Ndayé Kouagou: The Guru

For his first solo museum exhibition, Ndayé Kouagou has created a new work titled The Guru (2023). It was produced for Open Space #11 by the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

In this monumental video installation, Ndayé Kouagou features a non-gendered character, carefully dressed and made up, with a feminine voice, who strolls along the walls of the gallery. Facing the viewer, with whom the protagonist—borrowing the artist’s features—wants to interact, a discourse unfurls, marked by timeless thoughts and feelings: doubt, self-confidence, love, the desire to escape, and otherness. This monologue, which is filled with humor, was written by Ndayé Kouagou and draws inspiration from various YouTube videos: tutorials, vlogs, and unboxings. The installation invites viewers to contemplate and analyze their own inner worlds, asking questions like, “Do we expect less or more?” “Are we trying to give or take?” and “Is this about you or us?”

Unlike other “neo-guru influencers” and masters who dispense guides on how to succeed at life via social networks, this guru delivers no answers or solutions… At the end of the show, the image vanishes, and the character’s life-sized projected silhouette, which had such a palpable presence, disappears, leaving behind only the questions as the lights come up. With his installation/performance, The Guru, Ndayé Kouagou offers an intimate yet universal reflection in which everyone is invited to participate and internalize as their own.

Curated by Claudia Buizza and Ludovic Delalande (Fondation Louis Vuitton).

The artist
Ndayé Kouagou was born in Montreuil, France, in 1992, and currently lives and works in Paris. Ndayé Kouagou is an author, performer, and videomaker. He uses spoken and written language as the raw material for his artistic practice. Writing his own texts, primarily in English, he addresses universal existential questions. The artist then creates performances, videos, and sculptures/paintings around them, exploring the power, meaning, sound, and form of words.

Ndayé Kouagou is represented by the Nir Altman Galerie in Munich, Germany.

His most recent exhibitions and performances include: Je n’avalerai que mon liquide, the sequel, MAC VAL, Vitry (FR), November 29, 2022; Let your ( ) do the talking, eyes knee whatever, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (DE), 2022; (un)forgiving, surprising, blessing, Various Others, Nir Altman Munich, 2022; Like Dracula dodging the cross (curated by Line Ajan), Galerie Imane Farès, Paris, 2022; I’ll swallow only my own fluid, Move Festival, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, October 2021; Installation Good People TV (section curated by Cédric Fauq), Frieze London, London, 2021; All great and precious things, T293, Rome, 2021; Will you feel comfortable in my corner? #2, Wiels, Brussels, June 2021; Should you define yourself by opposition? (video coproduced by Triangles—Astérides and Plateforme Parallèle), Festival Parallèle, Marseille, 2021.

Open Space is a program dedicated to the most contemporary artistic expressions. Three times per year, national and international artists are invited to create a specific project for a Gallery of Frank Gehry’s building. Supporting and promoting artistic creation of emerging artists, Open Space provides the occasion of presenting a first solo exhibition in an internationally renowned museum as well as the possibility to produce a new work. 

Since 2018, this programme has hosted solo exhibitions of Jean-Marie Appriou (1986, France), Matt Copson (1992, UK), Anna Hulačová (1984, Czech Republic), Hoël Duret (1988, France), Lauren Halsey (1987, US), Meriem Bennani (1988, Morocco), Jean Claracq (1991, France), Bianca Bondi (1986, South Africa), Özgür Kar (1992, Turkish), and Lydia Ourahmane (1992, Algeria).