Ishola Akpo (b. 1983) is a photographer and multimedia artist in Benin. The artist experiments with the possibilities of digital mediums, while mixing modernities and traditions in his work, playing on different levels of reading to make plural metaphors. The border between reality and fiction, fixed identities and multiple identities, remains at the heart of his approach.
Read MoreIn 2013, he won the Visa pour la Cr ation (French Institute, Paris), where he presented the series Pas de flash sil vous plait! A reflection on the interaction of light on photographed subjects, presented in the form of a performance and exhibition at the Institut Fran ais deCotonou. In 2014, he published the series L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux (Africa Is NoIsland, MACAAL, Fair 1.54 in Morocco, 2018), based on a family experience, which illustrates his grandmother's dowry, while insisting on its memory load. This reflection will lead him to explore contemporary marriage. In 2015, with the series Les mari s de notre poque, Ishola Akpo, won the Photoquai, entering the collection of the Mus e du Quai Branly in Paris.
Since then he has multiples artistic residencies: Montresso Foundation (Morocco) with the Da bi series and more recently the Zinsou Foundation (Benin) with 'AGBARA Women' presented at the Ouidah Museum as an ode to the power of women, embodied with portraits of known and forgotten queens from African history.
His work has been presented in several major international events including: The Museum of the History of Immigration, (Palais de la Porte Dor e, Africa 2020 - Paris), Weltkulturen Museum Frankfurt (Germany), Fotonoviembre, Tenerife (Spain), Nuit Blanche de Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Lagosphotos Festival (Nigeria), Festival Afreaka (Brazil).
Text courtesy Sabrina Amrani.
