Artists

Yamguen, Hervé

Danser avec le vivant, 2022
Courtesy: Hervé Yamguen, Foto: Zacharie Ngnogue

Writing about Hervé Yamguen’s work is a challenge, given the multiple forms of expression he uses. Drawing, painting, writing, sculpture …
There is, however, an unchanging thread running through his work since the beginning: a creation based on the two themes of love and freedom, which, for anyone who does not know Hervé, could be mistaken for a contradiction, an antinomy. Freedom being the deep desire, the need to be the sole master of one’s destiny and to go about, as we please, with the conduct of our goals and destinies; love implies, on the contrary, an attachment to something or someone - an intrinsic bond, which would in fact, inhibit freedom.
Not so, for a person like Hervé! Because he dances with the living … At every moment.
He is this bird, which for so many years has been flying, traveling, and maturing from paper to canvas and from canvas to sculpture, whether in beaded wood or in bronze.
Bronze sculptures, in fact. This is the latest medium invested by Hervé Yamguen with a need, each day a little more pressing, to materialize his creative universe and give a little more life to this famous bird-man. To allow him, at last, to dance with the living.
Mixing ancestral craftsmanship (perhaps this is the moment to point out to those who did not know that Hervé Yamguen is from the West of Cameroon, a region where sculpture - especially in bronze - is an art bequeathed to one by their ancestors) and contemporary art, Hervé creates unique pieces. No mould is reused, no form is ever identically reproduced.
Danser avec le vivant (Dancing with the living, 2022) is thus a meeting with five new sculptures. New fragments of the history of this romantic and mysterious free being. One, laying down and supporting life on his plexus, another one multiplied, ready to serve mankind, or even, triumphant, proud, and with his eyes fixed on the future!
In any case, always dancing with the living!

Text: Mohamed A. Cissé; deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler

Biography
Hervé Yamguen (*1971 Douala/Cameroon),
lives and works in Douala. The range of his
creativity is writing (several publications) as well as visual arts. He made a few forays into photography and performance, which he mostly did in public spaces. He regularly sets up stage design for theater and developed and hosted the first urban scenographies in New Bell, the result
of a partnership between Scur’k and Le
Cercle Kapsiki, an artist collective which he cofounded. Le Cercle opened the K Factory in New Bell, a residency space for transdisciplinary artists and an art gallery for contemporary art. Recently made a notable in his father’s village,he upholds the tradition rituals and customs, while simultaneously preserving his position as a contemporary artist.

Writing about Hervé Yamguen’s work is a challenge, given the multiple forms of expression he uses. Drawing, painting, writing, sculpture …
There is, however, an unchanging thread running through his work since the beginning: a creation based on the two themes of love and freedom, which, for anyone who does not know Hervé, could be mistaken for a contradiction, an antinomy. Freedom being the deep desire, the need to be the sole master of one’s destiny and to go about, as we please, with the conduct of our goals and destinies; love implies, on the contrary, an attachment to something or someone - an intrinsic bond, which would in fact, inhibit freedom.
Not so, for a person like Hervé! Because he dances with the living … At every moment.
He is this bird, which for so many years has been flying, traveling, and maturing from paper to canvas and from canvas to sculpture, whether in beaded wood or in bronze.
Bronze sculptures, in fact. This is the latest medium invested by Hervé Yamguen with a need, each day a little more pressing, to materialize his creative universe and give a little more life to this famous bird-man. To allow him, at last, to dance with the living.
Mixing ancestral craftsmanship (perhaps this is the moment to point out to those who did not know that Hervé Yamguen is from the West of Cameroon, a region where sculpture - especially in bronze - is an art bequeathed to one by their ancestors) and contemporary art, Hervé creates unique pieces. No mould is reused, no form is ever identically reproduced.
Danser avec le vivant (Dancing with the living, 2022) is thus a meeting with five new sculptures. New fragments of the history of this romantic and mysterious free being. One, laying down and supporting life on his plexus, another one multiplied, ready to serve mankind, or even, triumphant, proud, and with his eyes fixed on the future!
In any case, always dancing with the living!

Text: Mohamed A. Cissé; deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler

Biography
Hervé Yamguen (*1971 Douala/Cameroon),
lives and works in Douala. The range of his
creativity is writing (several publications) as well as visual arts. He made a few forays into photography and performance, which he mostly did in public spaces. He regularly sets up stage design for theater and developed and hosted the first urban scenographies in New Bell, the result
of a partnership between Scur’k and Le
Cercle Kapsiki, an artist collective which he cofounded. Le Cercle opened the K Factory in New Bell, a residency space for transdisciplinary artists and an art gallery for contemporary art. Recently made a notable in his father’s village,he upholds the tradition rituals and customs, while simultaneously preserving his position as a contemporary artist.

Danser avec le vivant, 2022
Courtesy: Hervé Yamguen, Foto: Zacharie Ngnogue