Emo de Medeiros
Kaleta, 2016
About:
Emo de Medeiros lives and works in Cotonou, Benin, and in Paris, France. He studied at Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris/Ulm), Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux- Arts (Paris), and at the Massachusetts College of Art (MassArt).
Untitled, 2016
Emo de Medeiros’ work is based on a single concept, which he calls contexture, which emphasizes transculturalness, interconnection, transformation, hybridization and the circulation of forms, myths and merchandises in a post- colonial, globalized and digitalized world, employing notions of origin, place and identity to question their context within our increasingly globalized culture.
His artworks always include a salient conceptual dimension, and are characterized by a participatory, serial and rhythmic approach, by a mix of traditional and technological materials and media, as well as the link between art, spirituality and transcendence. As an artist interested in transformation processes and non-linear narratives, Emo de Medeiros explores the shapes, patterns and edges of contemporary African creation, as well as how it is perceived both from inside and outside the continent. Emo de Medeiros works with a wide array of mediums, including sculpture, video, photography, performance, electronic music, drawing, interactive devices, performative installations, painting or connected objects..
From Surtentures series
My practice is built upon a single principle called contexture.
I compose my works, concretely and in a broader sense, from textures.
As an element, texture ranges from fabric or pixels to text. As a notion it encompasses the material and the mental, and inscribes on a continuum materials, practices and concepts. Contexture refers to an ensemble seen from the perspective of the interrelations or interconnections between its constitutive elements (the contexture of an organism, of a painting, of a musical piece, of a novel, etc.)
In my work, contexturing represents the dynamic process, conceptual as well as visual, which consists in mobilizing textures, be they physical or abstract, ranging from history or contemporary urban culture and its symbols, to machined steel, electronic music, artefacts from classical African art, digital culture, Western art history, social representation practices or the figure of the artist as anti-persona.
Moreover, a contexture allows infinite recontexturations which transgress and d/e/merge cultural, aesthetic, tech- nological, historical, geographical and social limits that usually separate the production and diffusion of images, sounds, objects or other artefacts of diverse origins, eras, and uses. These are subject to remixings, mètissages, bricolages and/or audio-visual and objectal randomizations. This process gives birth to artworks that often happen spatially as co-optative series.
Creating a contexture implies at least two major processes:
Establishing a rhythmic pulse, or efficient periodicity, which implies effects of reactivation, recycling, reiteration, recurrence and/or ritornello in the disposition of textures, within the artworks or between them, in their context of creation and exhibition.
Gemeni Watchman/Vodunaut 1
Creating individual or collective participation, which can be induced by the collaboration with artisans in the artwork’s production process and/or derived from the modalities of of the exhibition or installation which allows the public to experience the artworks.(texts website artist)