old on to your head gear: Toguo’s Institute of Visual Arts is about to morph from two cinderblock structures in small Cameroonian towns (Bandjoun, M’Balmayo) into one relatively grandiose structure in Douala, a port city of 2 million people on the Gulf of Guinea. In its new home the Institute of Visual Arts will display work not only by African artists but also by such luminaries as Damien Hirst, Martha Rosler, Marcel Dzama, Claude Lévêque, Tania Bruguera… It will offer workshops, lecture series, theatre/performance/music, and an art library to the public. Perhaps the Institute’s groundbreaking move is the largess of the French government, you think? Private European philanthropy? A Cameroonian big man bitten by the art bug? Nope. The Institute of Visual Arts is the brainchild of Bartélémy Toguo, 36 years old, a self-made artist and a local guy made good.

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