The 5 Artists Questions

Since I was little, I've always had a passion for art, but it was in middle school that I really knew I would pursue this path. My art teacher would tell me in every class that I was talented, which greatly encouraged and inspired me.

What inspires me is humanity in all its complexity and diversity. As an artist, I draw from individuals' stories, social struggles, injustices, and moments of resistance. My work is a response to these realities, a way to reflect and question them through art. Beauty plays a central role in my approach; it allows for creating a more accessible and profound dialogue. Each piece is an attempt to provoke reflection and, hopefully, inspire action through aesthetics and emotion.

If I weren't an artist, I would be a politician. My speeches would be performances, moments where words blend with images to touch hearts and minds.

It's hard to choose; there are so many painters in art history that I appreciate. I'll name a few: Nicolas Poussin, Eugene Delacroix, Édouard Manet, Joan Mitchell. And contemporary artists: Liza Bryce, Neo Rauch.

I’ve always felt it. As a child I wanted to be a musician; then I was given a guitar, so I joined a band and began to imagine I might become the lead singer (laughs). Luckily I was dissuaded from this illusion, because I sing like a frog (wide, self-effacing smile). Then when I arrived in Paris, I was introduced to the Spanish writer Augustin Gomez-Arcos, and he understood that there was an artist in me. He encouraged me to write, and then he introduced me to the painters he knew. He brought me to their ateliers - showed me a world I wanted to belong to - and suddenly I knew what I wanted to be, I wanted to be an artist. Gomez had introduced me to the best people in his world, and it was not just one or two artists, it was a whole community. I met Alekos Facianos the Greek painter, and there was this great little bistro on Rue Mazarine in the 6eme arrondissement, Chez Albert, where we used to eat every night at a round table full of creatives. They used to tease me as I was working as a maths professor, earning about 6,000 francs a month, but clearly not very good with numbers as I was burning at least 3,000 of that at the restaurant! (laughter). Sitting at our table were journalists, art critics, writers, painters and poets, and I understood that this was the culture I belonged to, the arts, and so I began my life as an artist.

As an artist from The Continent, from a place that is often misrepresented, I felt compelled to redress the narrative as a kind of Don Quixote on a journey of redemption. I wanted to try and fix what was wrong, a theme that is common amongst so many African artists, as there is just so much that is wrong, both at home and in how we are perceived globally. So I wrote novels on terrorism, on illegal immigration, on drugs, on the abuse of power; 12/13 books already on this struggle. My work as a painter comes from something more personal; some things are pre-verbal, and cannot be expressed in words. Some of this has to do with my brother, who was detained for 18 years in Tazmamart (pause). My feelings around this continue to affect me, so I paint against repression, I paint against the dictatorship we have endured in my homeland for more than 40 years.

A singer of course! (we both laugh) Julio Iglesias (laughs)! With a fantastic moustache like Dali (roars laughing). I really, truly wanted to be a singer, and at least I was a musician, a pretty good musician - good enough to make a career out of it. Then one day I was watching television with Augustine, who had escaped Franco’s dictatorship to live in Paris. There was this guy about 60-65 years of age, playing the guitar and he was dancing, so Augustine turns to me and says, “So you really wanted to be this guy?” I told him no, not anymore! (laughs)

Impossible… It would be like asking me who my favourite writer is. I love hundreds (laugh) and each in their own, unique way. ( — So what author do you go to when you want to read a really good book?) I reread books all the time, in particular Dostoyevsky because he writes about the human soul, and really understands what it means to be a human. I also love Knut Hamsun who is an extraordinary writer. I must reread one of his books every year; then there is Kafka - so many writers I admire. Like artists, it would be impossible to choose one. We cannot compare Picasso to Rodin or Bacon, so we cannot decide who is better. I like them all, in different ways. The one who impresses me the most is Picasso, because every time you have the feeling that you have discovered something, you realise that he found it already. I listen to his counsel and read his books - the way he thinks about painting is incredible - he invented modern art! Sometimes whilst painting, we create elements that really please us, so then we do everything to save them. But Picasso will tell you to destroy them, immediately. If you like it, destroy it and then you will make your painting (laughs). At first I fought to keep what I loved, and destroyed everything else (laughs). That is the genius of Picasso.

All my life. As a child (even at five) I was already drawing everything and anything I could see or feel, and I had my own world for me, without even knowing that I had something that defined me and my life. And when I became old enough to answer the question when asked, my answer was: drawer-architect- invent-writer- philosopher (for me, all that together should mean being an artist, when I was à child (9 - 10 yearling) I guess.

What inspires me……is what always moves my thoughts… life! The universe! The foundation of all things! My questions about all that. And what I t’élut and deeply feel beyond all the ordinary things… that gives meaning to life and love!

If I were not an artist, I would be an artist, or an artist, or an artist, or a mad man, or a monk. But a mad monk!

Definitely the impressionists, mostly Edgar Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin, and there is da Vinci (because of his personality), and Rembrandt and Vermeer. There is also Louis Soutter, and Willem de Kooning... but in contemporary art, there are a lot of artists, not only painters, that I admire and that inspire me so much!

In 2011 I was roaming around Austin, Texas on a mushroom trip with friends. I separated myself from the group, filled with existential dread, feeling unfulfilled in my life, wondering what my purpose was on this Earth. Slowing my breath, these feelings gave way to the hope of possibility. I realized that there was nothing to dread, that I was young and talented, and that my experience with past, dead-end careers would serve me in my future. Perceiving myriad paths on multiple planes before me, I was faced with a moment of truth and a moment of choice. I am an artist, I told myself, and from then on that's what I've been.

I am inspired by the angels. They whisper into my ear when I am listening most intently to the silence. Sometimes, when the whispers excite my heart, head, and hands, I leap into action and create my best work. I believe this world will be transformed into paradise when we are all individually actualized. When we all discover what is that special, unique, and perhaps strange gift we have to give to the world, and when we all watch in awe how they all fit together perfectly. My Mandali are self-actualization technology meant to set a fire in the heart of the observer to chase their own dreams, wherever they may lead, for the benefit of their highest potential, and thus for the benefit of us all.

Miserable probably. An Artist does not only create wall art and sculptures for display in white-walled galleries. An Artist cultivates a superior way of creating and acting in the world. There are Artists of all kinds: Artists of paint and marble, Artists of architecture, Artists of love, et al. The term Artist is reserved for the highest expression of intention, skill, and will in worldly action. This is why I capitalize it. If I were not acting in this way, if I was not integrating everything I am and everything I have into my expression, then what would I be? A little less than human, I think. For me, this would lead to misery.

Picasso. For his proliferation and his courage to create from innocence, of course. But mostly I admire him for his lifestyle; His castle and his femme de vie. Before him, Da Vinci. He was a man for whom time, epoch and era were irrelevant. His work demonstrates the power of a mind freed from zeitgeist.

Since my childhood I have enjoyed drawing. It was only in 1979, during a history lesson on traditional African art given by my history teacher, that he was able to properly explain the value and quality of traditional African sculpture. Without hesitation and in that classroom, I decided to become a sculptor, since I also knew that I was good in mathematics and philosophy.

I recognize that my academic courses at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing have shaped my working process. However, I always go back to traditional African sculpture for inspiration. Being exposed to Modern European Art and Contemporary Western Art inevitably influenced my art. The most important aspect in my artistic approach is that I decided from the beginning of my artistic career to discover new styles that never existed. This is my relentless goal. For example, the bronze sculpture titled LES TOGOLAIS that I made at the Palais de Lomé is a set of moving but immobile sculptures. As part of moving sculptures, it's a new style that I created in 1997. Some observers see lines or silhouettes. But it's when you walk around the sculpture that you see something else. I draw a lot of inspiration from the life of human societies and their cultures, because for me, art is the mirror of society.

I would have opted for mathematics and philosophy.

I like a lot of visual artists. My favorites are: Van Gogh, Matisse, Henry Moore, and Joseph Beuys.

I knew that I would be a painter at 8 years old, when I liked to draw on my slates in primary school.

What inspires me is rock painting, the rustic, Egyptian antiquity and its ideograms, the Dogon culture.

If I were not an Artist, I would be a cook.

My favourite artists: Tapias, Picasso, Kiefer

I knew I would become an Artist from the age of 7.

African tradition is what most inspires me.

If I was not an Artist, I would be a Farmer.

Marie Javouhey, Pamphylie, Francis Glenat, Pier Toffoletti.