Barthélémy Toguo: Urban Requiem: Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia

Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, and installation, Barthélémy Toguo addresses enduring and urgently relevant issues of exile, displacement, migration, colonialism, race, and the relationship between the Global North and South. At the core of Toguo’s practice is the notion of belonging, which stems from his dual French-Cameroonian nationality.

Using poetic, hopeful, and often figurative gestures to connect nature with the human body, Toguo foregrounds concerns that have both ecological and societal implications. The artist’s recent works are informed by global experiences of political and social movements like Black Lives Matter and the humanitarian tragedies of contemporary refugee crises.

The centerpiece installation of Toguo’s SCAD MOA exhibition, Urban Requiem, was created in 2015 specifically for the Venice Biennale. In response to curator Okwui Enwezor’s request for artists to address the theme of “all the world’s futures,” Toguo gave form to our common human heartaches and joys. With this exhibition, Toguo extends the work’s act of remembrance in an homage to all those who encounter and endure injustice.