MONUMENTAL INSTALLATION 2024

For this ninth edition, AKAA has invited Cameroonian artist MALAM to present an exhibition project at the heart of the fair.

What can be done in this world of disaster ? This is the question Malam posed when he proposed this monumental installation for the 2024 edition of AKAA. The installation would develop a plan of artistic questioning. Additionally, it would foster an interaction between the work and the viewer, inviting, through their vitality and each person’s gaze, participation in the urgent therapy, the central theme of his vocation as a visual artist.

These works would be created using various recycled materials (plastic, metal, ropes…) to provide a new perspective, through art, on our consumer society and its excesses, while teaching us how to improve our behaviors and save the planet through recycling, waste management awareness, preservation of quality of life, health, and natural resources, the development of new ways to repurpose existing materials as raw materials (plastic, oil…), the creation of new jobs for recycling materials, and a new economy.

MALAM is considered to be at the forefront of contemporary African art for the past 33 years. He first exhibited in Cameroon, his native country, where he opened his first studio/gallery in 1991 in New-Bell, and has since showcased his work in many other countries. Notable exhibitions include the Dakar Biennales in Senegal (2002 and 2004), the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2004, where he presented the installation “11092001”), the Joburg Art Fair in Johannesburg, South Africa (2008), and Art Basel in Switzerland (2010). Since 2010, he has had his studio at 6B in Saint- Denis (93), which he opens every year during the Open Studios event at this space, a hub for artistic creation and cultural dissemination, housing nearly 200 studios.