By John Owoo
(In Casablanca – Morocco)
A body of work by Congolese artist Yvanovitch Mbaya that are heavily influenced by his passion for travel and its seeming impact on his life ended recently at the CDA Gallery in the Moroccan capital, Casablanca.
Currently based in Casablanca, his vast experience of traveling around the African continent informed the complexities and constructed stories – that arise from these honorable and dishonorable trips – and are embedded in the works on display.
Far from romantic praise stories, there abound intimate narratives that infests the canvases with creepy images that recall, confront and challenge travelers and voyagers on foreign lands amidst encounters in friendly and hostile environments.
Through huge human figures in earth colours – that seem to float and shift either in distress or in comfort – Mbaya descends into his own world and takes viewers on a rather mute journey that happens to be one of discovery for him.
Titled “Gâta Bantu” and curated by the Moroccan writer / researcher, Syham Weigant, the artist links picturesque andsomewhat exaggerated figures with ecological and relational dimensions while succinctly defining them by ancestral traditions.
Employing the use of coffee underlines the ecological intentions of Mbaya, who considers it as a trajectory of African social and cultural history while committing himself to the preservation of age-old African traditions, norms, mores and their relationship with nature.
Undeniably, his figures bring back cherished memories and ancient wisdom while narrating contemporary stories that affect lots of people across the globe, who are compelled by circumstances to move from their land of birth and settle far from their homeland and possibly strange and hostile places.
Trained at the National Superior School of Fine Arts in the Congolese capital Brazzaville, Mbaya is a former student of the acclaimed Congolese artist, writer and set designer Bill Kouélany.
The works will equally be displayed in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh in February 2023.
