Pascale Marthine Tayou (review)

PASCALE MARTHINE TAYOU It is cert ainly because Pascale Mart hine Tayou rebels against t he narrow conf ines of t he art world t hat his at t it ude as an art ist is t he most det ached, insubordinat e and hence t he freest . He's a sculpt or, drawer, inst allat or, performer, and video art ist as well as a poet , writer, direct or and act or in his own plays and films. He expands our def init ion of t he word 'art ist ' t o posit ion himself out side of est ablished cat egories and hierarchies . This variet y of pract ices is reflect ed in t he disparit y of places in which t his art ist operat es. If some have not iced his part icipat ion in t he lat est maj or Biennials, including t hose of Johannesburg, Kwangj u, Sant a Fe, and La Havana, his work also embraces more 'anodyne ' spaces such as t he st reet s of Yaounde his nat ive t own. It is effect ively here t hat he f inds new inspirat ion as well as a deeper sense of communit y. Furt hermore, t his place affords him a dist ance from which t o observe and crit icize an art world, which is more and more caught up in market considerat ions and t he syst em of represent at ion. Then, as if t o bet t er cover his t racks, even when a Parisian gallery specializing in primit ive African art invit ed him t o exhibit his works, he accept ed. Of course, his responses t here are never wit hout irony. This t ime, he arranged for a second exhibit ion at anot her art gallery locat ed in t he neighborhood . Orchest rat ing bot h openings t he same evening, t he art ist obviously could not be in bot h places at t he same t ime. Unable t o f ind him at one gallery, visit ors went looking for him at t he ot her. But after vainly going back and fort h several t imes, people's quest ions veered t o complaint s: Is he on t he right side? Is he on t he left side? Let 's go back, he might be t here now. . . no, someone t old me he was at t he ot her side! Where is he? But where in t he world has t he art ist gone? In f act , Pascale Mart hine Tayou had simply gone back home, leaving plent y of room for inquiries whi ch, in t he course of t he evening, became t he cent ral preoccupat ion of t his double-opening. Behind t his slight ly unort hodox schema of t he vernissage which act ually t ook place more in t he st reet t han in t he exhibit ion spaces t hemselves, one can discern an essent ial aspect of t he art ist 's concern t ranslat ing as a will t o demyst ify bot h t he inst it ut ional syst em and t he cult ure of which it represent s. Nowadays in art , t his inst it ut ional syst em is st ill based on t he hegemony of t he discursive paradigms coming from modernist ideology . As a condensed reflect ion of t he societ y of t he spect acle's cult ural logic, t he inst it ut ion st rives t o myst ify bot h t he art ist and t he art work, and t o t ransform t hem int o fancy 'obj ect s' of t he modern man behind whom is hidden t he obsession for subj ect ivit y, a dominant aspect of West ern humanist ic cult ure. As a Cameroonian art ist living in t he West , Pascale Mart hine Tayou underst ands t his very well. That 's why t he ruse t hat he used t he evening of t he openings should not be int erpret...