“Where can I feel comfortable in this changing world? The only place where I feel comfortable is in a corner, so I brought my own. Will you feel comfortable in my corner?”

This quote is from the installation entitled A Key Is a Key and This One Is the One, created by Ndayé Kouagou for AB7: ECLIPSE. Originally a performance work, the piece has been remodelled by the artist to create an immersive physical reading. It is situated around a corner, so to view the work you must first enter it. This is intrinsic to the exploration of this piece as a hermetic object, one that is both a philosophical system and a piece that offers closure whilst in it. Kouagou plays with the intimate as perception and choreographs the viewing body from an unseen hand as he guides you into the work. The architecture of the installation is forcibly turned inwards. Kouagou sees this as a contradiction in terms, as an art object is typically created to be seen. He draws on this further as the video begins to play and he invites the viewer to contemplate on the notion of otherness by creating relatable narratives that are in fact not universal but instead very personal – another contradiction and exploration of the unique, rather than the Populus.

Are we always? #2, 2021
Printed text on 6 metal frames, 3 x 2 m
Courtesy of the artist and Nir Altman, Munich

A key is a key and this one is the one, 2021
Metal frames, resin and fabrics, 2 x 2 m
Courtesy of the artist and Nir Altman, Munich

Good people TV – episode 2: Should you be open, 2021
One video channel, 4’40’’
Courtesy of the artist and Nir Altman, Munich