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"Brutalism", the strange beauty of Jojo Gronostay, a self-identity made second-hand

German-Ghanaian artist Jojo Gronostay in his exhibition "Brutalism" at the Festival Circulation(s) at the Centquatre, Paris. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

6 min

He is a master of transformations and metamorphoses. Endowed with a multiple identity, Jojo Gronostay creates hybrid works. "Circulation(s)", the festival of young European photography at the Centquatre, in Paris, has named him artist of the European Month of Photography 2023. Born in Germany to a Ghanaian father, trained in Vienna and Paris, he shows "Brutalism", a strange series that transcends art, soul and architecture and questions the unbalanced exchanges between Africa and the West.

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RFI: At first glance, your images look like mushrooms or whale fins. What is behind these large format photographs?

Jojo Gronostay: These are high heels that I found at a large market in Accra, Ghana. It seemed particularly interesting to me that these high heels were also sold separately. And once that utilitarian value is gone, they already have a sculptural quality in themselves. I photographed them with a very high resolution camera and inflated them to a very large size, because it reminded me of architecture, especially brutalist architecture.

Why was the architectural movement called "brutalism" the starting point of this series?

For many West African countries, brutalism was very important for the creation of their own identity after independence. It was an important way to create one's own identity, but also to show that one was modern. Today, these structures interest me a lot.

When and where did you first see brutalist architecture in Africa?

In fact, from my first visit, a long time ago. I was still a teenager. At the time, it made an impression on me, because it's an impressive architecture. But at the same time, I wondered if we could live well in it [laughs].

It was when I went back to Ghana with my father, because my father is from Ghana. At that time, I saw these structures, I saw especially Independence Square in Accra. It is a large square, right next to the sea, with an architectural structure having several large arches. It's impressive and, a little, the emblem of Accra.

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German-Ghanaian artist Jojo Gronostay in his exhibition "Brutalism" at the Festival Circulation(s) at the Centquatre, Paris. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

On the one hand, you say that this brutalism is very important for the identity of many West African countries, but at the same time, you have found that this "brutalism" does not respect the identity and culture of these countries at all. What is the relationship of your series with colonialism and the not very balanced exchange between Africa and Europe?

You have to see my Brutalism series in the context of other great works I did called DWMC, Dead White Men's Clothes. This is an art project in the form of a clothing brand that I launched in 2017. At the time, I went to a large second-hand market in Accra and brought the second-hand clothes back to Europe, in a Western context, especially in an artistic context. The aim was to ask questions about value, about postcolonialism, about power structures.

In the meantime, it has become a clothing label, but also a platform where I perform. This work here and the label address similar issues. And of course, I found the objects in the same place.

What is the question posed by your work in relation to colonialism?

The question is: what is a proper identity? What are the economic reports? I would like to address the complexity and contradiction of these relations, this economic exchange, this exchange of cultures, even if I do not think I can solve it with that.

One of your videos shows a football match on a beach in Ghana and asks the question: where do football knitwear come from? At the same time, you also want to reverse the process. You buy second-hand clothes at Accra's Kantamanto Market, one of the world's largest collection points for used clothes from the West, and then sell them back to Europe. Are you having success with this approach?

Yes, it works. For now, the project works better in the art world than in the fashion world. Maybe the whole project works like a mirror. At the same time, it's not a joke, it's serious.

Photograph of the exhibition "Brutalism" by German-Ghanaian artist Jojo Gronostay at the Festival Circulation(s) at the Centquatre, Paris. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

How many clothes have you sold so far?

I only sell on my own online store. Then there is a store in Japan that sells these clothes. There, clothes have another value and there is a lesser difference between great art and applied arts.

On your site, you don't say when you were born or where you grew up.

I was born in 1988, in Hamburg, grew up in Berlin and studied art at [the Academy of Fine Arts in] Vienna [and the Fine Arts in Paris]. I grew up in a very "German" way. And this whole project, all my work – even if I try not to put it forward – is also an investigation into my own identity. I ask many questions of identity. In the end, it's also very much about my own identity.

Your multiple identity – born in Germany, father from Ghana, trained in Austria and France – how does it influence your artistic work?

I'm very interested in hybrids. Most of my work can be read in many ways. As far as this photographic work is concerned, for example, it is also a sculptural work. And my label is a fashion brand, but also an artistic project. What interests me is when things can be read in many ways and the identity of these things is not so easy to determine.

Photograph of the exhibition "Brutalism" by German-Ghanaian artist Jojo Gronostay at the Festival Circulation(s) at the Centquatre, Paris. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

► Jojo Gronostay: Brutalism, exhibition as part of the Circulation(s) festival at the Centquatre, in Paris, until May 21, 2023.

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