Jems Robert Koko Bi (Ivorian 1966)
No man's land #1, 2015
teak wood
109 cm. high

Condition: In excellent condition.

Notes: Artist & Practice

A sculptor and a performer, he mixes avant-gardist influences to his African history. He questions the notions of space and time, within a wider and ongoing reflection on his own existence. His wooden sculptures initiate a conversation with the forces of nature. In his studio at the heart of the forest, immense sculptures see the light of day and interrogate the identity and the ancestors, the native land and the exile.

Context

Following multiple deafening swings, a face comes out of the stump. The mechanised, sympathetic, hand drags it out. It has always existed, but it was hidden from the world. The gesture reveals its shape. In rhythm, the artist seems to caress its surface, which he transforms at each passage. 'No man’s land' It is this land with no aim, without men, a forgotten part of the world that he invites us to cross and maybe recreate.

Notes

Exhibitions at Van Ostade Biënnale, GoMulan Gallery, Amsterdam, OBJECT Rotterdam, Art Gallery O-68 Velp, Reuten Galerie Amsterdam, Brandhaarden Female Voices at ITA Amsterdam, London Art Fair and others.




Provenance:
Galerie Cecile Fakhoury, Abidjan.
Acquired at the above by the present owner in 2017.