Emo de Medeiros is a Beninese-French artist who lives and works between Cotonou, Benin, and Paris. His work spans multiple media, including sculpture, video, photography, performance, installations, and textiles. Blending tradition and technology, he explores themes of identity, globalization, digital colonialism, and cultural transformation. His central concept, “contexture,” proposes a holistic interconnectivity, examining the fusion of aesthetics, narratives, and diverse influences.
Emo de Medeiros transforms influences and traditions into a complex network of connections that transcend geographical, cultural, and technological boundaries. His concept of “contexture” extends beyond an aesthetic strategy, functioning as a manifesto that challenges limits and possibilities. By combining sculpture, video, photography, performance, installations, and textiles, he creates hybrid universes that reflect the global flows of identity and belonging. His work critiques digital colonialism by deconstructing hegemonic narratives and using technology as a means of resistance and cultural reappropriation.
The fusion of tradition and innovation defines his critique of contemporary forms of cultural domination. Works such as “Vodunaut” and “Electrofetishes” exemplify this dialogue by merging digital devices with ritual elements, blending spirituality and technology. This approach exposes how digital colonialism imposes global narratives that marginalize local knowledge and practices while highlighting the ability of these cultures to reinvent themselves in the face of new technological paradigms.
The relationship between identity and technology emerges through connected devices and active audience participation. His interactive works transform spectators into agents of meaning, inserting them into symbolic networks that question the analog and digital divide. The integration of NFC chips and electronic sensors in his pieces raises discussions about the instrumentalization of bodies and identities by digital colonialism, subverting the logic of surveillance and control to create spaces of resistance and transformation.
The performative installation “Kaleta/Kaleta” exemplifies this approach by exploring the Kaleta tradition, deeply rooted in Beninese culture, and its connections to carnival and Halloween. This work revives a hybrid cultural expression born from the transatlantic slave trade and repositions it in a contemporary landscape marked by the global circulation of images and meanings. De Medeiros highlights the resilience of African cultural expressions in the face of digital colonialism, revealing how past and present intertwine in continuous processes of creation.
His critique of art world hierarchies is also evident in his intervention at the 2015 Venice Biennale, where he created a “clandestine pavilion” for Benin. This act challenged the systemic exclusion of African countries from major contemporary art platforms. The gesture exposed mechanisms of marginalization and reinforced the urgency of new models of visibility and recognition for artists from historically disadvantaged contexts.
The concept of “contexture” allows Medeiros to construct a critical response to digital colonialism by forging connections that transcend the paradigms imposed by Western technology. His work is part of a broader movement to decentralize artistic and cultural production, valuing hybridizations, symbolic exchanges, and multiple narratives. Through his practice, he denounces contemporary forms of cultural domination and proposes alternative paths toward a future where technology fosters emancipation and diversity rather than reinforcing structures of control and homogenization.