I am telling the story of a lifetime, coming and going between Africa and Europe, between Europe and the world, I am an hybrid, I am the product of a fusion of cultures and identities. But what is hybridation if we think of Pangaea’s principle and of the history of mankind? Can we really define ourselves depending on our origins, color, culture – a culture that keeps evolving with our environment ? Am I African, European? Isn’t the principle of universality more important? This brings us to the one and only essence of our being : humanity.
Author: DIMBENG
Claudie Titty Dimbeng, dite DIMBENG, est une artiste plasticienne unique en son genre : sa vision est hybride et enchanteresse, sa palette d’une élégance feutrée, sa technique mixte et d’une modernité incroyable. A l’origine du « Mixed art relief », ses toiles sont l’espace d’un dialogue inédit où le sfumato de la Renaissance italienne vient à la rencontre du Vohou-Vohou ivoirien des années 70. Entre animisme et abstraction, elle ouvre un espace onirique « hors-champ », où problématiques féministes contemporaines et bruissements mystiques d’Afrique ou d’ailleurs se côtoient sans heurts ; elle est la matrice d’une pensée complexe mais chaleureuse, riche et féconde de narrations inconnues, d’imaginaires à composer. // Pour Black(s) to the Future, elle attise l’ambivalence et joint à ses toiles, une partition de mots. Naissance, futur ; corps, errances ; exhortation, prière ; plaisir, accomplissement ; humanité… ce sont autant d’indices supplémentaires que nous livre DIMBENG, dans le parcours de sa poétique singulière du monde. Photo © Dorlis photography
Firy Horse / Cheval de feu
The hardest thing is not to succeed, it is not even to find the will to succeed. The hardest thing is to be intellegible to yourself, to accept and admit that you can succeed. Find yourself, know yourself, connect to yourself in order to understand and conceive the world. Allowing yourself to be submerged by the euphoria of the impetus to take a step forward, like in a obstacle race. Magnify the ordeal of learning, willing and being courageous, through the elegance of a gesture of transmitting and sharing. And then… listen to your heart, to your inner voice… Isn’t it this intelligence that brings us love, strength, protection, trust and happiness ?
A faint storm // tempête sourde
We are stardust, we are extra beings coming from beyond, brought into the world by Mother Earth. We were however charmed by chaos and forced into virtual exile, we went and conquered the universe. Microcosms inside the macrocosm, we fly away in our spacecraft like comets, propulsed through hyperspace searching for the Matrice, in order to go back to harmony between beings and things. The quest for balance is a hard and infinite task, it is our absolute quest.
a body’s heart // AU COEUR DU CORPS
The clitoris is the one human organ aiming only at pleasure. But what is feminine pleasure and how to access it ? Above all, allow you to have some rights : the right to define yourself in order to free yourself from the psychological and intellectual excision where society emprisons you, from religion and education. The right to achieve a better knowledge and acceptance of the feminine body in its multiplicity, proof of self-esteem and self-love, leading you to a connexion with your inner self, your intimate self, and therefore, with the Other.
Tropical Boreal // BOREALE TROPICALE
Every work of art produced by the human will is a product of dream and imagination. Talent, gift, creativity, work and tenacity transform the chimera into reality. But it is through the conscience of their place and role in the History of Men that Africans and Afro-descendants can take back their dreams and thoughts, conquer, go beyong themselves and project themselves : from fiction to reality, from the Earth to space conquest ! Reconcile science and spirituality…
Entre les lignes / Between the lines
Tearing yourself away from prejudice in order to go beyond appearances, looking for the light to reach Knowledge, getting out of ignorance and taking the measure of your power. Yes, you have to give yourself the means to reach an awareness that goes through the access of knowledge. Take your time, have the luxury to think and look for the information. Research and critic analysis of the past are necessary to comprehend our present and establish an inheritage that guarantees the building of our future : Sankôfa ! Back to the future !