Both a sculptor and a performer, Jems Koko Bi mixes avant-gardist influences to his firmly African history. In his works, he questions the notions of space and  time, within a wider and ongoing reflection on his own existence.

”The trees give me instructions and I carry them out in the wood. They advise me and I tell their stories.”

His wooden sculptures initiate a conversation with the forces of nature. In his studio at the heart of the forest, immense sculptures see the light of day and  interrogates the identity and the ancestors, the native land and the exile. Through a subtle and confident gesture, the artist reveals the outlines of matter. Following multiple deafening swings, a face comes out of the stump. The mechanized, sympathetic, hand drags it out. It has always existed, but it was  hidden  from the world. The gesture reveals its shape. In rhythm, through gentle touches, the artist seems to caress its surface, which he transforms at each  passage. He awakens the element with a mastered intuitive precision: a dance armed with an iron fist in a breath of tenderness.