Amouzou Amouzou Glikpa (1960-)
Amouzou Glikpa was born in 1960 in Sokodé, Togo. He studied and worked in Togo, China and Germany. In 1983, he went to China to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts with Professor Sheng Yang until he graduated. Amouzou Glikpa deepened his technique in Düsseldorf from 1992 to 1995. In 2000, he was part of the selection of new generations of 100 talents around the world.
The influence of religion, spirituality and traditional African art is present in the work of Amouzou-Glikpa. He reinvents sculpture by inventing a new style, ancient African writing through painting.
In residence at the Palais de Lomé, he created Les Togolais, a group of six monumental bronze sculptures. The title of the work characterizes its relationship with the Palace of Lomé and its objectives: “to put the Togolese back at the center of their culture”.
Sadikou Oukpedjo (1970 -)
Born in Ketao, Togo, Sadikou Oukpedjo lives and works in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. At a very young age, he developed an artistic practice essentially focused on sculpture and assemblages, which he perfected during training in the studio of the Togolese artist Paul Ahyi from 1998 to 2002.
Through his works, Oukpedjo questions his cultural heritage, current issues – abuse of political power, social inequalities and religious conflicts, the mutation of animal man. In residence at the Palais de Lomé from August 2018, he created the Conseil des Sages, the artist’s first sculptures in marble quarried in Togo. The work is a reflection on a return to the model of collective administration and conflict management in African societies.