La sélection de / Dimitri Fagbohoun: Musique, cinéma, essais, art

"I listen to a lot of music and Manu Dibango nurtured my childhood in Cameroon. "Soul Makossa" was in my record collection and "Thriller" was the first record I bought (with Manu's sample, 'mama-se, mama-sa, mama coo sa'). I collect mainly African music records and "African Voodoo" is a grail, a must-have in this universe, especially because it shows a less known facet of Manu, which can be found on albums like Ceddo." DF

Manu Dibango (1933-2020) nicknamed Papagroove or Papa Manu, is a Cameroonian world jazz saxophonist, musician, conductor and singer. In 1972, he released Soul Makossa, a song with which he acquired worldwide fame and marked the birth of world jazz. That same year also saw the release of African Voodoo, a separate production featuring recordings originally intended to be used as illustration music for advertising, television and cinema.

Image: Dimitri Fagbohoun, Paul-Arman, Microcosmos II, 2018

" Fabriquer le regard or how so-called primitive art will infuse a significant part of Western art and thought. A work that enriches my corpus Recollection. On a similar theme, I recommend listening to François-Xavier Fauvelle's inaugural lesson at the Collège de France." DF

A specialist in the history of the reception of African arts in Western culture, Yaëlle Biro is currently curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Drawing on a body of largely unpublished archival material, Fabriquer le regard, a book resulting from her thesis, focuses on the role played by art dealers, at the turn of the last century, in the definition, promotion and circulation of African objects as works of art in Europe and the United States.

Born in 1968, François-Xavier Fauvelle is a French historian and archaeologist specializing in Africa. In 2018, he becomes the first professor at the Collège de France to hold a permanent chair entirely devoted to the history of ancient Africa.

Image: Dimitri Fagbohoun, Microcosmos II, Recollection series, 2018