Pascale Marthine Tayou

During the summer of 2026, the Musée national Pablo Picasso - La Guerre et La Paix invites artist Pascale Marthine Tayou to present a project specially designed for the Vallauris chapel.

The objects, sculptures, installations, drawings and videos created by Tayou share a common theme: the exploration of the individual on the move around the world, questioning the notion of the global village. It is within this framework that Tayou engages in a dialogue about her African origins and the expectations attached to them. Her works transcend the role of mediators between cultures or representations of the ambivalent relationship between man and nature. They fully assert their status as social, cultural or political constructions. His work is deliberately mobile, heterogeneous and elusive in relation to pre-established patterns. It is always deeply associated with the idea of travel and encounter with others, with such spontaneity that it seems almost casual.

Born in 1966 in Nkongsamba (Cameroon), Pascale Marthine Tayou lives and works between Ghent (Belgium) and Yaoundé (Cameroon). Since the 1990s, with landmark appearances at Documenta 11 (2002) in Kassel and the Venice Biennale (2005 and 2009), he has made a name for himself with a broad international audience. His work is not limited by any specific medium or theme. Although his subjects are varied, they all have their origins in his own person. Right from the start of her career, Pascale Marthine Tayou added an -e to her first two names, giving them a feminine ending to ironically distance herself from the importance attached to artistic authorship and gender stereotypes.


Commissariat :
Anne Dopffer, Director of the musée national du XX^e siècle des Alpes-Maritimes
Grégory Couderc, curator at the musée national Marc Chagall, Nice


Pascale Marthine Tayou, Poupées Pascale (Hybridation), 2023. Crystal and mixed media, 90 x 40 x 40 cm. © Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua, Paris, 2025.