The Right of Soil

A personal story of loss and find as the artist, born in France and living in Central African Republic from 2011-2013 had to flee the country in April 2013 - one month after the civil war has started. Depicting this particular scene of arrival to France in one of her works, we see the young artist aged fifteen holding the hand of her little baby brother. Her step-mother is wearing the European star banner on her head. The nimbus - spray painted on the actual oil painting - could be a hint towards a golden future ‚against the blue sky of the Western world’ (as mentioned by the Council of Europe in 1955), but it might also be read as the crown of thorns or an iconographic representation of the Virgin of the Apocalypse in that political context.

Revisiting these individual experiences through her expressive style of painting, Renekouzou also opens a gate to ancestral knowledge and spiritual awakenings that have been buried for too long: ‚With these paintings, I want to delve into the resonance of old speeches from deceased loves and the powerful truth that lies within‘, she explains.