Michèle Magema

Michèle Magema (born in Kinshasa in 1977) is a Congolese-French video, performance, and photography artist. She currently resides in Nevers.

Biography
Magema as born in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1977. She emigrated to Paris, France in 1984. In 2002 Michèle Magema received her MA in fine arts from l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Cergy. After her graduation, she travels to South Korea for a post diploma residency, followed by an Ifritry residency in Morocco. In addition to being a resident artist at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, she has participated in the Africa Remix Exhibition. Her work has been exhibited in the Global Feminisms exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshoron Museum, and Sculpture Garden.

With a background in plastic art Michèle Magema started her career as a painter. Then she followed experimenting with video, performance, photography and finally mixing video with drawing and text. Nowadays she is a multimedia interdisciplinary artist expressing herself mainly through video performance, where she overlaid different medias such as photography with drawing, drawing with video, photo on lace. The art of Michèle Magema has been influenced by many disciplines and artists: in literature and poetry by Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Maya Angelou, Senghor, Edouard Glissant, Franz Fanon; in music by Billie Holiday; from the experimental cinema she has been inspired by Antonioni, Fellini, Rossilini, Wim Wenders, Ingmar Bergman, as well as from women artists like Pipilitorist, Cindy Sherman, Anna Mendieta, Eva Esse, Gina Pane, Renée Green. Michèle Magema artworks are at the intermediary mental zone between individual histories, history and art history. She tries to establish a permanent dialogue between her own stories and souvenirs with the collective memory of the spectators by approaching different themes such as feminism, sociology, politics, and mythology. The presence or the absence of the body is always at the center of her work.

Michèle Magema earned several art awards and professional achievements among which the first prize of the Dakar Biennale 2004 and the Yango Biennale IFAA prize 2014. Some of her works are stored within private contemporary art collections including Sindika Dokolo Collection in Luanda (Angola), Tervuren Contemporary Collection (Belgium) and the Artothèque Villeurbanne (France).

One of her most well-known works is Oyé Oyé, (2004) a two‐channel video installation, in which a woman (Magema) is shown marching in place on the left, while on the right historic footage of Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko overseeing parades of Congolese cultural pride.

individual

 * 2015 : Michèle Magema CCF - 4 th Lubumbashi Biennal - Lubumbashi/ DRC
 * 2014 : Interstices - Galerie Saro Léon/ Las Palmas- Gran Canaria
 * 2011 : Michèle Magema The Triptych - Jean-Marc Patras Galerie / Paris- France

Collective

 * Tramway Film Festival, Glasgow Slotland/United Kingdom
 * Opening Africa Museum, Permanent Collection Tervuren (vernissage, opening of the museum, Belgium)
 * Congo Stars, curated by Barbara Steiner- Kunsthaus Graz / Austria
 * I'm What I'm, curated by Julie Creen- IciGallery- Paris 11/ France
 * SUD (Salon Urbain de Douala), curated by Cécile Bourne- Farell- Doual’art Art Space, Douala / Camerun

Nordwind Festival

 * YOUNG CONGO Nouvelle Génération d’Artistes Congolais- By Kin Arts Studio- Institut Français- Kinshasa/ DRC
 * AFIAC Des Artistes chez l’Habitant - FRONTIERES EFFRANGEES- FIAC/ FRANCE
 * SELLING THE SHODOWS to support the subsistence - curated by Ingrid La Fleur and Ayana V Jackson- Cgallery – Milan/ Italy
 * AFRIQUES CAPITALES curated by Simon Njami, Gare Saint-Sauveur, Lille / France
 * LUCY’S EYE curated by Orlando Britto, CAAM- Las Palmas/ Gran Canaria
 * SUD (Salon Urbain de Douala), curated by Cécile Bourne- Farell- Doual’art Art Space, Douala / Camerun
 * AN AGE FOR YOUR OWN MAKING curated by Bonaventure Soh Ndikung- Roskilde / Copenhagen/ Denmark
 * DAKAR BIENNAL «  LA CITÉ DANS LE JOUR BLEU » curated by Simon Njami- Dakar / Senegal
 * 4th LUBUMBASHI BIENNAL « Réalités Filantes », curated by Toma Muteba- Museum of Lubumbashi-Lubumbashi / DRC
 * L’AFRIQUE A DU GENIE, curated by Ghitha Triki- 3 th International African Development Forum, Attijariwafa Bank Foundation, Casablanca/ Morocco
 * SENTIMENTAL FINAL ACT, curated by Elise Atangana Revue Noire Gallery- Paris/ France
 * WHERE WE’ RE AT : OTHERS VOICES AND GENDER -  Summer of Photography, curated by Christine Eyene,  Bozar Museum, Bruxelles/ Belgium
 * TOILES DE LUMIERES / collection Saro Leon, curated by Orlando Britto Casa Africa  Las Palmas - Canary
 * Still Fighting Ignorance & Intellectual Perfidy Vidéo art from Africa curated by Kisito Assangni - Pori museum/ Finland
 * 1st CASABLANCA BIENNAL – Casablanca/ Marocco
 * SUREEL CONGO Kinshasa la ville des images/ Art Museum of  History and  Cultur – Dortmund- Germany
 * Still Fighting Ignorance & Intellectual Perfidy Vidéo art from Africa curated by Kisito Assangni :
 * Contemporary Art Center /Moscou- Russia
 * Art Museum Torrance– Californie- USA
 * Lucca Museum - Italy
 * Gallery Arena 1 – Los Angeles - USA
 * COLOGNE OFF - Cologne International Video Art Festival, September, Cologne Germany
 * UN CERTAIN CERCLE DE REGARD Cité Internationale des Arts Gallery, Paris/France
 * ARCO MADRID 2010 with Arte Invisible, Madrid, Spain
 * A COLLECTIVE DIARY AN AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY JOURNEY, Janvier-Avril 2010, Contemporary Art Museum of Herzliya, Herzliya ISRAEL
 * PANAFRICAN FESTIVAL, curated by Nadira Laggoune, Alger, Algeria
 * PARADE & PROCESSION here comes everybody, Parasol Unit, London UK
 * 16 th INTERNATIONAL ART VIDEO FESTIVAL OF CASABLANCA, Casablanca Morocco
 * NOTES FROM THE EMPIRE, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresde Germany
 * THE MESSENGER 10/10- 23/11, Cultur Center BRGGE - Bruge BELGIUM
 * THE CINEMA EFFECT (Illusion Reality and the Moving Image) 19/06- 07/09, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington/ USA
 * DISTRITO LA REGENTA curated by Orlando Britto, La Regenta Las-Palmas/ Gran Canaria
 * ON PROCESSION, IMA Indiannapolis/ USA
 * FLOW, Studio Art Museum in Harlem, New York/ USA
 * SUD (Urban Salon of Douala), Space Doual’art, Douala / CAMERUN
 * 7th BAMAKO AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY BIENNALE curated by Simon Njami, Bamako / Mali
 * BLACK PARIS, Iwalewa-Haus, Bayreuth / Germany
 * AFRICA REMIX, curated by Simon Njami 24/06/07 - 18/08/O7 :
 * National Art Gallery, Johannesburg / South Africa
 * Moderna Museet, Stockholm / Sweden
 * Mori Museum, Tokyo / Japan
 * Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / France
 * Hayward Gallery, London / UK
 * Kunst Palast Museum, Dusseldörf / Germany
 * 9th HAVANA BIENNALE, entitled « Urban Dynamic Culture », Havana / Cuba
 * AFRICATTITUDES 04/02- 19/03, Michèle Magema & Cheikh Niass, Maison du Livre, de l'Image et du Son, Villeurbanne / France
 * 5th BAMAKO AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY BIENNALE / DIFFUSION PROJECT 27/04- 04/05, - Cultural Center of Teheran - Teheran / IRAN
 * BEAUTES AFRIQUES@NANTES, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes / France
 * LES AFRIQUES 31/03- 18/08, coproduction Tri Postale and Espace 251 Nord, Lille/ France
 * 6th DAKAR BIENNALE, Dakar / SENEGAL - First Prize
 * 5th BAMAKO AFRICAN PHOTOGRAPHY BIENNALE, Bamako / MALI