Pascale Marthine Tayou's Syncretic Installations at Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon

The Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon presented a solo exhibition of Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou from February 24 to May 15, 2011. Upon exiting the elevator, visitors encountered a forest of sharpened stakes suspended from the ceiling, titled 'Damoclès,' evoking both threat and oversized colored pencils. The exhibition was densely packed with diverse works: photographs of a ceremony in Tayou's native village, a large structure containing thousands of colorful plastic bags, pots of boiling water, a spice display, black robes for Muslim women, and chocolate bars embedded with razor blades (Don't Touch my Chocolate). Three circles knotted with red, white, and black scarves symbolize life, earth, and war respectively, recalling alchemical symbolism. The artist stated, 'We live in a state of combinations, of encounters of thoughts. My religion, if I had one, would be that cultures need to explode, in order to generate new ones.' Emblematic of this syncretism are the 'Poupées Pascale,' perched on high logs: crystal dolls in an African style that accumulate various objects (pencils, rings, rubber peppers) like nail fetishes.