Pascale Marthine Tayou

Pascale Marthine Tayou (1966, Nkongsamba, Cameroon) makes colourful works from handmade and found objects – often traditional African artisanal objects – with which he playfully considers contemporary global and social issues.

A new version of Tayou’s Plastic Bags (2001-2015) was made especially for De Meelfabriek. Dozens of volunteers spent weeks joining fifteen thousand plastic bags together. This monumental installation is as beautiful as it is disconcerting. The work consists of a colourful patchwork of plastic bags that gracefully sways in the wind. The beauty of this vision contrasts with the negative connotations usually evoked by plastic bags. Tayou sees the plastic bag as the trademark of globalisation, omnipresent in shops, homes and even nature. Plastic represents consumerism, litter and pollution, but increasingly is also a symbol for refugees who risk their lives in the hope of a better future, all their belongings wrapped up in a plastic bag.

Pascale Marthine Tayou lives and works in Yaoundé, Cameroon and Ghent, Belgium.