Artists’ Residency: Cameroonians, Beninois, Tunisians Compare Notes

Some 9 professionals in the domains of creative writing, painting, music, video and photography, met in an artists’ residency from November 10-22, 2018. There was also a painting workshop for 10 children. Organised in Zingui Centre, Ekoumdoum, Yaounde, by multi-talented artist, Francis Beidi, the 12-day programme had as participants six art practitioners from Cameroon, one from Benin and two from Tunisia.“Usually, art residencies are for people in particular specialties and not all of them combined. In reality, it is difficult to completely separate art specialties like creative writing, painting, music, photography, etc from each other as all of them draw inspiration from the environment,” Francis Beidi explained.

The purpose of an artists’ residency is to provide a conducive environment for them to create new works based on certain themes by providing the necessary tools and material. “Participants are allowed to create without any restrictions, based on their inspiration. Residency is a time to compare notes – not teach per se,” Beid...