritual performances, thus embodying these “foreign” forms with efficacy and making them authentic to the Bamileke context. Youmbi’s “Les Trônes Célestes” is an installation of beaded caryatid thrones “traditional” for rulers of the Cameroon Grasslands, each seat of power supported by an animal traditionally symbolic of idealized leadership—except for the tortoise that Youmbi has slyly inserted here to suggest that the deliberate creature might better epitomize leadership than, say, the leopard, a stealthy killer. Inscribed in reverse in the beading underneath each stool is a Cameroonian proverb about leadership, which would be invisible and illegible except for the fact that Youmbi suspends the stools above glass mirrors so that the truth they bespeak can be read by all. The fragility of ideals of stewardship hang in the balance of the framework that Youmbi has constructed. Hervé Youmbi has ceremonially gifted most of these thrones to Cameroonian kings, so if and when they are exhibited as art works, it is necessary for the venue to become involved in diplomatic arrangements with the Cameroonian rulers. Notions of circulation run through Youmbi’s work. By traveling sculptural works that have been ritually enacted in “the field” in Cameroon into art galleries and museums, and making allowance for them to return to the “field” afterward if their new owners desire, he challenges the permanence and function of art works in museums, and breaks the dichotomy between African “classical art” and “contemporary art.” Bamileke communities participating in Youmbi’s projects have awarded him with honorific titles for his support of local institutions. Hervé Youmbi also is one of the original five founding members of Cercle Kapsiki, a Cameroonian artist group established in 1998 that endeavors to enrich art education and programming in the country through artist-to-artist networks, exhibitions, residencies, and international commissions. The K Factory, the collective’s home, based in New Bell, one of the poorest but also one of the most dynamic districts of Douala, is a flexible space, experimental and open to a wide range of collaborations. Hervé Youmbi has been hosted on several artist residencies, which have facilitated his research of historical African art in European and American museum collections. Listed below are a selection of his numerous international exhibitions and public collections showing his work.

Hervé Youmbi is one of Cameroon’s most acclaimed and internationally prominent artists. His work broadly explores the reception and commodification of African art forms in the global contemporary art world, in international markets for “traditional” African art, and in local Grassfields communities of Western Cameroon. He attended Cameroon’s only dedicated art school at the time, IFA (Institut de Formation Artistique) (1993-96), studying art theory and installation art, which he later pursued, through both practice and research, in France at ESAD (Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg, renamed Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin). While there, he produced his first video work (2000-2001). While Youmbi’s studio is in Douala, his research-centric artistic practice routinely takes him to the Grassfields to participate in ceremonies and collaborate with the sculptors, beaders, and ritual specialists, whose work he supports and integrates into his own. Juxtaposing indigenous African art traditions with contemporary global art conventions to destabilize the dichotomy is a key strategy of Youmbi ‘s series “Visages des Masques/Faces of Masks”. A departure point is to create and insert mask forms that diverge from the Western stereotypes of “African Art” for this region of Cameroon into local “traditional” Bamileke ritual performances, thus embodying these “foreign” forms with efficacy and making them authentic to the Bamileke context. Youmbi’s “Les Trônes Célestes” is an installation of beaded caryatid thrones “traditional” for rulers of the Cameroon Grasslands, each seat of power supported by an animal traditionally symbolic of idealized leadership—except for the tortoise that Youmbi has slyly inserted here to suggest that the deliberate creature might better epitomize leadership than, say, the leopard, a stealthy killer. Inscribed in reverse in the beading underneath each stool is a Cameroonian proverb about leadership, which would be invisible and illegible except for the fact that Youmbi suspends the stools above glass mirrors so that the truth they bespeak can be read by all. The fragility of ideals of stewardship hang in the balance of the framework that Youmbi has constructed. Hervé Youmbi has ceremonially gifted most of these thrones to Cameroonian kings, so if and when they are exhibited as art works, it is necessary for the venue to become involved in diplomatic arrangements with the Cameroonian rulers. Notions of circulation run through Youmbi’s work. By traveling sculptural works that have been ritually enacted in “the field” in Cameroon into art galleries and museums, and making allowance for them to return to the “field” afterward if their new owners desire, he challenges the permanence and function of art works in museums, and breaks the dichotomy between African “classical art” and “contemporary art.” Bamileke communities participating in Youmbi’s projects have awarded him with honorific titles for his support of local institutions. Hervé Youmbi also is one of the original five founding members of Cercle Kapsiki, a Cameroonian artist group established in 1998 that endeavors to enrich art education and programming in the country through artist-to-artist networks, exhibitions, residencies, and international commissions. The K Factory, the collective’s home, based in New Bell, one of the poorest but also one of the most dynamic districts of Douala, is a flexible space, experimental and open to a wide range of collaborations. Hervé Youmbi has been hosted on several artist residencies, which have facilitated his research of historical African art in European and American museum collections. Listed below are a selection of his numerous international exhibitions and public collections showing his work.

Hervé Youmbi

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