Justine Gaga is invited by Fondation H for a research and creation residency in Antananarivo from January to April 2024 as part of the exhibition Memoria: Accounts of Another History.
For her residency in Madagascar, Justine Gaga is proposing a metal sculpture 2 to 3 meters high. Questioning the writing of memory, she invites the visitor to reflect on the political, social and cultural history of our memories. These memories, which are sometimes erased, are also (re)written in codified form and passed down from generation to generation without any real key to reading them. According to the artist, the deformation and misinformation of our memories are potentially at the root of our inability to understand ourselves, to reinvent ourselves and to detach ourselves from the weight and the worldview imposed by the Western world.
In her works, the artist denounces the writing of our memories in foreign codes and languages through the use of snippets of words and wingdings codes—a character font with a set of pictograms—that are difficult to decipher. She materializes this complexity of encoding and decoding our History through diversified materials and truncated or codified lettering. The integration of license plates in the structure’s cladding is a reminder of the idea of an affixed/imposed identity, sometimes far removed from true values. Justine Gaga’s works speak to the need to reconnect with our realities in order to regain a form of freedom and a more genuine independence through the conquest of our social, political and cultural heritage.
INTERVIEW OF JUSTINE GAGA
JUSTINE GAGA’S BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1974, Justine Gaga lives and works in Douala, Cameroon. As a multimedia artist, she expresses herself through painting, sculpture, installation, performance, video and photography. In her work, she focuses a lot on the notion of solitude and related themes such as exile, isolation, immigration, as well as the notions of borders and psychological barriers.
After highschool, where she studied mathematics and science, she developed a passion for advertising. She subsequently trained in silkscreen printing and later met a number of artists, including Joe Kessy and Angel, who nurtured her passion for visual arts. Later, she decided to embark on a two-year training in visual arts at artist Viking’s studio in Douala (Viking was one of the deans of painting in Cameroon and had a well-stocked art library in his studio). In 2003, she continued her training in photography with photographer and designer Pierre Metambou in Yaoundé. In 2005, she was selected for a residency at Art Bakery (a contemporary creation laboratory based in Bonendale, Cameroon). The residency concept, founded by Goddy Leye (one of the pioneers of Cameroonian contemporary art) in 2003, is designed to enhance the intellectual and aesthetic comfort of artists through extensive interaction with professionals and the public. The residency provided Justine Gaga with a formal technical and conceptual education, thanks to the expertise of her mentor Goddy Leye. She is currently working there as project manager.
Justine Gaga’s works have been exhibited worldwide in places such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Mali, Botswana, Senegal, South Africa, Colombia, Spain, USA, France, Germany, Holland and Italy.
