Josèfa Ntjam

Born in 1992 at Metz, France.

Josèfa Ntjam is an artist, performer and writer whose practice combines sculpture, photomontage, film and sound.

Gleaning the raw material of her work from the internet, books on natural sciences and photographic archives, Ntjam uses the method of assemblage – of images, words, sounds, and stories – to deconstruct hegemonic discourses on notions of origin, identity and race. Her work weaves multiple narratives drawn from investigations into historical events, scientific functions and philosophical concepts, to which she confronts references to African mythology, ancestral rituals, religious symbolism and science-fiction.

These apparently heterogeneous discourses and iconographies are marshalled together in an effort to re-appropriate History while speculating on not-yet-determined space-time(s) – interstitial worlds where systems of perception and naming of fixed (id)entities no longer operate. From there, Ntjam composes utopian cartographies and ontological fictions in which technological fantasy, intergalactic voyages and hypothetical underwater civilizations become the matrix for a practice of emancipation that promotes the emergence of inclusive, processual and resilient communities.

Ntjam’s solo and duo exhibitions include Underground Resistance – Living Memories, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK (2022); and we’ll kill them with love..., CAC La Traverse, Alfortville, FR (2022); Molecular Genealogies, NıCOLETTı, London, UK (2021) and Allegoria, duo show with Kaeto Sweeney, Hordaland Art Center, Bergen, NO (2019). Ntjam’s work and performances have been shown in international museums and institutions, including Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain MAMC+, Saint- Etienne, FR; WIELS, Brussels, BE; MUCEM, Marseille, FR; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, PT; Africamuseum, Tervuren, BE; Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, US; Radius CCA, Delft, NL; Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MECA, Bordeaux, FR; MuCAT – Musée des Cultures Contemporaines Adama Toungara, Abidjan, IC; Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario, CA (2021); MAMA, Rotterdam, NE (2020); 15th Biennale de Lyon, MAC Lyon, Lyon, FR (2019); and Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2019).

Her upcoming projects include a site-specific commission at Centre Pompidou, Metz, as part of the group exhibition Les Portes du possible. Art & science-fiction (2022); a solo exhibition at FACT, Liverpool (2022–23), and a solo exhibition at NıCOLETTı, London, UK (2023).

Ntjam is a member of Paris-based art & research collective Black(s) to the Future: blackstothefuture.com.

Ntjam’s work is part of a number of private and public collections, including Fonds d’art contemporain – Paris Collections, FR; FRAC MECA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, FR; FRAC Auvergne; FRAC Alsace, Sélestat, FR; Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, FR; EIB Institute, Luxembourg; and Artothèque de Strasbourg, FR.