COLLABORATION : WEREWERE-LIKING, BIENNALE DI VENEZIA: WEREWERE-LIKING

Galerie Cécile Fakhoury is pleased to announce the participation of Werewere-Liking in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Koyo Kouoh.

Werewere-Liking Gnepo was born in 1950 in Cameroon; and lives and works in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. A major figure on African artistic scenes since the late 1960s, Werewere-Liking has developed a deeply interdisciplinary and self-taught practice at the intersection of theatre, poetry, painting, and sculpture. In 1985, she founded Ki-Yi M’Bock, a theatre troupe with which she has staged more than thirty live performances, the most significant of which have toured internationally. Under the artist’s influence, Ki-Yi M’Bock gradually evolved into a cultural initiative serving the social cause of underprivileged youth, notably taking the form of a collective creative village in the heart of Abidjan.

Within this constellation of artistic practices, Werewere-Liking’s visual work constitutes a field of research in its own right. Through it, she explores regimes of collective memory and the legacies of African cosmologies in the creation of a contemporary social and spiritual imaginary. Her visual works are distinguished by an original formal vocabulary in which fluid lines bring to life intertwined human and natural worlds, populated by references to both traditional and contemporary histories and inscribed within a pan-African artistic modernity.

The invitation to the Venice Biennale marks an important milestone in the institutional recognition of this practice. On this occasion, the artist will present a group of emblematic works from across her career.

For this occasion, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury accompanies Werewere-Liking in the presentation of her works and engages in a dialogue with the artist aimed at strengthening the visibility, critical contextualization, and international circulation of her practice.

In parallel with the Biennale, the gallery will present in Abidjan an exhibition dedicated to several key figures of modernities and trans-African creative scenes, including the artist, curated by Franck Hermann Ekra. The project will offer a historical and formal perspective on these practices, highlighting their contributions to expanded narratives of art history.

Through this collaboration, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury reaffirms its commitment to artists whose trajectories actively contribute to redefining artistic narratives on both a continental and international scale.