Josèfa Ntjam

Josèfa Ntjam explores collective histories, as well as her own memories and personal and family archives, through images of African mythologies, ancestral rituals, Cameroonian independence movements, and freedom fighters such as the Black Panthers – highlighting the transformative power of community to create new realities.

Futuristic Ancestry invites you into a multi-sensory experience featuring biomorphic sculptures, video installations, and photomontages on plexiglass and aluminum. Her work frequently references biology, using microscopic views of plants and marine life to parallel historical resistance with the resilience of microorganisms. Plankton and fungi, for example, have the ability to establish subterranean communication networks to activate healing and resilience. Those are only a few examples of survival and resistance techniques mirrored in nature, reminding us of our own communal power for change. In

Ntjam’s alternative ecosystem, references to Battlestar Galactica and the works of Octavia E. Butler blend with African diasporic science fiction, imagining new possibilities beyond old labels and constraints. The fluidity of her interspecies characters challenge rigid structures of domination, and highlight that liberation lies in continual transformation and adaptation. 

Collaboration is central to Ntjam’s practice, as evident in the films Matter Gone Wild and Mélas de Saturne featured in the exhibition, created with Sean Hart und Nicolas Pirus from the production company Aquatic Invasion. Matter Gone Wild is a 19-minute film exploring revolution and oppression through three characters in a psychedelic multiverse. One character, inspired by Cameroonian independence leader Marthe Moumié, embodies theresistance of the maquis and the power of plants as disruptive matter. 

The collective Black to the Future also plays a crucial role in her work. “Working collectively is very important to me. I never think alone, but always within networks. My collages arise from the accumulation and succession of different layers, each one contributed by individuals with distinct skills”, says the artist. While the collective originally focused on writing and narration, it has evolved into a research collective with its own methodologies. This underscores the importance of networked thinking and collaborative research for the artistic process, aiming to transcend social constructs through co-created revolutionary ideas.

Josèfa Ntjam (b. 1992) is a French artist, performer, and writer whose practice combines sculpture, photomontage, film, and sound. Collecting raw material from the internet, books on natural sciences, and photographic archives, Ntjam uses assemblage – of images, words, sounds, and stories – as a method to deconstruct the grand narratives underlying hegemonic discourses on origin, identity, and race. Throughout her work, Ntjam blends memory with historical fact and speculative fiction (from Battlestar Galactica to the novels of Octavia E. Butler) to produce new interpretations of radical liberation movements around the world, from the battle against white supremacy led by the Black Panther Party in the U.S., to the fights in Cameroon and Nigeria against colonial rule.