Romuald Hazoumè — Portfolio — Slash Paris

Between tradition and modernism

Romuald Hazoumè was born in 1962 in Porto Novo, in the Republic of Benin. He’s a sculptor between tradition and modernism. He was best known for his work La Bouche de Roi. Recently acquired by the British Museum with the assistance of the Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, and the British Museum Friends, La Bouche du Roi is a remarkable multi-media artwork created between 1997 and 2005 by Romuald Hazoumé, an artist from the Republic of Benin, West Africa. The structure of La Bouche du Roi is based on a famous late-18th century print of the Liverpool slave ship theBrookes, and is both a powerful memorial to the horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade and a reminder of its terrible legacy.

——————————

The masks

Hazoumè creates photographs, masks, canvases and installations. He is also known for his mask series. He started this phase of his art in the mid-1980s. These masks, made from discarded gasoline canisters, resemble those used in traditional African culture and ceremonies.