DES SAFOUS POUR LES BAYAM-SELLAMS
ceramic, sound installation
Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema
cur. François Piron, Daniel Marcus
WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Columbus, Ohio, USA - 2024
ceramic, sound installation
Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema
cur. François Piron, Daniel Marcus
WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Columbus, Ohio, USA - 2024
Soñ Gweha's "Des safous pour les Bayam-Sellam" (2021) examines the dynamics of postcolonial cultural exchange between France and Africa through food.
The sculpture features bowls of ceramic replicas of safous, purple African plums sold in the markets in Paris. For Gweha, this transaction echoes the experience of women street vendors in Cameroon, called Bayam-Sellam—a slang name for women who buy food in villages to resell in urban markets.
Installation as part of the Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema show at The Wexner Center for the Arts of Columbus, Ohio.
Tricontinental Cinema explores Maldoror’s five-decade career as a filmmaker, tracing her involvement with Black liberation movements in France, Africa, and the Caribbean. Through an immersive, multisensory landscape of films, photographs, poetry, and letters, the exhibition invites you to experience the full scope of Maldoror’s practice.
photo credit: Wexner Center for the Arts