Romuald Hazoumè

People have to know that they come from somewhere, that they have strong traditions, they have a strong culture. —Romuald Hazoumè Romuald Hazoumè’s art critically reflects on the legacies of colonialism and the realities of contemporary Africa. Born in 1962 in Porto-Novo, Benin, where he still lives and works, Hazoumè is from a Catholic family of Yoruba origin. He carries on the tradition of the arè —an itinerant artist of Benin’s past who transmitted its culture to other realms. Hazoumè works in a diverse range of mediums, including sculpture, painting, photography, and video. An accomplished bricoleur, he assembles much of his work from cast-off industrial materials such as plastic and glass containers, fragments of appliances, metal, fishing nets, feathers, and cloth. “I send back to the West that which belongs to them,” the artist explains, “the refuse of consumer society that invades us every day.” In the 1980s, Hazoumè began incorporating bidons— plastic jerricans that are used to traffic contraband gasoline from neighboring Nigeria—into his work. Precariously balancing these containers on overburdened bicycles and scooters, those who are compelled to pursue this trade face considerable danger. The artist’s incorporation of these objects of survival, transportation, and exchange addresses global economic and ecological concerns. Hazoumè’s mask sculptures operate as portraits, each bearing a distinct individuality conveyed by its recontextualized materials and form. These works synthesize Yoruba traditions and wider African culture, and draw on the longtime Western fascination with mask-making to consider identity, spirituality, and history. When grouped together into larger assemblages, the masks also engage with such issues as slavery, migration, and disenfranchisement. La Bouche du Roi (1997–2005) is a monumental installation that memorializes those who were victimized by the transatlantic slave trade. Titled after the estuary in Benin from which enslaved African people were transported to the Americas and the Caribbean, it is assembled from 304 masks composed of bidons and other elements, arranged according to the notorious 1789 print of the Brookes slave ship published by abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. La Bouche du Roi has been exhibited internationally, including at London’s British Museum and other institutions throughout the United Kingdom to commemorate the anniversary of the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. As the artist points out, however, “My piece is not talking about old slave ships; it’s about what happens today.” In 2007, Hazoumè was awarded the Arnold Bode Prize for his participation in that year’s Documenta 12, where he presented the large-scale installation Dream (2007). To create this work, he gathered hundreds of plastic bidons , assembling them into the form of an open boat positioned before a panoramic photomural of the African shoreline. An exhibition at the Neuberger Museum, Purchase College, State University of New York, in 2023–24 presented Hazoumè’s Fâ Series , which comprises paintings that draw from sacred traditions of Yoruba-speaking communities. In 2024, Hazoumè contributed Ashé to the inaugural Republic of Benin pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia, titled Everything Precious Is Fragile . Upon entering the work’s vaulted dome, viewers were surrounded by banks of visually distinct masks that represent the myriad peoples of Benin—a call for the country to look inward for inspiration, prizing and preserving its communities’ diverse cultures.