In Progress _Exploring ‘LAKOU KILTI’ Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon’s artistic residency project aims to create a series of paintings exploring the theme of journeying to the heart of identities. The project is guided by the artist’s dreamlike character, the “Kioukan.”
Through this figure, the artist seeks to merge Caribbean identity memory with graphic and calligraphic symbols drawn from traditions around the world. Using acrylic paint, charcoal, natural earth pigments, and ochres, he aims to strike a delicate balance between drawing and color, while incorporating elements of Indigenous American culture and symbolic influences from the residency site.

This project invites reflection on both collective and individual identity, while highlighting intercultural connections. The Kioukan, a figure with multiple limbs and a singular head, serves as a guide through this symbolic and poetic journey across cultures and memories.