PASCALE MARTHINE TAYOU

Cameroon, 1967. Lives and works in Ghent.

A self-trained artist, he learned his art mainly from the streets in both his home country (Cameroon) and the rest of the world.  He defines himself as a “producer” of things that proclaim freedom, and he also believes that art cannot be separated from life.

His works are full of emotion,  an urgent appeal for freedom and for everything that is forbidden, in order to show the truth of the individual.  At the time when immigration was related to social, political, and economical disasters, Tayou dealt with all of these circumstances. In fact,  one of his works created in 2001 depicts his father’s experience in a journey from Cameroon to Milwaukee (USA); here he aims to show his father’s experience when faced with the “exotic” American lifestyle and the consequences this led to upon his return to Cameroon.