Mivekannin’s practice is deeply informed by two exhibitions he visited in Paris that left a mark on his career: “L’invention du sauvage” (Musée du Quai Branly, 2011, curated in part by Pascal Blanchard) and “Le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse” (Musée d’Orsay, 2019.) Both shows led him to interrogate his personal history and the essentialization that resulted from the Western gaze on Africa and its representation in Art History canon. His process entails observing a work of art and asking himself: what does the artist really show? What is the intention and context hidden behind what is evident to the eye? Then, Minnekavin decodes the original imagery of the works, substituting some of the models’ faces with a self-portrait in black and white and painting the background black, thus, shedding light on subjects previously relegated to the shadows of domination. Mivekannin’s choice is intentional and subversive, as it aims to reverse the points of view of the subjects portrayed on the paintings and the passers-by that look at them. His face gazes directly to the viewers and grasps their eyes, stopping and transforming them from merely onlookers into active, critical spectators of the scene. In his words: “With the same code, the same framing, the same arrangement of the models, I shift the gaze of the beholder from that of a simple voyeur to that of a spectator of the scene.”

Roméo Mivekannin has participated in exhibitions worldwide including the 15th Sharjah Biennial (Sharjah, UAE, 2023) and the Dakar Biennale (Dakar, Senegal, 2022), in the Musée d’Art Roger Quilliot (Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2024) and the Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland, 2024), among others. His works are in various collections, including Cité de la Musique, Musée National du Quai Branly, and Collection Leridon (France), Sharjah Foundation (UAE), Fondation Zeitz (South Africa), Galerie Nationale d’art contemporain du Bénin (Benin). He lives and works between Toulouse, France, and Cotonou, Benin and pursues a Doctorate at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Montpellier, France.

Text by: Susana Turbay Botero