Barthélémy Toguo was born in Mbalmayo, Cameroon in 1967. Between 1989 and 1993 he studied visual arts first at the School of Fine Arts in Abidjan, then in Grenoble and finally at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. Although he settled in Europe, becoming a French citizen, Barthélémy Toguo remains deeply rooted in Cameroon, where he returns very regularly. There he created Bandjoun Station, a foundation inaugurated in 2013, intended to host artists and researchers from around the world in residence, in studio housing, to develop proposals in line with the local community. He speaks of it in these terms: "My idea with Bandjoun Station was to marry classical African art and contemporary world art, to exhibit these works in the same space, without ghettoization or hierarchy of values. [This is how Bandjoun Station will become a crossroads, a true meeting place between classical and contemporary art. He also develops agricultural projects in a spirit of sustainable and healthy development. From the late 1990s, his works were noticed by several critics and curators who invited him to major events: Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1999 for Migrateurs (ARC, Paris), Jean-Hubert Martin in 2000 for Partage d'exotismes (Lyon Biennale), Pierre Restany in 2001 for Political Ecology (White Box, New York) and Okwui Enwezor in 2015 for the Venice Biennale, All the World's Future. In 2016, Barthélémy Toguo was one of four artists nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize and, on this occasion, he presented the installation Vaincre le virus! at the Centre Pompidou. His works can be found in numerous collections, including those of the Musée National d'Art Moderne (Paris), the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris), the MAC/VAL (Paris), the Tate Modern (London), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Miami), the Pérez Art Museum (Miami), the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création (Paris), and the Agnès b. Collection (Paris). A recent and permanent commission was given to the artist for four overdoors at the Rodin Museum (Paris).