Programming
Au rythme du Kamer
Outdoor performance
To the Rhythm of Kamer presents the work of three Cameroonian artists who make the earth’s pulse beat using actions that are based on the realities of their context and environment.
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Organized in collaboration with VIVA! Art Action and Oboro, the performance art event To the Rhythm of Kamer presents the work of three Cameroonian artists who make the earth’s pulse beat using actions that are based on the realities of their context and environment.
Performances by Ruth Belinga, Michel Bitimbhe, and Serge Olivier Fokoua.
Certain performance artists from Cameroon (Kamer) have often said: “I do not consider myself an artist, it is what I do that makes me an artist”. The African context, including the customs, rituals, ceremonies, as well as the language and attitude of the people, is already characterized by a strong performative quality. The essence of the performative act is therefore located in the genes, in the habits, and in human relations of Cameroonians. Creating within this fertile environment, many performance artists did not have to stray far from the everyday to find and give meaning to their artistic practices. In Cameroon, the performative act is first and foremost an expression of identity, a return to the earth. A return to origins. The search for language among the most simple and elementary of things.
- Mot du commissaire, Serge Olivier Fokoua
Ruth Belinga is an art historian researching contemporary painting in Cameroon. She is currently pursuing her doctoral research (Ph. D.) at the Université of Dschang while teaching art history at the Institute of Fine Arts Foumban and curating. She has published a number of articles in national and international peer review journals and magazines. She also has a parallel practice in painting, video, and performance art. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Cameroon, Algeria, Mali, France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).
Michel Bitimbhe is a Cameroonian performance artist. He studied at the University of Yaoundé II, Soa, and has collaborated with a number of artists working in Douala and Yaoundé. He is known for having created and animated cultural programming for various radio broadcasts in Yaoundé. Since 2008, he is the administrative director of the festival RAVY (Rencontre d’arts visuels de Yaoundé). He was also one of the coordinators of Bakassi Peninsul Art, an artistic intervention project that took place in Limbé in 2012, then, in 2014, in Limbé, Tiko and Idenau, located in the south-west region of Cameroon. In 2016, he participated in a professional workshop for performance artists on the subject of the environment. He is currently taking art history courses at the Institut de Formation Artistique de Mbalmay (IFA).
Born in 1976 in Cameroon, Serge Olivier Fokoua lives and works in Gatineau, Québec. While creating works primarily in installation and performance art, he touches on all aspects of the visual arts. Strongly interested in experimental practices, he enjoys making site-specific creations that often implicate repurposed objects. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and artistic projects in Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, France, Germany, Poland, Japan, Finland, the USA, and Canada. In 2013, he received a grant for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, USA. He is a co-founding member of the collective Les palettes du Kamer, and, since 2008, is the artistic director of the Rencontres d’Arts Visuels de Yaoundé: RAVY.
