Cameroon's Barthélémy Toguo designated as UNESCO Artist for Peace

The ceremony took place during the exhibition "Desir d'humanité", presented in the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Gallery at the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, designated Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo as UNESCO Artist for Peace. The ceremony took place during the exhibition "Desir d'humanité", presented in the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Gallery at the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum.

As a UNESCO Artist for Peace, Barthélémy Toguo joins the family of artists committed to bringing cultures together and supporting artistic creation, such as Amine Kouider, Valery Gergiev and Scott Momaday. UNESCO artists for peace and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors put their fame and talents at the service of UNESCO's action. Through their creativity, their initiatives and their influence, they bring the values and ideals of the organization to the widest and most diverse audience possible.

A multidisciplinary artist, Barthélémy Toguo uses drawing, watercolour, painting, sculpture, photography, installation and performance to question our humanity. Through his creations at the crossroads of cultures, he explores the dysfunctions of the world in order to better denounce them and questions the status of foreigners, migrants, immigrants and the difficulty for them to build an identity.

Barthélémy Toguo is at the origin of the cultural project Bandjoun Station, an art centre located in Cameroon. Founded in 2008 to encourage contemporary art and creation, it now includes an exhibition space, a library, an artists' residence and an organic farm.

In 2015, he was made a Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters. The following year, he was shortlisted for the Marcel Duchamp Prize, France's most publicized art award, and was made a Knight of the National Order of Valor of the Republic of Cameroon. In 2018, he presented his first solo exhibition, "The Beauty of Our Voice" at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. He has since exhibited in major museums around the world.