Emo de Medeiros a Beninese-French artist lives and works in Cotonou (Benin) and in Paris.

His work has been shown internationally, in France (Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo), in Germany (MARKK Hamburg), Brazil (Videobrasil Contemporary Art Festival São Paulo), Nigeria (LagosPhoto), United Kingdom, Japan, China, in the biennales of Marrakech, Dakar and Casablanca.

His practice hinges on a single concept he calls contexture, a fusion of the digital and the material, of the tangible and the intangible, exploring hybridizations, interconnections and circulations of forms, technologies, traditions, myths and merchandises.

He investigates the new perspectives and conversations happening in a novel space: the current context of the post-colonial, globalized and digitalized world of the early 21st century.

The focus of his research encompasses transcultural spaces and the questioning of traditional notions of origin, locus or identity and their mutations through non-linear narratives.

Emo de Medeiros' artworks always include a salient conceptual dimension, and are characterized by a participatory and rhythmic approach fusing traditional, technological and semiological elements in transmedia forms.

Within his practice, Emo de Medeiros employs an array of media including drawing, sculpture, text, video, photography, assemblage, performance, electronic music, installations, painting and appliqué fabric.

Exhibitions

2022

  • Unraveling the (under-)development complex or towards a post-(under-)development interdependence. Curators: Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Juan Pablo García Sossa, Hajra Haider Karrar. SAVVY Contemporary. Berlin, Germany

  • Cosmogony. Curators: Nicolas Bourriaud, Pauline Faure. Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Amstelveen. Netherlands

  • Vertical Atlas. Curators : Arthur Steiner and Renée Roukens. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands

  • Le Serpent cosmique. Curator : Fabrice Bousteau. Lille3000 / Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse. Lille, France

  • Time is going – Archive and Future Memories. Curator: Azu Nwabogu. Dakar Biennale OFF. Dakar, Sénégal

  • Prendre la tangente. Curator : Jeanne Mercier. MAIF Social Club, Paris, France

  • Art du Benin d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, de la restitution à la révélation. Palais de la Marina. Cotonou, Bénin

2021

  • Cosmogonies. Curators: Nicolas Bourriaud, Pauline Faure. MO.CO. Museum. Montpellier, France

  • 13th Gwangju biennale. Curators : Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala. Gwangju, South Korea

  • Ex Africa. Curator : Philippe Dagen. Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France

  • XXII Paiz Art Biennial. Curators : Gabriel Rodriguez and Alexia Tala. Guatemala City, Guatemala

  • Comme de longs échos. Curators : Jean-Michel Jagot et Julie Pellegrin. Garenne- Lemot/Musée Dobrée, Nantes, France

  • Rhizomes. Curator : Paula Nascimento. La Base Sous Marine, Bordeaux, France

  • Ce qui s’oublie et ce qui reste. Curator : Meriem Berrada and Isabelle Renard. Musée National de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, Paris, France

2020

  • Now Look Here (The African Art of Appearance). Curator : Renny Ramakers. New North, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2019

  • Cosmopolis #2.0: Rethinking the Human. Curator : Kathryn Weir. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

  • 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, Imagined Communities. Artistic Director: Solange Farkas.

    Curator: Gabriel Bogossian. Sao Paulo, Brazil

  • São Tomé Biennale VIII. Curator: Renny Ramakers. São Tomé and Principe

  • TIIT, performance. Goethe Institut, Salvador de Bahia, Brasil

2018

  • Dak'art Biennale, The Red Hour. Artistic Director: Simon Njami. Former Palais de Justice, Dakar, Senegal

  • Southern Panoramas, awarded works from the 20th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil. Artistic director: Solange Farkas. Sesc Araraquara and Sesc Santos, Brazil.

  • LagosPhoto, Time has gone. Curators: Eva Barois de Caevel, Wunika Mukan, Charlotte Langhorst and Valentine Umansky. Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Do Disturb performance festival, #MMF. Curator: Vittoria Matarrese. Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

  • Second Life, group show. Curator : Othman Lazraq. Museum of African Contemporary Art AL Maaden - Macaal, Marrakech, Morocco.

  • Flow of Forms/Forms of Flow, group show. Curators: Kerstin Pinther and Alexandra  Weigand, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Germany. 

  • Chromatics, solo show. 50 Golborne gallery, London, UK

  • Africa Aperta, Part II, group show. Dominique Fiat Gallery, Paris, France

2017

  • Mix[cités], group show. Curator : Armelle Dakouo. GVCC Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco

  • Videobrasil Contemporary Art Festival. Artistic Director: Solange Farkas. Sao Paulo, Brazil

  • Digital Africa, group show. Curator: Christine Eyene. OGU MAG gallery, Tokyo, Japan

  • Die Schönheit im Anderen, group show. Curator: Mark Gisbourne. Lieberose Castle, Germany

  • The Black Sphinx, group show. Primo Marella gallery, Milan, Italy

  • Flow of Forms/Forms of Flow, group show. Curators: Kerstin Pinther and Alexandra Weigand. Galerie Karen Wimmer, Munich, Germany

  • Afriques Capitales, group show. Curator: Simon Njami. La Villette, Paris, France

  • Vers le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, group show. Curator: Simon Njami, Gare Saint-Sauveur, Lille, France

  • Le Havre - Dakar, partager la mémoire, group show. Curators: Hamady Bocoum, Cédric Crémière, Etienne Féau. Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Le Havre, France

2016

  • Transpositions, solo show 50 Golborne gallery, London, UK

  • Transmutations, solo show. Curator: Manuela de Barros. Backslash Gallery, Paris, France

  • Dak'art Biennale, The City in the Blue Daylight. Artistic Director: Simon Njami. Curator: Valentina Gioia Levy. IFAN Museum of African Arts, Dakar, Senegal

  • Marrakech Biennale, Not New Now. Artistic Director: Reem Fada. L'Blassa, Marrakech, Morocco

  • The Way It Is, Invited Artist solo show. Art Africa Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa

  • Global Talks, Bienalsur (Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de América del Sur), Buenos Aires, Argentina

2015

  • All things magic, solo show, Galerie RSF, Paris, France

  • Pavillon du Bénin, installation, Venice Biennale Off. Venice, Italy

  • Vodunaut, solo show. Curator: Didier Houenoude. Centre Arts etCultures, Cotonou, Benin.

  • Zemidjan, Invited Artist solo show. Ddessin Contemporary Drawing Fair, Paris, France

  • Variations, group show. Galerie Joseph, Paris, France

2013-2014

  • Kaleta/Kaleta, performative installation. Curator: Vittoria Matarrese. Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

  • Black Light Sanctuary, installation. Artistic Director: Stéphane Corréard. 58ème Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge, France.

Art Fairs

2022

  • Untitled Art Fair, Miami. 50 Golborne gallery

2021

  • 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair chez Christie’s. Paris. 50 Golborne gallery and Dominique Fiat gallery

2018

  • Art Paris, Dominique Fiat Gallery

2017

  • AKAA Art Fair, Paris, France, Dominique Fiat gallery

  • Cape Town Art Fair, South Africa, Primo Marella gallery

  • Artissima, Turin, Italy, Primo Marella gallery

  • Miart, Milan, Italy, Primo Marella gallery

  • Art Paris, France, 50 Golborne gallery

  • Artefiera, Bologna, Italy, Primo Marella gallery

  • 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York, USA, 50 Golborne Gallery

2016

  • Art Africa Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa, solo show

  •  Art Paris, 50 Golborne gallery

  • 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair London, 50 Golborne gallery