Fairies never die

While words and speech were under very high surveillance during the long season of blue fear that Cameroon experienced in the aftermath of independence in 1960, the need to express oneself without attracting the wrath of the regime found an outlet through the language of form and colour. In this landscape permeated by submission, a community of self-taught visual artists has made its way between festive companionships and the absence of an art school. Humble and curious, notwithstanding her experience as a curator working in the contemporary field and as an art historian, Dominique Malaquais has avoided any interventionism. Nevertheless, some of her work has gained international visibility.