Emile Youmbi

Emile Youmbi was trained at the Kenfack workshop, he studied mathematics at the University of Yaoundé before devoting himself entirely to art in 1993. At that time, he founded the Prim'art collective with a group of friends. He was also a drawing teacher. He is one of the few Cameroonian artists who has a real workshop. His work explores memory through painting, sculpture and installation. He was particularly struck by the break of the end of the century on which he invites us to meditate: the Millennium Blues. Each artist including Emile Youmbi, Félix Gonzales Torres had to choose a day among the last 100 days of the year between September 23 and December 31, 2000. Gather information on the news of that day and translate it plastically into a creation. The works were presented at the Doual'art space on January 8, 9 and 10, 2001, then in the network of Alliances Franco-camerounaises from April to June. In “Reflets”, an exhibition at the CCF in Yaoundé, he offers paintings presenting a new reading of the photo album, a place of family memory par excellence. It is the substance of being in space and time. Everything begins with shadows, reflections of man in his society, both traditional and modern, shadows to remind and remember things in order to get closer to the evolving shadow that is the ancestor. At the same time, he travels around the economic capital with his assistants to collect car carcasses in order to give them new life. This work, he made him convinced that "each period has its expression, I believe it all the more so as in the tread, I started to incorporate sculptures in my paintings because I wanted to give another look on the volumes" . Émile Youmbi led the "Anybody" painting workshop in Pointe Noire in Congo where he invited 10 Congolese painters to discuss with him the fusion and the influence of identity.