EXHIBITIONS | PROJECTS
Digital platform
Inspiration Benin – at the Heart of the African Worlds
2025 > 2026
Conceived as a polyphonic and subjective journey, this platform offers an immersion into a Benin in motion, traversed by multiple temporalities, places, and narratives. It provides a free exploration (geographic, cultural, and sensory) revealed through the projects developed within the framework of the Inspiration Benin - At the Heart of African Worlds residency program.
The conceptual, aesthetic, artistic, and digital approach driving this project revolves around the richness and complexities of Beninese society, rooted in its heritage, contemporary challenges, and aspirations for the future. Inspired by everyday life, the diverse languages, and the interwoven living heritage, the platform sketches the outlines of a society marked by sometimes elusive singularities.
A project led by the French Embassy in Benin,
MansA (House of African Worlds),
the Benin Agency for the Development of Arts and Culture ,
implemented by the French Institute of Benin .
Project Team
Curator & General Coordinator ~ Marion Hamard (Equilibrium)
Sound Designer ~ Nick Tchaou
Technical Coordinator ~ Ousmane Sacca (Altéa Nova)
Lead Developer ~ Gilles Kidjo
Full Stack Developer ~ Abdoul Madjid
Specialist WP ~ Darrell Kidjo
UI/UX Lead ~ Micrette Tohoungnan
UI/UX Designer ~ Carmel Assogba
ÀLÁ Ọ̀MÌNIRA , Moufouli Bello
Exhibition from January 13th to February 8th, 2025
Claudine Talon Foundation, Cotonou
Àlá Ọ̀mìnira means "Dreams of freedom" in Yoruba.
Oscillating between paintings, digital works, and sculpture, this exhibition continues the reflective and visual research that has driven the artist for several years. For this project, she explores the power of emancipatory women's communities as well as the notions of self-determination and consent in more subtle dimensions such as the right to rest, epigenetics, and inheritance.
Through her visual narratives, Moufouli Bello reveals the complex interplay between the pursuit of individual freedoms and the insidious oppressive systems that hinder them. Implicitly, Àlá Ọ̀mìnira invites reflection on resilience and the potential of paths to emancipation and empowerment, whether individual or collective.
Project Team
Production ~ Claudine TALON & Moufouli BELLO Foundation
Curator ~ Marion HAMARD
Set Designer ~ Franck HOUNDÉGLA
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aco
Second-hand bookshop - stationery shop
2023 > ongoing, Ouidah
Founded in 2023 in Ouidah, Acɔ́ is a bookshop and stationery store dedicated to African literature and works related to the continent and its diaspora. The shop brings together a selection of often rare books, difficult to find elsewhere, alongside a stationery section.
A project rooted in curatorial practice, Acɔ́ extends a reflection on the circulation of knowledge, stories and imaginaries produced from the continent — in Ouidah, a crossroads city between memory, history and the present.
L'idée et la volonté de repenser la collection au prisme de sa langue traditionnelle nous anime depuis longtemps et nous a emportés sur des chemins complexes. Un travail approfondi autour des univers référentiels, de la syntaxe et du vocabulaire fongbé a permis de renouveler notre regard sur les pièces de la collection et d'enrichir nos compréhensions. Développer les dimensions historiques et scientifiques de la collection tout en repensant la politique de médiation s'inscrit en écho à la pensée de Ngugi wa Thiong'o. — Marion Hamard
Créé en 2015 à Cotonou, au cœur de l'espace d'art contemporain Le Centre, le Musée de la Récade présente une collection de récades — sceptres royaux de l'ancien royaume du Danxòmɛ̀, symboles d'autorité des souverains. Composée de plus d'une centaine de pièces traditionnelles et contemporaines, la collection met en lumière un dialogue continu entre passé et présent : patrimoine culturel restitué par des collectionneurs privés et corpus d'œuvres contemporaines créées par des artistes internationaux en résidence.
En 2020, le projet Musée en Mouvement engage une reconsidération de la collection au prisme du fongbé, sa langue traditionnelle. Ce travail s'organise autour de séances de documentation collectives et de résidences de recherche avec des spécialistes du Royaume du Danxòmɛ̀ — dont Gabin Djimassè (art vodùn) et le Professeur Bienvenue Akoha (linguistique générale et africaine).
En juin 2023, une étape de travail de ce programme est présentée et partagée avec les visiteurs du musée.
Équipe du projet
Commissariat ~ Marion Hamard
Scénographie ~ Lydie Ahomlanto
Documentation & médiation - Marion Hamard,Fortuné Agossa
Équipe technique - Prosper Djivo, Fortuné Agossa
Photo credit: The Centre, The Royal Museum
To coincide with this new exhibition, a documentary space has been created in parallel, bringing together podcasts and short videos involving historians, craftspeople and knowledge holders:
- Akati Workshop, Documentary capsule
15'52, Fongbe, French subtitles, 2021
- Hountondji Family, Podcast , 12'52, Fongbe, 2021
- Kpanligan, Podcast, 10'31, fungbé, 2023
- Welcome Akoha, Podcast, French, 11'11, 2023
- Gabin Djimassè, Podcast, fongbé, 4'54, 2023
- Panegyric of King Gbèhanzin, Podcast, Fongbe, 3'44, 2023
Mediation tools complement the system: multilingual visits (Fongbe, Mina, English, French) and educational workshops for young audiences.
Xogbe, Sènami Donoumassou
Exhibition from June 17 to August 14, 2022
The Centre, Abomey-Calavi
Xógbé means "the word" in Fongbé.
In this exhibition, Sènami Donoumassou explores fragments of our intangible cultural heritage, focusing in particular on clan panegyrics (Akômlă mlă), the literatures of Fà (Fà gbésisà - Fàgléta - Fàhan), proverbs (Lõ) and tales (Hwènuxò).
In a single movement, she creates a dialogue between traditional and imported religions through artistic works revolving around divination, prayers, and our relationship with the dead. Underlying this dialogue, Sènami Donoumassou explores the notion of translation and questions the role of orality in our traditions and contemporary society. She also highlights untranslatable words, those that are impossible to translate and complex to interpret.
Sènami Donoumassou gives form, through sculpture, to the intangible, as a possible means of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, which stands as one of Benin's greatest treasures. This exhibition follows many months of research with knowledgeable individuals, elders, and experts. The knowledge gathered is the primary material for this project. A veritable manifesto, the exhibition's artist unequivocally affirms the necessity of protecting and safeguarding the foundations of our collective and personal identity.
Entitled Hòxo, which means twins in Fongbe, this exhibition by Marcel Gbeffa and Violaine Lochu intertwines two cultural, religious and human realities oscillating between twinship, history and colonial past.
Through this hybrid body-of-work, the artists create a fictional twinship and transport us into a space of dialogue and imagined resilience. By exploring this painful shared history, between slavery and colonization, the artists offer us the writing of an inclusive and complex, albeit partial, history.
Beyond the physical differences between the two artists, and questioning the reality of their twinship, Hòxo highlights the inextricable and unbreakable bonds that unite these entities, metaphorically embodying national histories, geographical spaces, and interconnected humanities. Between Beninese cosmogony and Greek and Roman mythology, Hòxo uniquely testifies to the potential of a shared imagination.
By circumventing the pitfall of a univocal history, the artists connect fragments of memories, words, languages and traditions, thus creating a polyphonic and subjective memorial space in perpetual construction.
Crédit photographique : Le Centre, Le Musée de la Récade
Digital platform
Inspiration Benin – at the Heart of the African Worlds
2025 > 2026
Conceived as a polyphonic and subjective journey, this platform offers an immersion into a Benin in motion, traversed by multiple temporalities, places, and narratives. It provides a free exploration (geographic, cultural, and sensory) revealed through the projects developed within the framework of the Inspiration Benin - At the Heart of African Worlds residency program.
The conceptual, aesthetic, artistic, and digital approach driving this project revolves around the richness and complexities of Beninese society, rooted in its heritage, contemporary challenges, and aspirations for the future. Inspired by everyday life, the diverse languages, and the interwoven living heritage, the platform sketches the outlines of a society marked by sometimes elusive singularities.
A project led by the French Embassy in Benin,
MansA (House of African Worlds),
the Benin Agency for the Development of Arts and Culture ,
implemented by the French Institute of Benin .
Dide
Sènami Donoumassou, Cléophée Moser, Sarah Trouche & Mounia Youssef
Exhibition from October 6th to October 18th, 2018
French Institute of Cotonou
Didę literally means "get up" in Yoruba. This title refers to the multifaceted artistic project presented by the artist Sarah Trouche: its poetic, political, and metaphorical dimensions.
This group exhibition explores the relationship between tradition and contemporary life through the lens of the place of women in Beninese society, and beyond.
Sculptures inspired by the Gèlèdé tradition (Sarah Trouche, Didę), appliqué revealing children's views on their perceptions of Beninese women and performance videos (Sarah Trouche, Feminist Tapisserie), a series of posters highlighting the stereotypes to be deconstructed and the struggles to be waged (Mounia Youssef, Ne nous libérez pas, on s'en charge!), a contemporary royal staff in homage to the queen ousted from history Tassi Hangbè (Sènami Donoumassou, Une récade pour la Reine), a video work revisiting the tale of Little Red Riding Hood which questions the insidious dimensions of the different forms of violence between men and women (Cléophée Moser, Elles Voix Rouge): this exhibition opens up a series of spaces for reflection on the power dynamics that shape our contemporary societies.
The dialogue between works and the intersection of perspectives, media and materials highlight possible ways to build new dynamics of harmony and balance between human beings.
Amazons
Group exhibition
2018
L'idée et la volonté de repenser la collection au prisme de sa langue traditionnelle nous anime depuis longtemps et nous a emportés sur des chemins complexes. Un travail approfondi autour des univers référentiels, de la syntaxe et du vocabulaire fongbé a permis de renouveler notre regard sur les pièces de la collection et d'enrichir nos compréhensions. Développer les dimensions historiques et scientifiques de la collection tout en repensant la politique de médiation s'inscrit en écho à la pensée de Ngugi wa Thiong'o. — Marion Hamard
Créé en 2015 à Cotonou, au cœur de l'espace d'art contemporain Le Centre, le Musée de la Récade présente une collection de récades — sceptres royaux de l'ancien royaume du Danxòmɛ̀, symboles d'autorité des souverains. Composée de plus d'une centaine de pièces traditionnelles et contemporaines, la collection met en lumière un dialogue continu entre passé et présent : patrimoine culturel restitué par des collectionneurs privés et corpus d'œuvres contemporaines créées par des artistes internationaux en résidence.
En 2020, le projet Musée en Mouvement engage une reconsidération de la collection au prisme du fongbé, sa langue traditionnelle. Ce travail s'organise autour de séances de documentation collectives et de résidences de recherche avec des spécialistes du Royaume du Danxòmɛ̀ — dont Gabin Djimassè (art vodùn) et le Professeur Bienvenue Akoha (linguistique générale et africaine).
En juin 2023, une étape de travail de ce programme est présenté et partagé avec les visiteurs du musée.
Équipe du projet
Commissariat ~ Marion Hamard
Scénographie ~ Lydie Ahomlanto
Documentation & médiation - Marion Hamard,Fortuné Agossa
Équipe technique - Prosper Djivo, Fortuné Agossa
Photo credit: The Centre, The Royal Museum
To coincide with this new exhibition, a documentary space has been created in parallel, bringing together podcasts and short videos involving historians, craftspeople and knowledge holders:
- Akati Workshop, Documentary capsule
15'52, Fongbe, French subtitles, 2021
- Hountondji Family, Podcast , 12'52, Fongbe, 2021
- Kpanligan, Podcast, 10'31, fungbé, 2023
- Welcome Akoha, Podcast, French, 11'11, 2023
- Gabin Djimassè, Podcast, fongbé, 4'54, 2023
- Panegyric of King Gbèhanzin, Podcast, Fongbe, 3'44, 2023
Mediation tools complement the system: multilingual visits (Fongbe, Mina, English, French) and educational workshops for young audiences.
Digital platform
Inspiration Benin – at the Heart of the African Worlds
2025 > 2026
Conceived as a polyphonic and subjective journey, this platform offers an immersion into a Benin in motion, traversed by multiple temporalities, places, and narratives. It provides a free exploration (geographic, cultural, and sensory) revealed through the projects developed within the framework of the Inspiration Benin - At the Heart of African Worlds residency program.
The conceptual, aesthetic, artistic, and digital approach driving this project revolves around the richness and complexities of Beninese society, rooted in its heritage, contemporary challenges, and aspirations for the future. Inspired by everyday life, the diverse languages, and the interwoven living heritage, the platform sketches the outlines of a society marked by sometimes elusive singularities.
A project led by the French Embassy in Benin,
MansA (House of African Worlds),
the Benin Agency for the Development of Arts and Culture ,
implemented by the French Institute of Benin .
Cao Su Cries , Thu Van Tran
Exhibition from March 5 to April 18, 2015
Art & Essay Gallery , University of Rennes 2
Using a precise and poetic visual vocabulary, Thu Van Tran explores power dynamics from both a physical and metaphorical perspective. His approach is characterized by a dialectical tension, oscillating between lightness and weight, balance and instability, the ephemeral and the permanent. The artist draws on a range of historical, political, and literary references, made visible through the interplay of materials such as photosensitive paper, wood, latex, and colored inks.
For the Art & Essai Gallery, Thu Van Tran continues his aesthetic and conceptual research around the rubber tree, from which latex is extracted for the manufacture of rubber. Native to Brazil, the rubber tree seed was imported and exploited by various colonial regimes in South Asia (Malaysia, Vietnam) – notably by the Michelin company in Indochina from 1925 onwards – as well as on the African continent (Ghana, Liberia). The migration of the rubber tree can be understood as a metaphor for cultural and social transplantation within colonial and postcolonial spaces.
Project Team - Commissioners
Gabrielle Camuset, Lorenz-Jack Chaillat, Kim Coz
Taous Dahmani, Camille David, Delphine Fauchereau
Maëlle Gérard, Marion Hamard, Marie Lefevre
Alice Lognonné, Alice Orefice, Margaux Paturel
Leslie Rivalland, Mickaël Tkindt, Margaux Waquet