Photo of Laura Tolen in her studio. Courtesy of Hélibert Fini
OVERVIEW
Born in 1997, Laura Tolen is a French and Cameroonian artist who grew up in Douala before joining Ecole des Beaux-Art in Parisl from which she graduated in 2020. Through her work, the artist reclaims family stories and narratives, in order to become a narrator in her own right rather than a passive subject.
Tolen's work focuses on memory, notably how it is built and passed down, as well as its role in the intergenerational relationships within family circles. Working with old archival pictures, the artist brings several generations together in the same time and space, recreating a semi-real, semi-fictional story. She also finds inspiration in landscapes and architecture that strike her or evoke the past, and uses transparency, sometimes coupled with surrealism, to suggest that the people depicted are not always what or where they seem.
Through this rewriting of past memories, Tolen hopes the viewers will question what is considered to be impartial, as well as the accuracy of their memories as they are never represented in a totally objective way, but our representations are reflections of what we or others wish to highlight - or wish to conceal.
Tolen’s work has been exhibited in Cameroon, France, Italy, Nigeria and South Africa, and is part of the Société Générale Art Collection.