Vindicta 002
This series of laser engravings on backlit household mirrors depicting masks from the Kru ethnic group (Ivory Coast/Liberia) was shown at Gentle Battle, a solo exhibition by Christelle Oyiri that explores the issue of war in the political context of the Ivory Coast. In Vindicta, the artist becomes the archivist of an individual and collective memory through these ghostly masks which sometimes presenting ancestors as benevolent phantoms. However, this attitude does not exclude resentment, particularly the spirit of revenge suggested by the title, with a critique of the pillaging of colonisation. African masks, the victims of a simplistic caricatural vision by twentieth-century artists such as Pablo Picasso, may also be seen as reflecting the current controversy over the restitution of works of art.
Text written by Chiara Perez as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibitions
Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation Galeries Lafayette, Paris (France)
from 14 Feb to 07 May 2023
Tramway, Glasgow (Écosse)
from 30 Apr to 14 Aug 2022
Christelle Oyiri
Born in 1992 in Nogent-Sur-Marne, France
DJ, productrice de musique, écrivaine et artiste, Christelle Oyiri crée tant des performances et des sculptures que des films et de la musique. Fortement ancré dans les problématiques postcoloniales, son travail s’attache à la mise en lumière de récits marginaux, hors du canon dominant, afin de dépasser l’aliénation coloniale. Le souhait de l’artiste de patrimonialiser ces mouvements et ces problématiques liées à la mémoire collective s’est notamment incarné dans la performance Collective Amnesia en 2018.
Née en 1992 à Nogent-sur-Marne (France), Christelle Oyiri est une artiste d’origine guadeloupéenne et ivoirienne. Elle est aussi connue sous le pseudonyme de Crystallmess en tant que productrice de musique.
