Mémoire d'Afrique by Jean-Louis Bessède

Stylistically, Jean-Louis Bessède focuses on the solitary human figure, centred within the space, sometimes surrounded by textual elements that convey a sense of hope. The black-and-white contrast dominates, with subtle colours working the space in between. His practice ranges from rapid drawing gestures to heavy layers of material, following a daily ritual akin to automatic writing and pictorial shamanism, in order to ‘extract the soul from the material’ and ‘spiritualise’ the painting.