Romuald Hazoumé Exit Ball

We know that the results of the votes by the ballot boxes do not correspond inevitably to the popular will In Africa or elsewhere. It happens sometimes that the people share intense moments provided by planetary events. The Olympic games or the football World Cup can rub out for a while the hardships of life. It happens sometimes that one brutally feels the effects of laws that did not exist before these planetary events… In 2010, South Africa will host the football World Cup. Africa, as well as the whole world, is preparing to live incredible moments. Therefore, it is unlikely that the vote of unpopular laws abducts the front page from the sport results. But it is not impossible after all these rejoicings that the people bear the brunt of the ball and feel the effects of these new laws. Exit Ball is about that. It is the giant balloon of the next World Cup, it is our planet, it is also the people illustrated by the tops of cut out cans that made the reputation of Romuald Hazoumé and it is also this large ball which could remain through the throat. Exit Ball talks about the world, its hopes, the solidarity of the people, but also of overpopulation, political perversity, and the local and planetary problems. Exit Ball, it is also the title of his first personal exhibition at aliceday. Exit Ball will include a choice of eleven original photographs. The artist took the risk over the last years to follow the conveyors of Kpayo who cross the border of Nigeria to supply Benin with unnatural gasoline. Hundreds of liters are conveyed on pirogues, motorbikes, moped, scooters, bicycles, in cans, these same cans Romuald Hazoumé appropriates to bring them back to Europe in the form of masks sublimes. In Exit Ball, they will show the beauty and the dignity of the African woman. In all circumstances, they are elegant and keep

smiling. “Women are the ones who give balance to the brutality of the system...” quotes Romuald Hazoumé. Since the entire exhibition Exit Ball is related to this traffic of fuel cans, it was necessary that Romuald Hazoumé, in conformity with his culture, “makes the Fa” (divine geomancy, earmark of Êvé, Fon and Yoruba, his origin). I remember, in 1994 during his first exhibition at the Saatchi gallery in London, Romuald Hazoumé had made this spectacular ceremony in order to obtain the authorization to “ let go the masks”. Today, Hazoumé prefers to give room to Orishas (Gods) in another manner by presenting three symbols, three paintings that authorize the making of the exhibition Exit Ball.

André Magnin

Exhibition from September 15th to October 24th, 2009. Tuesday to Saturday from 14:00 to 18:00 and also by appointment.

BIOGRAPHY

Born 1962 Lives & works in Porto Novo (Bénin)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 Made in Porto-Novo, October Gallery, London,UK. Exit Ball, aliceday, Brussels, Belgium

2008/09 La Bouche du Roi, Horniman Museum, London

2007 La Bouche du Roi, British Museum, London, touring to Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, Merseyside Maritime Museum, National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool, Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, Laing Art Gallery, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle, and in 2008/09 to the Horniman Museum, London, UK. Romuald Hazoumé, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland

2006 Romuald Hazoumé: La Bouche du Roi, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France

2005 Romuald Hazoumé, Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Republic of Benin Romuald Hazoumé: La Bouche du Roi, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France ARTicle 14 - débrouille-toi, toi- même!, October Gallery, London, UK, touring to the World Museum, Liverpool, UK (2006)

2002 Romuald Hazoumé: La Bouche du Roi, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas,USA Romuald Hazoumé, Centre Culturel Français, Turin, Italy

2001 Romuald Hazoumé, Galerie Olivier Houg, Lyon, France

1999 Romuald Hazoumé: La Bouche du Roi, Centre Culturel Français, Cotonou, Republic of Benin Romuald Hazoumé, Galerie Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland Romuald Hazoumé, Galerie Gut Gasteil, Prigglitz, Austria Romuald Hazoumé: Vor-Sicht, Dany Keller Galerie, Munich; travelled to Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany; and The Project, New York, USA

1997 Romuald Hazoumé, Galerie 20 x 2, Arnheim, Netherlands

1996 Romuald Hazoumé, Gelbe Musik Galerie, Berlin, travelled to Dany Keller Galerie, Munich and Firma Harlekin Art, Wiesbaden, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 3rd Moscow Biennale for Contemporary Art: Against Exclusion, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia Africa Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy PERSONA, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Brussels, Belgium “Who's betting on the 47?” NKV Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany Art Dubai with October Gallery, Dubai, UAE Joburg Art Fair with October Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008 U-TURN, Quadriennial for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark Angaza Afrika – African Art Now, October Gallery, London Art Dubai with October Gallery, Dubai, UAE Joburg Art Fair with October Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007 documenta 12, Kassel, Germany Prix Arnold Bode UN/FAIR TRADE, Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria Uncomfortable Truths – the shadow of slave trading on contemporary art & design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; touring to Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford, and Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK From Courage to Freedom, October Gallery, London, UK

2006/07 100% Africa, Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain

2006 De ida y vuelta. África, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA. - Miami Art Central, Florida, USA touring to Mexico, Canada and Europe

2005/06 African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA

2005 Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

2004/06 Africa Remix, museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

2003 Armour: The Fortification of Man, Biennale de Fort Asperen, Netherlands Magic Markers: Objects of Transformation, Des Moines Art Center,Iowa; travelled to Musée Bellerive, Zurich; and Musée d'Art de Lausanne, Switzerland

2002 African Market, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 40Jahre: Fluxus und die Folgen, Kunstsommer Wiesbaden, Germany

2001 TRADE, Nederlands Fotos Institut, Rotterdam & Fotomuseum,Winterthur,

Switzerland XXXV Prix International D'Art Contemporain de Monte Carlo, Salle des Arts, Monte Carlo, Monaco Œil pour œil, Le Rectangle Centre d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France

2000 Lyon Biennal, Lyon, France. Sieben Hügel, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Romuald Hazoumé, Paul Pfeiffer, Duke University Museum of Art Durham, North Carolina, USA Partage d'exotismes: 5e Biennale d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, France Man + Space, Kwangju Biennale, Korea Dinge in der Kunst des XX Jahrhunderts, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany Construction in Process VII: This Earth Is a Flower, The International Artists Museum, Bydgoszcz, Poland Art Basel 2000, Galerie Art & Public, Basel, Switzerland

1999 Spaceship Earth, Art in General, New York, USA Paradise 8, Exit Art, New York, USA Liverpool Biennal: International Festival of Contemporary Art, Liverpool,UK

1992 Out of Africa: Contemporary African Artists from the Pigozzi Collection, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

AWARDS

2007 Arnold Bode Prize, documenta 12, Kassel, Germany

1996 George Maciunas Prize, Wiesbaden, Germany

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2006 Romuald Hazoumé. Exhibition catalogue. Published by Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin

2005 Romuald Hazoumé. Exhibition catalogue. Published by Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin La Bouche du Roi. Exhibition catalogue. Published by the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, USA African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection.Exhibition catalogue. Edited by André Magnin. Published by Merrell

2004 Africa Remix. Exhibition Catalogue.

1999 Romuald Hazoumé " Vor-Sicht " by Peter Volkwein. Exhibition catalogue, Städtische, Galerie Ingolstadt. Bilingual text: German, French

1998 7. Triennale der Kleinplastik: Zeitgenössische Skulptur. Europa Afrika. Exhibition Catalogue : Romuald Hazoumé by André Magnin. Text in German Benin- Benin, Tussen Gisteren Morgen . Romuald Hazoumé by Frits Bless. Exhibition catalogue, Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn. Text in Dutch

Exit Ball

Plastic & steel 210 cm diam 2008

Exhibition view aliceday 2009

Nana wax

Plastic & wax 45 x 56 x 16 cm 2009

Miss des Moines

27 x 20 x 10 cm Plastic & steel 2003

Waxomaniaque

Plastic & wax 45 x 40 x 27 cm 2009

Dirt devil

Plastic & cloth 26 x 17 x 20 cm 2009

Airbag

Photography 74 x 49 cm 2009

La Roulotte photography 120 x 80 cm 2004

Bidon armé

Photography 74 x 49 cm ed 1/9 2004

Homme vivant

Natural pigments & cowdug on canvas 158 x 222 cm 2009

Exhibition view aliceday 2009