Victorien Bazo – La Pause Pipe, 2023

Victorien Bazo was born on March 10th 1987. Although he had a classical primary and secondary education, he became passionate about drawing at a very young age through comics and mangas. Once at the university, his choice was made by entering the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Douala in Nkongsamba (IBA) in 2010. He practiced genre painting (portrait, landscape, still life), and entered the bath of contemporary art. Very interested in African history and culture, Victorien Bazo tries to make the link between the customs and practices of societies that have left a strong historical trace and those that Africans of the past could have lived. Indeed, very few images, especially drawings, engravings and paintings, are known of African history. That is why he creates on canvas the vignettes like a comic book artist who tells the fictions inspired by the scenes of life that remind us of the past. Another aspect of his work tries to put the contemporary African man in front of his responsibilities by exhorting him to continue to value his culture while celebrating the cultural practices of the past.

In 2021, Victorien won the prestigious Barthelemy Toguo prize.