For Le Nouveau Printemps, Ndayé Kouagou occupies the exhibition spaces at Bellegarde arts center with a new creation, the Here & Elsewhere video installation.

Building on the work begun with The Guru (Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2023), the artist brings back his alter ego to take us on a new adventure. In offbeat but familiar dialogue, the Narrator plays with the idea of posited universalism, while deliberately dodging a clear definition of the subject. This simulation of questioning and listening invites us into a troubling experience, a mirror of the times we live in, and of our political and media paradoxes.

On screen are the artist’s body and dubbed voice. The tone brings to mind a self-help video on social media, teaching us how to think, act or dress. But here, the instructions are patently absurd.

The narrative blurs conventions and celebrates incoherence rather than truth. Where does this lead us? Very soon, the viewer is forced back to the starting point: what are we really talking about? By confronting us with the instability of language and what it conceals, Ndayé Kouagou challenges our discourse and what it leaves unsaid.

At the crossroads of our personal and collective thought processes, Here & Elsewhere is perhaps really addressed to every one of us, wherever we may be.

IN CONNECTION :
The artist is also leading a creative workshop at isdaT (institut supérieur des arts et du design), whose results will be on view during Le Nouveau Printemps.

A coproduction between Le Nouveau Printemps and Gathering (London), Nir Altman (Munich), and Buro Stedelijk (Amsterdam)

With the support of Centre Culturel Bellegarde – Toulouse City Hall