Exhibition "Territoires croisés, sagesse des ancêtres" - Ceramic Dialogues by Benjamin Deguenon

In January 2026, Benjamin Deguenon, opened Territoires Croisés, Sagesse des Ancêtres (Crossed Territories, Wisdom of the ancestors) at the Maison de la Culture in Ouidah, Benin. Bringing together works developed during a three-month residency at the European Ceramic Work Center (EKWC) in the Netherlands, the exhibition marks a pivotal moment in the artist’s evolving ceramic practice.  

A painter and sculptor from Benin, Deguenon has over recent years, increasingly explored the medium of ceramics. This journey began with a residency at Le terrail, a space dedicated to ceramics and contemporary art in Vallauris, France. It was there that clay first offered his painted universe a new dimension. Populated by hybrid creatures, beaked, clawed or tailed, that are at once animal and human, this universe is characterised by fluidity and transformation. In ceramics, these figures stepped out of the canvas and acquired weight, volume, and presence. Whether appearing to be captured mid-movement, caught in the midst of dance, or seemingly merging into one another, they represent a form of dialogue, a world where everything appears interconnected and interacts with one another. Some works are carefully painted; others left bare, displaying Deguenon's sensitivity to material and his ability to simultaneously sublime and let clay speak on its own terms.  

Subsequent residencies, notably at OpenArtExchange in the Netherlands, allowed Deguenon to further developed this sculptural language. His travels between Benin and the Netherlands deeply shaped his most recent body of work. Conceived during his residency at the EKWC, the Egungun series, expresses the diversity of inspirations of the artist. Born from a crossing of cultures, territories and wisdoms, the series occupies a truly unique place within Deguenon’s practice and within the broader contemporary ceramic landscape. 

Opened on the 8th of January 2026, Territoires Croisés, Sagesse des Ancêtres invites viewers through a layered journey. At the heart of the exhibition stands a monumental installation composed of ceramic plates and sculptural elements, forming a life-size evocation of a traditional mask. Its scale establishes a powerful physical presence, inviting viewers into direct confrontation with the work. Fluctuating between object and embodiment, the piece demonstrates both technical command and an expanded ambition in scale. Surrounding this central installation, further works from the Egungun series enter into dialogue with a selection of the artist’s paintings, allowing visitors to trace the migration of motifs and figures across media. 

The Egungun sculptures draw inspiration from ancestral cults deeply rooted in Beninese culture. Egunguns are manifestations of the ancestors, ensuring their continued presence among the living. During ceremonies and festivals, they appear adorned in richly patterned and embroidered costumes, crowned with headpieces, that fully conceal the wearer's identity. Performing dances and transmitting messages, they form a bridge between the realm of the living and the dead. Deguenon's works also echo forms of Gèlèdé and Gounoukou masks, respectively associated with ceremonies honouring female divinities, protection, and fertility.  

Anchored in this rich cultural tradition, Deguenon creates ceramic pieces shaped like masks, adorned with his characteristic hybrid figures, intricate patterns, vegetal motifs, and imagined landscapes. A key element of the series is the use of the Delft blue technique to ornate his pieces. Characterised by white-glazed ceramics decorated with cobalt blue pigments, Delftware emerged in the Netherlands in the 17th century, following the arrival of Chinese porcelain in Europe. Attempting to reproduce these highly valued objects, Dutch artisans developed a ceramic tradition that itself is the product of cultural circulation and adaptation.   

By drawing inspiration from Delft blue techniques and patterns, as well as Beninese spiritual and mask traditions, Deguenon operates at the intersection of various ceramic histories and visual cultures. His works subtly merges Dutch and Beninese elements, windmills and tulips occasionally surface within the layered compositions, interwoven with spiritual references. Rather than juxtaposing cultures, Deguenon allows them to overlap and enter into a unique dialogue. Indeed, as aforementioned, hybridity, transformation and dialogue are central to Deguenon's work. While here taking another form, the Egungun series is a truly dialogue of cultures, creating hybrid piece that reject traditional classification.  

These works also serve to remind us of the centuries-old circulation of forms and beliefs. Delft blue itself emerged from global trade routes shaped by colonial expansion, speaking to the crossed history of a now quintennial Dutch element. Likewise, Vodoun practices travelled across oceans through the forced displacement of enslaved populations, taking root and evolving within Afro-diasporic communities worldwide. Cultural production, Deguenon’s work suggests, has always been shaped by contact and transformation. In a political context increasingly marked by polarisation and nostalgic visions of an imagined cultural purity, where cultures are upheld as immutable and self-contained, the exhibition affirms the porosity of cultures and the central role artists have always played in cultural transmission. 

Beyond their embodiment of cultural processes, the works also challenge narrow readings of African contemporary art. They speak to the wide inspirations from artists, inverting stereotypes and expectations. Too often framed within expectations of authenticity or ethnographic reference, African artists are confined by limiting narratives. Deguenon’s practice resists such simplifications. His work moves freely between continents, referencing European decorative traditions alongside West African spiritual forms, thus asserting the artist’s right to complexity. The Egungun series perfectly exemplifies how works are born from lived experiences, relationship and connection with the material, and from journeys whether geographical, cultural, or spiritual.   

Furthermore, as the artist himself notes, his works “link past and presents,” bringing ancestral forms into contemporary visual language. They echo centuries of cultural production and spiritual traditions. As such, Deguenon's sculptures also raise further questions. They ask how spirituality might inhabit contemporary artistic production without becoming static motif or decorative reference. As well as, how do artists activate their cultural heritage? In this sense, Deguenon's works show that artists play a crucial role in re-discovering, re-interpreting, and carrying traditions forward. 

For those intrigued by these intersections of material, culture, and spirituality, several works from the Egungun series are currently on display at OpenArtExchange in Schiedam, Netherlands. Do not miss this occasion to encounter these deeply meaningful works firsthand and experience the layered dialogues they embody.