Program
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Residence cartographie de Suza
March 11 to 14, 2024
Felwine Sarr is in charge of mapping.
The aim is to design and produce a unique social, anthropological, economic, cultural, historical and geographical mapping of the Grand Suza territory. The project is being carried out with the help of anthropologist Parfait Akana, geographer Cheikh Ba, economist Muhammad Ba, philosopher Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux, three doctoral students from the universities of Douala and Yaoundé, and artists, as well as with the help of the inhabitants of Grand Suza, invited to take part in the process of drawing up the cartography and telling the story of their village.
In 2020, we launched a data-gathering project on care and well-being issues, as well as a vast field study on ecological knowledge, to assess the heritages on which local value chains are built, and to understand how to embed the economy in a specific terroir, in order to foster a circular economy that meets the needs of local populations, while preserving their environment.
The night of ideas
January 27, 2024
On the theme of "Universalism", we spoke with:
Athanase BOPDA, geographer and researcher on social change and innovation in rural and urban environments;
Historian Mamadou DIOUF;
on issues relating to the independence of research, the decolonization of knowledge and the revaluation of African narratives. His book "L'Afrique dans le temps du monde" (Africa in the time of the world) was presented to great acclaim.
The Kee KiBankon (Bankon Tree) choir punctuated the event. Below are some of the day's highlights.
Suza's Manifest: Taking care of the sensitive
January 26 - 29, 2023
During the Suza's Manifest biennial, the MAM Foundation enables all those involved to bring together and present their research and creative ...
A major event combining contemporary creation and scientific research, with round-table discussions, exhibitions, performances, literature and think-tank residencies to reinvest in our heritage and take stock of the work accomplished since the creation of the MAM Foundation in 2019.
Literary workshops and Poetry Days and Nights
October 22 - 28, 2022
Under the direction of three writers: Hemley Boum, Anne-Sophie Stéfanini and Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, "Suza, theater of life" is part of the projects supported by the MAM Foundation. It is about building a living show conceived, created, directed and performed with, by and thanks to the people of Suza. An inclusive artistic performance during which the village tells its story.
Launch of the MAM Foundation at the DAK'ART Biennale
May 19 - 29, 2022
The MAM Foundation was unveiled in the gardens of the Léopold Sédar Senghor Foundation.
Creative residency, Alexis Peskine
January 24 - April 28, 2022
Alexis Peskine was born in Paris in 1979 of Russian and Brazilian parents. He lives and works in Paris, Salvador, Dakar and New York. Alexis Peskine graduated in painting and photography from the prestigious Howard University in Washington, D.C., then specialized in digital and video art at the Maryland Institute College of art in Baltimore. After a four-month residency in Grand Suza at the Fondation MAM, Alexis Peskine presented "Edube - Révérence".
Portraits of people Alexis met by chance in Douala and Grand Suza who embody strength and perseverance. Exceptionally, Alexis Peskine proposes a landscape, that of Bimbia, a former slave port in southwest Cameroon.
The works of art are created with nails of different calibers, pointed with extreme precision, in wood stained with natural products such as coffee, hibiscus, earth, turmeric, indigo... The application of gold leaf on the nails creates the desired contrasts.
Suza LEV
APRIL 27 - 29, 2022
As part of the April 2022 Suza LEV-Cartographie residency, supervised by philosopher Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux, anthropologist Parfait Akana & economist Felwine Sarr, in the presence of geographer Cheikh Ba (Professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar) and economist Muhammad Ba (Professor at Gaston-Berger University, Saint-Louis); three doctoral students resident at the Fabrique de Suza as part of their theses applied to the Grand Suza territory, as well as several guest speakers such as Emmanuel Ngansop from the Cameroon herbarium and the Grand Suza village chiefs.
How to increase the well-being of the people of Suza?
This event was punctuated by a talk with the theme "Building a living economy" on April 27, 2022 at 6pm at the Suza Factory.
Speakers: Isabelle Delannoy, Felwine Sarr. Moderator: Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux
Visit Night of Ideas
January 27, 2022
In partnership with the Institut Français du Cameroun and Think Do Tank Okwelians, the MAM Foundation offers an experimental invitation to question collective memory in order to "purge passions", rehabilitate human beings in their primordial dignity and build lasting social peace. How can we heal the wounds of the past to renew human ties? How can we transform the collective memory of peoples to rediscover shared dignity?
Speakers: Writer Hamidou Anne and Professor Jean-Eudes Biem
Creative residency, Patrick Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu
May 17 - June 26, 2021
Arriving from Bologna, Patrick Tatcheda Yonkeu stayed́ in residence for six weeks at the Fabrique de Suza. During this period, the "Atmosphères" exhibition was mounted. Some ten works were presented, including a monumental installation (6 m x 3 m) entitled Reset 98, which symbolizes memory. It consists of a series of 98 masks immersed in a salt mixture. During the residency, an introductory painting workshop was held with young people from the localitý of Grand Suza.
Re-anchoring the economy in local cultures
AUGUST - DECEMBER 2021
Following the workshop led by Felwine Sarr in 2019, it was felt necessary to initiate a mapping of Suza and the surrounding area. A preliminary study and field survey were therefore carried out.
The aim of this work was to embed the economy in local cultures, with a twofold interest:
1) identify Suza's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the needs and expectations of the local population, including farmers
2) build up local archives, endogenous archives, to help make the Fabrique de Suza a center for documentation and research on living things.
To achieve this, three PhD students took turns from August to December 2021 and from May 01st 2022 to April 30th 2023.
The topics chosen for their theses by the three doctoral students are :
Displaced persons, socio-economic recompositions and land appropriations in the locality of Suza, Moungo-littoral
Attitudes and practices of local communities and authorities regarding land sales in the Suza group Ethnography of therapeutic and culinary heritages in the Lower Mungo (Suza group): conservation and enhancement mechanisms and issues
Literary workshops and Poetry Days and Nights
April 22 - 26, 2021
During this second stage, twenty young people aged between 20 and 30 with an interest in writing took part in literary workshops led by Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe, Hemley Boum, Anne Sophie Stefanini and in Zoom by Rodney St Eloi, Gaël Faye and Béata Umubyey.
Each evening is punctuated by reading sessions. Nuit de la poésie du Tout-monde: April 26, 2021. This evening brought together poets from diverse backgrounds for cross-readings and round-table discussions. Participants: Capitaine Alexandre, Hemley Boum, Manalone, Alexandre Bord, Gamil Da genius, Antonya David-Prince, Hervé Yamguen, Sadrak, Marsi, Serge Epoh, Anne Sophie Stefanini.
Creative residency, Louis Philippe de Gagoue
April 14 to 19, 2021
Louis Philippe de Gagoue came from Abidjan for a residency at the MAM Foundation, during which he produced a photographic series entitled "Les Gardiens de Suza".
Creative residency, Anna Mapoubi
February 06 to 22, 2021
Anna Mapoubi arrived from Saint Etienne to staý more than three weeks at the MAM Foundation in Suza. Assisted by five young people from the village of Suza whom Anna Mapoubi introduced to weaving . Anna Mapoubi offered the Douala public an exhibition entitled "Fluide fou".
Creative residency: Aurélie Djiena and Wilfried Mbida
October 03 to 22, 2021
At the end of a 2-week residency.
During this residency, youth workshops on collage and organic agriculture were held with about 15 children.
Creative residency: William Adjété Wilson
September 25 - October 18, 2021
At the end of a two-week residency, William Adjété Wilson produced works for his "Tissages et métissages" exhibition. During the residency, a visit to his studio was organized for around ten people.
Creative residency: Fred Ebami and the On a Slamé sur la Lune collective
December 28, 2020 - January 16, 2021
Members of the Collectif On A Slamé Sur La Lune (Capitaine Alexandre, Fred Ebami ... ). This two-week residency at the MAM Foundation in Suza, some thirty kilometers from Douala, brought together words, images and landscapes. During the residency, youth workshops were held for some twenty children.
LAUNCH OF THE SUZA FACTORY
December 2019
The idea was to set up a laboratory, a place of research and experimentation; the bias being that ideas and practices feed each other concomitantly. The project was to bring together different approaches (theoretical, practical, artistic...) and to work together on a theme that had to be implanted in a specific territory, that of Cameroon.
After much reflection, it became clear that this project should not be located in Douala but in Suza, on the land of the MARHA organic farm. Thus was born the Suza Factory.
