Amsterdam

Barthélémy Toguo (Cameroon, 1967) is one of the most prominent African artists working in the world today. From his breakout exhibition The Sick Opera at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2004, he was part of a small group of about a dozen artists, including Robin Rhode, Wangechi Mutu, El Anatsui, Meschac Gaba, Moshekwa Langa, Julie Mehretu and William Kentridge, who consistently broke open the doors of institutions, doors a new generation of African artists still walk through today. He has been the subject of over 35 solo exhibitions at institutions, and has published more than 30 monographs. Toguo has worked in every medium imaginable, from painting, sculpture and printmaking to video, performance, and installation, but perhaps his greatest gesamtkunstwerk is Bandjoun Station, an exhibition space, residency project, commune and working farm in Bandjoun, Cameroon, which opened in 2007.

For all of Toguo’s global prominence, his visibility has been most pronounced in the francophone artworld. High-profile exceptions include solo shows at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, and Villa Merkel in Esslingen. A Very Tiny Discussion offers a much more modest introduction to his work for a Dutch audience. It is structured as a proposal for a retrospective, with 14 carefully selected works spanning 30 years, showing as many parts of the practice as is feasible in our small Prinsengracht space. These works are accompanied by a table of books, giving a complete overview of a three-decade long career.

The exhibition opens Saturday 13 September, 1 to 3pm.