Myriam Mihindou
The artworks of Myriam Mihindou convey a strong attachment to earth and re-establish a sense of the sacred feminine. Following a very specific procedure that leads to the cleaning of spaces, aesthetics and rituals are two inseparable aspects of experiences that challenge the artist.
“The photos, sculptures and performances of the Franco-Gabonese artist explore the body, and its relationships with various cultures and nature.
Myriam Mihindou already has a very powerful artwork. She expresses herself with different mediums and materials.
Photography: her series Déchouca’j, in 2006, that consists of thirty black and white photographs with a “negative” aspect, was partially exhibited in the Quai Branly museum.
Drawing: the series Embody/Voir, of 2017 reunites collages and embroidery of words, copper wires, needles …
Sculpture: the series Hordes de louves, in white cotton, is exhibited in autumn 2017 at the Salomon Foundation in Annecy.
But also, videos and disturbing performances that she names “transperformances”, echoing the word trance.
She made the public of the Venice Biennale 2017 shed tears, dressed in a black tutu-loincloth and tied up with bundles of cotton, during her performance La Curée, a dance of being stripped off.
After twenty years in Gabon, then in France, in Egypt or in Morocco, her nomadism pushes her to auscultate everything that concerns the body, and primarily her own body that she makes subject of all sorts of experiences with a political resonance.
In Egypt, she exhibits pictures of roses, metaphors that cannot be more substantial.
In Morocco, Arabic poetry is her inspiration.
In Haiti, she is attached to the voodoo. She learns stories, rituals, philosophy, knowledge and the healing that the body generates. In order to approach the culture of her Norman mother, she directs her attention to words and learns from a spiritual medium who teaches her healing by trees. This inspired her performance in March 2017, Polarisation par les arbres, presented at the Villette, during Afrique Capitale.
At la Reunion, she becomes aware of the global meaning of this body that is one with the world, but that also reveals her fragility. Since then, she keeps the memory of it, and extract its quintessence in the form of trances.”
Text by Elisabeth Vedrenne, in Connaissance des arts, October 2017
Biography
Myriam Mihindou was born in 1964, in Libreville, Gabon. She lives and works in Paris and abroad.
She is represented in France, by the Galerie Maïa Muller.
Press
• Interview with Sylvie Arnaud in Mouvement, 2018
• “Aucun de ses os ne sera brisé” in Voir&Dire, 2018
• “Myriam Mihindou, l’hymne au corps” by Elisabeth Vedrenne in Connaissance des Arts, 2017
• “Curatorial Practices” by Camilla Boemio in Exhibart, 2017
• “Le grand retour de la performance” by Philippe Dagen in Le Monde, 2017
• “Exposition L’Iris de Lucy : la femme africaine à l’honneur” by Roxana Azimi in Le Monde, 2016
• “Névralgies” in La Libre Belgique, 2014
• “Viens la mort on va danse” in Art Absolument, 2013
• Myriam Mihindou in L’Oeil n.664
• Myriam Mihindou à la galerie Maïa Muller

Courtesy Galerie Maïa Muller

Vidéo, 5min

Performance

© Myriam Mihindou, courtesy Myriam Mihindou, galerie Maïa Muller

Tirage numérique sur papier argentique.
Œuvre exposée dans Sortilège, Fondation Salomon pour l’art contemporain.
Courtesy de l’artiste et galerie Maïa Muller.
