POINT OF VIEW


Franco-Beninese artist Stevens Dossou-Yovo questions both the notion of temporality and our relationship to space and matter. Between metaphysical vision of the world and materiality of the object, his sculptures, often murals, function as so many metaphors of reality. For the artist, "everything begins in the virtual world, but the most certain outcome is undoubtedly matter as an object".

His work is located precisely at the confluence of different paths: "the mathematical dimension helps me to develop my vision of the 3nd dimension based on the 2nd dimension ". To achieve this, Stevens Dossou-Yovo first expresses himself through drawing in order to project his idea of ​​space. This is where the viewer passes from virtuality to reality.

The rectangle is his madeleine of Proust. Used like an alphabet, it illustrates space and our perception of it. The emptiness found in his sculptures tells of a suspended time...

Stevens Dossou-Yovo experiments with the different textures offered by steel: oxidized, brushed or painted, the patina of these floating shapes testifies to the inexorable wear and tear of materials and the passage of time. His sculptures can be seen as abstract planes as well as interior landscapes; geometry and perspective have always been at the heart of his creative process, they allow him to play endlessly with the field of possibilities.

The quest for universality is essential in the practice of Stevens Dossou-Yovo: language and mathematics nourish his work, both the property of everyone and of no one, crossing centuries, cultures and beliefs.

Each Stevens Dossou-Yovo sculpture is presented as a spatial equation or a mathematical formula. In the manner of stable by Alexander Calder, the optical illusion creates the striking effect of motionless movement. The assembled elements are both in free fall and in levitation, static and animated by the circulation of air. A certain shaping of the materiality of the world around us.

Oliver Waltman,
Paris, February 2022