La Bouche du Roi: an artwork by Romuald
Hazoumé is a thought-provoking work of art created
between 1997 and 2005 by Romuald Hazoumé, an artist from the
Republic of Benin, West Africa.
Literally translated as ‘The Mouth of the King’, the title
refers to a place in Bénin from where many thousands of slaves were
transported to the Americas and the Caribbean.
However, La Bouche du Roi is primarily
a warning against all kinds of human greed, exploitation and
enslavement, both historical and contemporary. A profound and
thought-provoking artistic statement by artist Romuald Hazoumé, it
is made from a combination of materials, including petrol cans,
spices, and audio and visual elements, the artwork’s arrangement
recalls the famous 18th-century print of the slave ship, the
Brookes, which was used to great effect by Abolitionists.
A recitation of Yoruba, Mahi and Wémé names,
the terrible sounds and smells of a slave ship, and a video of
black market petrol-runners in modern Benin are other elements
which combine to make La Bouche du Roi a
truly remarkable and thought-provoking work of art in which the
connections between past, present and future are made profoundly
real.
The artwork was acquired in 2007, with support
from the Art Fund and the British Museum Friends, to mark the
bicentenary of the Parliamentary abolition of the transatlantic
slave trade.
The Herbert, Coventry
3 April – 31 May 2009
Image: Romuald Hazoumé, La Bouche du
Roi (detail), 2005