Bio

Emmanuel Tussore considers his art to be an ongoing exploration of the existential questions of origin and identity, combined with a fluid understanding of being and an attention to forms of hybridity, métissage and transculturality that resist the structural mechanisms of territorial boundaries and social exclusions. The subjects of his work often arise from a form of personal unease that results from observing the destabilization of collective realities. In the face of numerous global crises, violations, and displacements, including the resulting ecological threats, he uses artistic practice to research and question the foundations of humanism.

His artistic training began in documentary photography, initially as an assistant to renowned photographers in New York, followed by over a decade of work as a cinematographer in fictional and documentary productions. In his current work, impressions from these earlier professional experiences resonate, especially the commitment of militant photographers to bear witness. In this sense, photography became not only a school for aesthetic regimes, the politics of visibility and the search for traces of invisible and hidden narratives, but also for atmospheric stagings, scenographies and the spatial in general.

On several levels, Emmanuel Tussore considers artistic practice to be a placial archaeological activity in which he excavates – sometimes literally – what is buried in collective memories, revealing traces hidden under the dust of time. Accessing themes transversally in sub chapters across a range of media, from photography and film to object assemblages and the manipulation of natural materials, he is interested in exploring the possibilities of the poetic (including fragments of language), and speculative to make tangible the connection of the past with the future through the present. In recent projects, materiality and place have become increasingly important, in form of artistic intervention in scars and wounds to imagine counter-spaces of restoration or protection.

He has acquired international recognition, exhibiting in major artistic events such as the Havana Biennial (2019), the Cairo Biennial (2019) and the Dakar Biennial (2022). His work has also been presented during photography and film festivals including the Lagos Photo Festival (2016), the Athens Photo Festival (2018) and the Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival (2017).

Emmanuel Tussore (born 1984) grew up on the French Mediterranean coast. He lives and works in the south of France, and is represented by OH Gallery (Dakar, Senegal).