The Cécile Fakhoury Gallery in Abidjan hosts the first solo exhibition of Ivorian visual artist Ange-Frédéric Koffi, entitled “Territory of Perceptions, Serenade of Forms,” from February 1 to March 31, 2023. The exhibited works of the artist, which are situated between the image and the object, build an intimate and poetic geography that captures the state of grace of travel.
Ange-Frédéric Koffi’s creations propose moments of pause in a continuous movement, having a temporality that is both furtive and meditative. The works, located somewhere between the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Niger, capture the ephemeral, the fleeting and the promising. In this exhibition, the photographs unfold in constellations on the walls, weaving a web of images and temporalities, where the human figure is present, appearing in the window of a car or motorcycle, often taken from the passenger seat.
By giving his photographs additional characters, Ange-Frédéric Koffi tells with sweetness and melancholy his experience of the West African territory and the construction of its history. The exhibition space becomes a place of life, like a house, a wallpapered interior where memories are transformed into objects: room, screen, curtains. The varied formats of the works on display allow the prints to be hung, unrolled or shaken, as if to bring them to life.
Born in Korhogo, Ange-Frédéric Koffi lived part of his childhood on the African continent, in Asia and in Europe. A graduate of the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, the artist is influenced by a certain Ivorian school of photography, which gives fundamental importance to the relationship to urban space and architecture.
However, shaped by his cross-border background, he draws on international references, such as his link with the French artist Marc-Camille Chaimovicz, with whom he shares the desire to blur the lines between art and design, between image and textile, or this way of blending the intimate with a global vision whether political or social.
This solo exhibition of the artist Ange-Frédéric Koffi is a poetic journey into an intimate and vibrant West African territory, to be discovered at the Cécile Fakhoury Gallery in Abidjan until March 31, 2023.