Curator: Xavier Franceschi
From July 4 to August 24, 2025, Dominique Mathieu’s Barricade installations and Jems Koko Bi’s Carnet intime will take over the Hôtel de la Marine. The Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN) and the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) have partnered to present to the public an experience of dialogue between heritage and contemporary creation. A selection of emblematic works from the Cnap’s national collection will be on display across 7 national monuments throughout the country, from spring 2025 to spring 2026. This initiative marks the strengthening of a long-standing collaboration between Cnap and CMN.
Jems Koko Bi explores struggles for power, dynamics of domination, and the shared history between the West and Africa through a postcolonial approach. Carved with chainsaws or shaped by fire, these forms emerge from raw wood. Made from a single tree trunk worked with a chainsaw, the artwork Carnet intime consists of a stack of chairs topped by a charred figure curled up on itself. The chair is a recurring motif in Jems Koko Bi’s work, serving as a powerful symbol of power and its instability. Whether throne, pulpit, or unsteady seat, the chair in Koko Bi’s work becomes a symbol of engaged postcolonial thought, questioning the legacies of the past and their imprint on the present. Here, the artist reinterprets this everyday object as an allegory of power relations, where the balance of power always seems precarious. Exhibited at the Hôtel de la Marine, this sculpture resonates particularly strongly in this historic site, where, in 1848, Victor Schoelcher prepared the decree abolishing slavery. A major figure in Ivorian sculpture, Jems Koko Bi won the Dakar Biennale prize in 2000. His work has been exhibited in numerous institutions worldwide and notably presented at the Venice Biennale in 2013, 2015, and 2017 within the Ivorian pavilion.