Josèfa Ntjam’s works are fictions combining different written and oral stories – tales, legends and natural history. These different origins are used by the artist to create a new narrative in which the deconstruction of norms leaves room for imagination and utopia. Text is an important part of her creative process, appearing in films, performances and sound works. Accompanied by printed images and sculptures, the whole constitutes immersive installations in which hybrid characters are at play.

Close to role-playing or video game heroes, these avatars – at once human and god or goddess, but also animal and vegetable – perform in his works and interpret these contemporary tales. Their biological characteristics are singular, their powers extraordinary and their characters complex. Persona, for example, is a recurring character that the artist embodies. A character of revolt, she refers to melancholy and overcomes the multitude of assignations thanks to passport masks-these West African sculptures used as identity cards or as a right to hunt, and which provide protection while traveling. In the film matter gone wild, the Mixotrophe is a vegetal and animal organism capable of photosynthesis through plant symbiosis, and which feeds like an animal. Cameroonian independence activist Marthe Ekemeyong Moumié gives her first name to Marthe, a forest chameleon who transforms into a plant to fool the enemy.

Using scenic devices such as the diorama and digital techniques, Josèfa Ntjam combines forms and references to create a metaphorical and global universe, at once macrocosm and microcosm, which is difficult to situate in space and time. The abstract worlds she creates, floating and seductive, take us into the future, to a parallel world – or perhaps a world beyond, where perpetual mutation and adaptation provide a hopeful renewal.

For her exhibition at 40mcube, Josèfa Ntjam is recomposing an installation from existing works in order to reconsider their articulation, create a new universe and offer a different interpretation.