Romuald Mevo Guezo
Romuald Mevo Guezo amplifies the space through the choice of fundamental themes for his Earth, sharing them universally as an indispensable common heritage: freedom, love, non-violence are opposed to the current regurgitations of new slavery and war where freedom is conditioned by the truth, by narration amplified in a distorted way. His message, proposed through works of painting and sculpture, is reiterated by the materials used and the technique adopted, elements bearing a philosophy, at the same time perfectly capable of elevating the art of Romuald Mevo Guezo to a language, with the objective ability to break down cultural barriers and interpretative obstacles. It is the harsh atavistic language of its wonderful Earth, which today tries in every way to make itself understood by a world that hides its cruelty with anxiety and superficiality, imposed by increasingly less human models of life.
BIOGRAPHY
Romuald Mevo Guezo, considered one of the most significant artists of Benin, was born in Cotonou in 1974. From a young age, he was attracted to art and the need to create. He learned the first technical rudiments from the painter and sculptor from Burkina Faso, Master Diaké, who invited him to follow him to the United States. Romuald did not obtain permission from his family, who instead began to hinder his artistic vocation, trying in vain to impose on him the learning of a “real profession”, that of a doctor.
With renewed perseverance and tenacity, Romuald dedicates himself to artistic practice: he moves away from his environment and his family and moves to Costa D’Avorio. Here he imposes himself in the artistic area of the capital Abidjan, where he exhibits, also with a personal exhibition, at the National Library. With the outbreak of the civil war, he is forced to return promptly to Benin after only three years. In the following years, his art will be known internationally: his works are included in important public and private collections (Collection of the Presidency of Benin, Collection of the US Embassy in Benin, Collection of the Novohotel and Ibis chains). The former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has personally purchased his works. Romuald Mevo Guezo lives and resides permanently in Italy.
HIS ART
The varied artistic proposal of Romuald Mevo Guezo makes him a versatile artist. In his painting and sculpture laboratory, they alternate, expressing creations of the same power and beauty. However, he prefers sculpture; “I need to touch the material and shape it to transform it into thought.” In painting, he expresses himself with apparently simple but incisive strokes. His art conveys a particular balance between strength and delicacy: while expressing suffering and denouncing injustice, there is no violence in his work. At the base of his philosophy is the intention of drawing attention to the “need for love” and the possibility of satisfying it. Hence the invitation to open up and welcome the other in the awareness that together we can build a better world. He replaces fear with optimism, hope, and joy. His belief in individual and collective freedom is omnipresent.
WORKS
It ranges from figurative to abstract, from real to unreal and vice versa. It skillfully moves from the abstract painting of the work “Genesis” to the jaws of the sculpture “Le roi”. Its subjects range from the mother, simple figurative but expressing all the richness of motherhood, to wild animals as a recovery of the primitive, to abstract works (“Extreme Seduction”, “Metamorphosis”). The dimensions of some of his sculptures are significant: giraffes with a 7-meter long neck, life-size rhinos and elephants, 6-meter-high iron works.
His lines are strongly erotic and elegant.
In painting, he uses acrylics, oils, sand, fabrics, etc. He prefers warm colors such as red and yellow, which give strength, courage, and light, black and gray for the sense of mystery.
In sculpture, he uses every type of material, from recycling to noble materials such as wood, stone, iron, bronze. Initially interested in painting and portraiture, but after several years of practice, he developed a more original and innovative idea, which he himself defines as “ecoplastic sculpture”, “universal artistic conception”; it consists of the fusion of recycled plastic to which the artist adds various recycled materials (according to a formula that he does not want to reveal), to create unique sculptural works. The art of recovery and recycling represents an essential artistic choice for him. This art and these techniques, associated with elements of Beninese culture, allow the artist to imprint his own cultural identity in his works, proposing at the same time an ecological message, both in technical choices and in the topics addressed.
EXHIBITIONS
Romuald Mevo Guezo has exhibited his works in Niger (Niamey), Senegal (Dakar), Togo (Lomé), Benin (at the University of Abomey-Calavi, the American Cultural Center of the U.S. Embassy, the Chinese Cultural Center, the Bank of Africa, and other places) and has participated in various artist residencies.
In Europe, he has exhibited his works in collective and solo exhibitions in Brussels, Liège (Belgium), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bologna, Tanlay Castle (France); he is permanently present at the Gallerie fuoricatalogo (Spoltore [Pescara, Italy] – www.fuoricatalogoartem.it) and in two other galleries in Paris and Turin. His works were highly appreciated at the World Fair on Contemporary Art ‘Parcours des Mondes’. In Paris, UNESCO chose his work ‘Les enfants esclaves’ for the poster of the entire event “Temps Modernes”.
