"We must contribute to giving the world the face we paint in our ideal. Literature, philosophy, the dialectic of language, the transcription of history all play a role in my work. My father instilled in me a love of reading and writing. Even today I record events in writing, in coded form".
Sess Essoh, 2023
Literature, philosophy and the dialectics of language play an important role in the life and work of Sess Essoh (born 1988 in Toupah, Ivory Coast). In his increasingly abstract paintings, he combines fantasy, history and sociology to focus his ideas on the places and means by which a tangible yet longed-for ideal and liberation can be achieved.
His current practice focuses on exploring his socio-political environment and a society that he feels is losing its direction and values, as he experiences it through his reading, discussions with friends and debates on social networks. The artist questions our collective memory by means of collages and graphemes that he applies either to unexpected supports (cardboard, archive pages, etc.) or to canvas. They draw and suggest figures, masks, statuettes and invite us to explore new horizons, another chapter of history.
A provocative pedagogy that aims to dramatise an imaginary but symbolic society of our world, like a parody of human comedy, which he builds up in episodes. His characters are caricatures, the "plaster men" are ordinary people exposed to corruption and mediocrity, while the "cardinals" are the masters of time, immortals and arbiters of this great comedy.
Sess Essoh graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Abidjan in 2012 with a master's degree in art (Master II, mural painting option). He works in the South of France as a guest lecturer at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Marseille. In 2017, he received the second prize of the International Association of Art Critics of the Ivory Coast. In 2022, his works were quickly sold out at the 1:54 fair in Paris. His works are in the collection of the French bank Société Générale, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and numerous private collections.