Ndayé Kouagou's A coin is a coin acquired for Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre

Ndayé Kouagou is an artist whose practice stems from his own texts that develop into performances, installations, and sculptures. Immersive and captivating, Kouagou’s text-based works subvert the intended function of language, using it to incite confusion as opposed to clarity. Asking a multitude of existential questions, yet giving very few answers, Kouagou speculates whether art can engender real thought or change.

A coin is a coin (2022) is a short video piece that challenges its viewer’s biases, toying with their perception of reality. Dressed in a deconstructed suit, wearing eyeshadow and a single earring, he adopts the persona of an entertainment figure and appears to be lip-syncing to his own text that was prerecorded in a feminine voice. Opening with a confrontational statement, “If you were looking for direction this is not the place, look elsewhere” Kouagou spirals into a monologue about a single coin as an allegory of bigger issues such as power, belief and freedom. He performs a specific way of wayfinding, manipulating the audiences’ gaze around the video. As a result, the artist emphasises position over direction, communicating that it is not about where one is going but where one stands, or how one sees and perceives. 

SEE? Not that difficult (2023) belongs to a series of works where rhetorical statements, taken from A coin is a coin are hung on the wall – with no prior context given. A mixture of resin, fabric, and transparent PVC, Kouagou’s pseudo-painterly, wall-based works transition between layers of clarity and opacity. Overlaid with bold, capital lettering, SEE? Not that difficult acts as a mini billboard, converting a passive viewer into an active one. Both works, though conceived as individuals, are extensions of each other, actively blurring boundaries between the stage and the behind the scenes, the inner and societal, the truthful and constructed. 

Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre has been actively developing its Text Art Archive, focusing on language art through the Contemporary Art Society since 2012.  A significant addition to the Text Art Archive, the acquisition of Ndayé Kouagou’s works also reflect the museum's commitment to addressing the representation imbalance in their permanent collection. 

Ndayé Kouagou (b. 1992, Montreuil, France) lives and works in Paris, France. Recent solo exhibitions include Sundy Gallery, London and Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (all 2023). Recent group exhibitions include Gathering Gallery, London (2023); Galerie Imane Fares, Paris (2022). 

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 2023/24