Born in 1962 in Porto-Novo, Republic of Benin. Lives and works in Porto-Novo, Republic of Benin.
Romuald Hazoumé descends from a prestigious lineage: his ancestor was a babalawo, a high priest of the Ifá divination system from Nigeria, at the court of the king of Porto-Novo. He grew up in a Catholic family of Yoruba origin that remained in contact with ancestral cults such as Vodun, a practice that deeply marked him. After a secondary education during which he discovered a passion for drawing, he considered studying medicine for a time, but ultimately decided to become an artist.
Because of his dual cultural background, Romuald Hazoumé’s work, which does not strictly follow Yoruba tradition, reveals a syncretism based on recycled materials. In the mid-1980s, he created his first sculptures from plastic petrol canisters, which subtly revealed his critical vision of African political figures and systems. He became a prominent figure in Cotonou and Porto-Novo and, in 1989, exhibited Masques Bidon I at the French Cultural Center in Cotonou.
Romuald Hazoumé assembles materials, scraps, and obsolete objects, which he uses as they are or transforms, deforms, and reconfigures, in order to represent his vision of society, events, or global issues. The artist reinvents history through research that translates into monumental and striking works, bearing witness to his commitment against all forms of slavery, corruption, trafficking, and contemporary abuses.
“There were travelling artists called ‘aré’, who were responsible for bringing culture from one kingdom to another. I fully recognize myself in this designation.”
Hazoumé considers himself a guardian of Yoruba culture, in which mask production plays an important role. Closely attached to his territory, the artist is committed to his fellow Beninese by seeking to raise awareness of cultural values. With a sense of humor, he challenges clichés about Africa and critiques the excesses of globalization. Rich in poetic and political content, and grounded in strong moral values, his most recent works question migration and its consequences, as well as the inequality of exchanges present in both Western countries and Africa.
On the question of self-determination, Romuald Hazoumé states:
“We have everything we need here, on our continent, but we do nothing and we wait for others to come and do it for us! My piece Antidepressant shows a Senufo bed on a carpet of cocoa beans, behind which there is a screen projecting a video of sunrise and sunset. In Africa, we have the sun, cocoa—one of the best antidepressants in the world—and a bed to solve some of our problems.”
Collections
Barbier Muller Collection, Geneva, Switzerland Jean Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland Collection agnès b, Paris, France Desmoines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA The Robert Devereux Collection, London and Nairobi The British Museum, London, United Kingdom La Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia Museumslandschaft Hessen, Neue Galerie, Kassel National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C, USA Emdash Foundation, Berlin, Germany The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA Die Mobiliar Collection, Bern, Switzerland Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, USA Fondation LVMH, Paris, France The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall and Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom Collection David Bowie The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA Permanent collection of the US Embassy, Cotonou, Benin Collection Farida et Henri Seydoux, Paris, France
