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Wiin. La prophétie des abeilles Camille Tooubi x Laurent Védrine
WIIN IS A PROJECT CREATED AROUND THE WORKS OF CAMILLE TOOUBI AND ACCOMPANIED BY AN ARTIST’S FILM WIIN L’ESPRIT DE LA RUCHE (14’32” - 2024) DIRECTED BY LAURENT VÉDRINE. THIS SHORT FILM IS AN ARTISTIC EXPRESSION OF A GLOBAL WORK THAT FOCUSES AS MUCH ON NATURE AS ON SCIENCE. THIS SHORT FILM AND CAMILLE TOOUBI’S WORK ARE EXHIBITED AT ATLANTIC ART SPACE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.
As a filmmaker, Laurent Védrine is familiar with African history and societies, particularly in West Africa. In 2019, he directed the first film on the history of colonial looting and the partial return of the treasure of the Palais Royal d’Abomey. Shortly after its release in France, he decided to show the film in Benin, in several towns and villages where the images were filmed, to bring back to citizens and inhabitants a memory that had been confiscated from them for so long.
It was during this stay that he met Camille Tooubi at his CERFAT apiculture center near Bohicon. Fascinated by bees, and involved for years in artistic collaborations around the theme of the beehive, Laurent Védrine was fascinated to discover the ecological and artistic universe built up over more than twenty years by his fellow beekeeper. This first encounter with destiny and the “spirit of the beehive” quickly turned into a desire of cinema, with the ambition of making a feature-length documentary around the character of Camille Tooubi.
Since then, several shoots have taken place, both to explore the plastic dimensions of Tooubi’s work, whose energy has all the makings of a “bee prophecy”, and to testify to ecological issues specific to Benin: biodiversity, raising awareness among rural populations, deforestation, climate change, pesticides, the moral and spiritual dimensions of the beehive, etc. These frequent visits also provided an opportunity for scientific collaboration with french anthropologist Nicolas César, a teacher-researcher at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and a specialist in human-insect interactions.
Images from “Wiin L’esprit de la ruche”, 14’32”, 2024
Images from Wiin’s “Wiin L’esprit de la ruche”, 14’32”, 2024
Images from Wiin’s “Wiin L’esprit de la ruche”, 14’32”, 2024
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 50 x 19,5 x 11,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 50 x 19,5 x 11,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 50 x 19,5 x 11,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 50 x 19,5 x 11,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 86 x 48,5 x 15 cm
Camille Tooubi, La vie dans la ruche, 2024, Mixed media, 146 x 147 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 126 x 47 x 9,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 126 x 47 x 9,5 cm
Camille Tooubi, Untitled, 2024, Mixed media, 126 x 47 x 9,5 cm
