www.materfamiliaswrites.com:
The 2016 sculpture, entitled Empty, is by Jems Koko Bi, an Ivorian artist (I’ve just learned this adjective, Ivorian, which apparently means someone from the Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire). We have seen this artwork during the international art fair — Fiac 21 — in the Jardin des Tuileries.
The stark power of these headless figures, their crowded condition in the precarity of that narrow pirogue . . . Jems Koko Bi studied history as well as art, and the work seems to reference histories of diaspora, of enslavement, of refugees (I thought immediately of Haude Bernabé’s trenchant meditation on the refugees drowned trying to get from Africa to Europe, Mare Nostrum — I wrote about that piece here and here.). But I’ve also read an artist statement in which the artist speaks of the positive aspects of migration, even when it comes at great cost, so I’ll be careful about making quick assumptions here.
Jems Robert Koko Bi: “Many, many people die, but they give ye chance to be alive. This is why I celebrate migration, because somebody has taught me that migration is not only the movement of the body, but it’s also the movement of culture, so I adopt this positive perspective on migration to say, I live. I form part of this migration to know more. For me, it means change. For me, it is the movement of people. For me, it is exodus.
I want to talk about exodus because I am an artist. I make forms. I don’t want to talk just about migration provoking war. I’ve been in migrations, so I have to show the best side of it. This is culture. This is a change. This is knowledge.”
www.artzuid.nl:
Jems Robert Koko Bi, is a sculptor, artist from installatiebouwer, and as a performer. He currently lives and works in Essen, germany. In Düsseldorf, where he studied at the Academy of Arts, after receiving a scholarship would have won and Germany went on. Previously, he has been a student of Spanish history at the National Higher Institute of the Arts and Cultuion, based in Abidjan (côte d'ivoire).
Due to the Bi was to a large extent, influenced by the 80's – an era in which global capitalism, political upheaval, and the global mass media, the tone is set.
In Uganda, he had, in 1996, and his first exhibition. The wood has been, by far, his favorite material, in that it cuts and it burns. His work is figurative, but it is also abstract and conceptual in nature. In his own words, he makes no effort to change the world, and he takes a stand against human history, but take the lessons learned from it to help us, to the heart. He accepted the place where he was staying.
In 2008, he was with the work that is firmly of events in the Party raised money for the victims. His images are imbued with the audience of their humanistic message. This went beyond the level of anecdote. It's not just about the people in Darfur, but, more generally, to all the victims of indiscriminate violence.
Artzuid was for two years (2013 and 2019) Due to ac's more than 27,000 ces of the life and history. It is a tribute to former president Nelson Mandela, in the form of a wooden head, four feet in diameter and seven feet tall.
Due to Bi-so there's been a lot of different parts of the world are shown: France, Germany, Cuba, Senegal to France.
vertaling
Jems Robert Koko Bi is beeldhouwer, tekenaar, installatiebouwer en performer. Hij woont en werkt in het Duitse Essen. In Düsseldorf studeerde hij aan de Academy of Arts, nadat hij een beurs had gewonnen en naar Duitsland toog. Daarvoor studeerde hij Spaanse geschiedenis aan het National Higher Institute of Arts and Culture Action in Abidjan (Ivoorkust).
Koko Bi werd grotendeels beïnvloed door de jaren 80 – een tijdperk waarin mondiaal kapitalisme, politieke onrust en wereldwijde massamedia de toon zetten.
In Abidjan had hij in 1996 zijn eerste tentoonstellingen. Hout is veruit zijn favoriete materiaal, dat hij zaagt en verbrandt. Zijn werk is figuratief, maar ook abstract en conceptueel van aard. Naaren zeggen maakt hij geen werk om de wereld te veranderen, hij verzet zich ook niet tegen de geschiedenis, maar neemt de lessen die daaruit te trekken vallen, ter harte. Hij accepteert de plek waar hij verblijft.
In 2008 viel hij op met werk dat resoluut evenementen in Darfur aanklaagt. Zijn beelden doordrongen de toeschouwers van hun humanistische boodschap. Daarmee ontsteeg het beeld het niveau van de anekdotiek. Het gaat niet alleen om de slachtoffers in Darfur, maar meer algemeen om alle slachtoffers van blind geweld.
Artzuid toonde in twee edities (2013 en 2019) Koko Bi’s Mandela 27.000 pieces of life history. Het is een eerbetoon aan Nelson Mandela in de vorm van een houten hoofd van vier meter doorsnee en zeven meter hoog.
Koko Bi’s werken werden op veel verschillende plaatsen ter wereld geëxposeerd: van Frankrijk en Duitsland tot Cuba, van Senegal tot Canada.
www.africanartagenda.tumblr.com:
Because space and history, while in conflict, are integral parts of the artist’she has infused both in his works in wood, a medium which, Jems Robert Koko Bi explains, “frees the spirit, makes it possible to play with multiple forms that highlight both plenitude and emptiness, the positive and the negative, contrasts which, in turn, give rise to countless new potential avenues for thought.”
www.cecilefakhoury.com:
Graduated from the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf after having studied at the INSAAC in Abidjan, Jems Robert Koko Bi is nowadays a major figure of contemporary art in Ivory Coast and around the world. Both a sculptor and a performer, he enriched his technique as well as his aesthetics throughout his schooling, from the studio of Klaus Simon in Abidjan, that he joins in 1992, to the teachings of Klaus Rinke that he followed during his stay in Germany, which became his host country in 1997.
The particularity of the way he shapes the wood, creating shapes at times figurative at times abstract, carving it with a knife, a chainsaw or fire, earned him to be selectenumerous international art events. In 2000, he receives for instance the price of the Dakar Biennal, of which he will also be a part in 2008 (with his work Darfur), in 2016 (he presents Racines, in the exhibition Contours) and in 2018 (with the installation Retour). His work has also been presented during the Havana Biennal in 2003, at the Documenta of Kassel in 2012 and at the Venice Biennal, within the Ivorian pavilion in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
www.wikipedia.org:
He was born in 1966, in Sifra, Ivory Coast. He studied Spanish History between 1986 and 1988 in University of Abidjan. Between 1988 and 1995 he studied at Institut National Supérieur des Arts et de l'Action Culturelle (Insaac) in Abidjan. In 1997 he won the Daad scholarship and moved to Germany where he studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Klaus Rinke.
Jems Robert Koko Bi uses wood as the medium in his sculptures. His production also includes performance
The 2016 sculpture, entitled Empty, is by Jems Koko Bi, an Ivorian artist (I’ve just learned this adjective, Ivorian, which apparently means someone from the Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire). We have seen this artwork during the international art fair — Fiac 21 — in the Jardin des Tuileries.
The stark power of these headless figures, their crowded condition in the precarity of that narrow pirogue . . . Jems Koko Bi studied history as well as art, and the work seems to reference histories of diaspora, of enslavement, of refugees (I thought immediately of Haude Bernabé’s trenchant meditation on the refugees drowned trying to get from Africa to Europe, Mare Nostrum — I wrote about that piece here and here.). But I’ve also read an artist statement in which the artist speaks of the positive aspects of migration, even when it comes at great cost, so I’ll be careful about making quick assumptions here.
Jems Robert Koko Bi: “Many, many people die, but they give ye chance to be alive. This is why I celebrate migration, because somebody has taught me that migration is not only the movement of the body, but it’s also the movement of culture, so I adopt this positive perspective on migration to say, I live. I form part of this migration to know more. For me, it means change. For me, it is the movement of people. For me, it is exodus.
I want to talk about exodus because I am an artist. I make forms. I don’t want to talk just about migration provoking war. I’ve been in migrations, so I have to show the best side of it. This is culture. This is a change. This is knowledge.”
www.artzuid.nl:
Jems Robert Koko Bi, is a sculptor, artist from installatiebouwer, and as a performer. He currently lives and works in Essen, germany. In Düsseldorf, where he studied at the Academy of Arts, after receiving a scholarship would have won and Germany went on. Previously, he has been a student of Spanish history at the National Higher Institute of the Arts and Cultuion, based in Abidjan (côte d'ivoire).
Due to the Bi was to a large extent, influenced by the 80's – an era in which global capitalism, political upheaval, and the global mass media, the tone is set.
In Uganda, he had, in 1996, and his first exhibition. The wood has been, by far, his favorite material, in that it cuts and it burns. His work is figurative, but it is also abstract and conceptual in nature. In his own words, he makes no effort to change the world, and he takes a stand against human history, but take the lessons learned from it to help us, to the heart. He accepted the place where he was staying.
In 2008, he was with the work that is firmly of events in the Party raised money for the victims. His images are imbued with the audience of their humanistic message. This went beyond the level of anecdote. It's not just about the people in Darfur, but, more generally, to all the victims of indiscriminate violence.
Artzuid was for two years (2013 and 2019) Due to ac's more than 27,000 ces of the life and history. It is a tribute to former president Nelson Mandela, in the form of a wooden head, four feet in diameter and seven feet tall.
Due to Bi-so there's been a lot of different parts of the world are shown: France, Germany, Cuba, Senegal to France.
vertaling
Jems Robert Koko Bi is beeldhouwer, tekenaar, installatiebouwer en performer. Hij woont en werkt in het Duitse Essen. In Düsseldorf studeerde hij aan de Academy of Arts, nadat hij een beurs had gewonnen en naar Duitsland toog. Daarvoor studeerde hij Spaanse geschiedenis aan het National Higher Institute of Arts and Culture Action in Abidjan (Ivoorkust).
Koko Bi werd grotendeels beïnvloed door de jaren 80 – een tijdperk waarin mondiaal kapitalisme, politieke onrust en wereldwijde massamedia de toon zetten.
In Abidjan had hij in 1996 zijn eerste tentoonstellingen. Hout is veruit zijn favoriete materiaal, dat hij zaagt en verbrandt. Zijn werk is figuratief, maar ook abstract en conceptueel van aard. Naaren zeggen maakt hij geen werk om de wereld te veranderen, hij verzet zich ook niet tegen de geschiedenis, maar neemt de lessen die daaruit te trekken vallen, ter harte. Hij accepteert de plek waar hij verblijft.
In 2008 viel hij op met werk dat resoluut evenementen in Darfur aanklaagt. Zijn beelden doordrongen de toeschouwers van hun humanistische boodschap. Daarmee ontsteeg het beeld het niveau van de anekdotiek. Het gaat niet alleen om de slachtoffers in Darfur, maar meer algemeen om alle slachtoffers van blind geweld.
Artzuid toonde in twee edities (2013 en 2019) Koko Bi’s Mandela 27.000 pieces of life history. Het is een eerbetoon aan Nelson Mandela in de vorm van een houten hoofd van vier meter doorsnee en zeven meter hoog.
Koko Bi’s werken werden op veel verschillende plaatsen ter wereld geëxposeerd: van Frankrijk en Duitsland tot Cuba, van Senegal tot Canada.
www.africanartagenda.tumblr.com:
Because space and history, while in conflict, are integral parts of the artist’she has infused both in his works in wood, a medium which, Jems Robert Koko Bi explains, “frees the spirit, makes it possible to play with multiple forms that highlight both plenitude and emptiness, the positive and the negative, contrasts which, in turn, give rise to countless new potential avenues for thought.”
www.cecilefakhoury.com:
Graduated from the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf after having studied at the INSAAC in Abidjan, Jems Robert Koko Bi is nowadays a major figure of contemporary art in Ivory Coast and around the world. Both a sculptor and a performer, he enriched his technique as well as his aesthetics throughout his schooling, from the studio of Klaus Simon in Abidjan, that he joins in 1992, to the teachings of Klaus Rinke that he followed during his stay in Germany, which became his host country in 1997.
The particularity of the way he shapes the wood, creating shapes at times figurative at times abstract, carving it with a knife, a chainsaw or fire, earned him to be selectenumerous international art events. In 2000, he receives for instance the price of the Dakar Biennal, of which he will also be a part in 2008 (with his work Darfur), in 2016 (he presents Racines, in the exhibition Contours) and in 2018 (with the installation Retour). His work has also been presented during the Havana Biennal in 2003, at the Documenta of Kassel in 2012 and at the Venice Biennal, within the Ivorian pavilion in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
www.wikipedia.org:
He was born in 1966, in Sifra, Ivory Coast. He studied Spanish History between 1986 and 1988 in University of Abidjan. Between 1988 and 1995 he studied at Institut National Supérieur des Arts et de l'Action Culturelle (Insaac) in Abidjan. In 1997 he won the Daad scholarship and moved to Germany where he studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Klaus Rinke.
Jems Robert Koko Bi uses wood as the medium in his sculptures. His production also includes performance