Presented in a dedicated area at the heart of the fair, this installation will reflect a unique dialogue, combining contemporary artistic practice with a wealth of ancestral knowledge. A 5-metre-long embroidery representing a man receiving and offering water will be presented in front of a table with a hundred of engraved bottles filled with water from all over the world. Two other embroideries representing different animals will frame this installation.

"Water is a priceless and vital element: I feel very concerned about this resource, which should be a right for everyone, but which is cruelly lacking and endangering the living world, both human and animal. It all started with a childhood memory. I remembered getting up very early in the morning to fetch water from far away, to drink, to wash the plates at home, in Cameroon, before going to school. It was these ordeals that made me realise the importance of water in our lives. Realising the current problem of the lack of drinking water in many parts of Africa and the rest of the world, I decided to focus my project with the Chanakya Craft School in Mumbai on this issue. (...) I love the shape of fish and I wanted to see them in embroidery. My work is full of different animals that inspire me. I'd also like to see crocodiles and peacocks. Everything in the exhibition space at the fair will be blue. With the sea in mind, I'll be drawing blue lines on the walls with pastels. I marvel at the fluidity of water, which for me represents a gentle, non-violent world".
Barthélémy Toguo

Barthélémy Toguo

Barthélémy Toguo was born in Mbalmayo, Cameroon, in 1967. Between 1989 and 1993, he studied at the École des Beaux-arts in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), then in Grenoble (France), and finally at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf (Germany), where he met Tony Cragg, Jannis Kounellis and Konrad Klapheck, among others. Although he has lived in Europe and become a French citizen, Barthélémy Toguo remains deeply attached to Cameroon, to which he returns regularly. It was here that he set up Bandjoun Station, a foundation inaugurated in 2013 whose aim is to host artists and academics from around the world in residential studios, in order to develop proposals in harmony with the local population.

Since the late 1990s, his work has featured in a number of major exhibitions and events, including Migrateurs (ARC, Paris, 1999) by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Partage d'exotismes (Lyon Biennale, 2000) by Jean-Hubert Martin, Political Ecology (White Box, New York, 2001) by Pierre Restany, and All the World's Future (Venice Biennale, 2015) by Okwui Enwezor.

In 2016, Barthélémy Toguo was one of the four artists nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize, when he presented the installation Overcome the Virus! at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2018, a solo exhibition, The Beauty of our Voice, was held at the Parrish Art Museum in New York. Barthélémy Toguo was the first living African artist to be invited to a solo exhibition, Désir d'Humanité, at the Musée Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in 2021.

In 2022, he presented a 10-metre-long ink on canvas entitled The Generous Water Giant at the Sydney Biennale. The same year, Barthélémy Toguo was invited to create a large-scale installation under the Louvre pyramid, Le Pilier des migrants disparus (The Pillar of Missing Migrants). Barthélémy Toguo's works are held in numerous collections, including those of the Musée national d'Art moderne - Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), MoMA - Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami) and the Musée d'art contemporain (Paris), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami), the Perez Art Museum (Miami), the Chazen Museum of Art (University of Wisconsin-Madison), the Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, USA), the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), the Agnès b. Collection (Paris).

Karishma Swali & the Chanakya School of Craft

Chanakya School of Craft is a textile arts school based in Mumbai and directed by Karishma Swali. It promotes the preservation and revival of textile craft and ornamental techniques from the Indian peninsula, reinterpreting them in modern designs. The school also works to empower and qualify women of all ages and from different socio-economic backgrounds. Thanks to its unique expertise, Chanakya School of Craft supplies embroidery and other handcrafted ornaments to the world's leading luxury brands and fashion houses such as Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Prada, Valentino and Lanvin. In this context, it has collaborated with several Indian and international artists to create embroidered works, including Manu and Madhvi Parek, Eva Jospin and Mickalene Thomas.

Karishma Swali & the Chanakya School of Craft

The French Institute in India (IFI) is the educational, scientific and cultural department of the French Embassy in India. It facilitates academic and scientific exchanges between higher education and research establishments, encourages student mobility and promotes the French language as well as artistic and cultural dialogue.

In this context, in March 2023, IFI launched an intercultural exchange programme, Villa Swagatam, which aims to create a community of French and Indian creators keen to strengthen artistic exchanges between the two countries. Promoting cultural and environmental sustainability, the mission of the Villa Swagatam programme is to develop long-term projects, with residents staying in India for several weeks, in around fifteen partner venues identified for the quality of their support and their ability to put participants in touch with a local scene and ecosystem. Certain themes are given priority, such as literature, arts and crafts and the performing arts. India has a unique tradition in these three fields, and we want to share it with the best of the contemporary French scene.

Barthélémy Toguo's invitation to collaborate with one of the country's most eminent embroidery workshops comes within this framework: the artist will be visiting the country ahead of the fair to meet craftspeople and discover new production practices and techniques. As a partner of the India Art Fair, the IFI's aim with this 'carte blanche' is to showcase the potential for creative exchange between India and France and encourage future collaborations.

Basu Foundation

Basu Foundation for the Arts is a not-for-profit foundation that encourages, promotes and supports innovative work in the field of the visual and performing arts. It organisesexhibitions &performances (Music, Dance, Theatre) in India and other countries creating a platform for local and international artist community to exhibit their works globally. As a platform for art collectors to exhibit their collections across continents by connecting them with appropriate corporates/foundation andinstitutions that provide support to such exchanges. It organisesworkshops for specific groups within the art community such as students, writers, and emerging artists, bringing together small groups to exchange ideas and their work, and critically reflect on their own practice. It invites artists, curators and researchers for art residencies to share their work with a local audience, and engage in a dialogue about ideas and concepts that are shaping their practice and the larger domain of contemporary art. It arrangestalks which are designed around ongoing exhibitions and events in India and elsewhere by bringing together panels of speakers with specialised knowledge and experience in areas such as curation, institution building, public/community-based art, and the like, these events become important public platforms for exchange of ideas and constructive debate.