Pause/Tanmpo

2009 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

3:45 minutes and 5:35 minutes (looped)

Bili Bidjocka

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The short two-channel video Pause/Tanmpo takes its cue from a coincidental encounter artist Bili Bidjocka had in Dakar. Walking down the corniche, he saw a boxer, a Senefalese man, training at the beach. It immediately reminded the artist of Le Boxeur—the most well-known brand of matchsticks in Cameroon. On the matchbox is the image of a Black man in red, yellow, or green shorts with corresponding boxing gloves and with his hands ready to deliver an uppercut. This iconic image holds a space in the visual archive of every Cameroonian. The sheer elegance with which the boxer carried himself and the way he punched each molecule in the air caught Bidjocka’s attention and instigated him to begin filming the boxer as the sun set on the horizon of Dakar. After filming, Bidjocka switched sides from behind the camera and let himself be filmed as he tried to emulate, to reproduce the grace and grandeur of Le Boxeur. With this mirroring, Bidjocka’s work becomes a dialogue between two characters: one is a real boxer, and the other an impersonator. But it is also a trialogue between a real boxer, an impersonator, and the memory of Le Boxeur, who, though absent, is ever-present in the cultural memory. There is also a sense of comitragedy about the work: Bidjocka jokes about himself as “le fou” (the fool), desperately struggling to find the right gestures, in relation to the Senegalese boxer. The asynchronous loops of both channels in the video provoke an ever-changing choreography of comparison.

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A visual artist and curator, Bili Bidjocka’s practice confronts market laws, history, and his own Cameroonian identity. Though trained in painting, Bidjocka found his formal fine arts education insufficient in its conception of what constitutes art. His practice expands on this training through mediums as varied as installation, sculpture, writing, and theatrical staging. Certain Cameroonian ceremonies and processions are integral to the artist’s process; these cultural traditions provide opportunities for Bidjocka to explore grief and desire through his work. His work often functions as riddles through which he continues the essential examination of the meaning and purpose of creation. Bidjocka co-founded the Parisian underground association Les Frigos, as well as co-founded and directed the Matrix Art Project in New York.

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Colors:

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• memory.n.01
• culture.n.01
• body.n.01
• appropriation.n.01
• commodity.n.01