MIYENÉ
” Miyené In Cameroon’s Ewondo language, “appearance” means “to be seen”. A word that sums up fashion, but also translates the importance of appearance in the perception of one’s personality by others. In this collection, I explore various “typical” appearances, inspired by the role of hairstyles in traditional African societies as a means of expressing prestige. Today, these traditional hairstyles are widely devalued and negatively perceived.
This collection includes a collaboration with Cameroonian visual artist Boris Nzebo, whose work follows the same paths…
Imane Ayissi
Boris Nzebo
Boris Nzebo was born in Port-Gentil, Gabon, and lives and works in Douala, Cameroon.
Boris NZEBO’s adventure began in a hairdressing salon in Douala, the colorful, bustling city that is Cameroon’s economic capital. Boris NZEBO worked as a sign painter, before devoting himself to the plastic arts.
Self-taught, Boris NZEBO explores traditional African hairstyles in urban spaces, in the throes of everyday life and at night. The hairstyle becomes a pretext for questioning our identity and social inequalities through graffiti that resembles advertising codes.
“I aim to reproduce the questioning that is mine in the face of a society in search of reference points and in the throes of change. I ask myself: how can we understand that our environment is not as well cared for as our heads?…”
BORIS NZEBO
Every day, he observes faces bruised, crushed, tired or suffocated by the old city. It’s a megalopolis marked by a wealth of decaying architecture and the weight of a coherent urbanization that stopped a long time ago… and with its contours that encircle the drawing, its lines, curves and strokes that intermingle, cross and uncross in an unknown direction, it’s both personal and universal, legible to the greatest number. His large-format works depict the immensity of the city and the grandeur of the world…
His work is regularly exhibited in Africa, England, France, Switzerland, Haiti, the USA and Brazil, and at international events including the 1:54 contemporary art fairs in London and New York, Art Paris Art Fair, AKAA and ART X Lagos. His work is part of numerous collections, including the Fond National d’Art Contemporain de France ( FNAC ), Saatchi Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, ( MACAAL ) Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain AL Maaden, Morocco.
He won the Jacobs Foundation Prize in Switzerland.