Joseph Sumégné

The best known sculpture that Joseph Sumégné has made stands on a busy square in Douala and is called La Nouvelle Liberté, The New Freedom. It is a gigantic figure of a man exuberantly balancing on one leg and holding a globe above his head. For Sumégné it is an African answer to the American Statue of Liberty which symbolizes, he says, a freedom secured through violence. The New Freedom, on the other hand, has to be earned through reconsideration and respect for the other. Sumégné has an African word for this: Jalaa. It indicates a decisive victory over the small, everyday self and a heightened state of being. Sumégné expresses the Jalaa philosophy with sculptures that he continues to work on for years, creating many-colored, intensely detailed shaman-like figures. He uses pieces of scrap cars, rubber and scrap wood, as well as horn, beads and embroidery and plaiting.

During Sonsbeek 2008 Joseph Sumégné is showing a group of sculptures that he has been working on since 1988 and which time after time gains a new context on its travels. It is called Les 9 Notables, The 9 Notables. Notables are wise tribal members in Cameroon who, in exceptional cases, may advise the government on issues to do with law, culture, health and social affairs. In Sonsbeek Park the notables are grouped in a circle around a large five metre table on which a map of the world is lying. At the centre is a small glass pyramid from which a four metre long antenna rises up. A white glass sphere at its tip catches the sunlight.

Two Notables were carried during the Procession by the Guild of Presikhaaf, Klarendal and St. Marten.