The French Embassy in Benin, MansA, and the Agency for the Development of Arts and Culture (ADAC) have announced the 20 winners of the second edition of Inspiration Benin – At the Heart of African Worlds. Building on the momentum of the first edition, this off-site residency program invites artists from around the world to engage in a dialogue with Benin, its regions, its history, and its contemporary creative scenes, from December 2025 to April 2026.
Press Release Published on February 1, 2026
Building on the success of the first edition, which featured 18 winners from 8 countries, this new cohort of Inspiration Bénin brings together 20 artists working in the fields of visual arts and new forms of stage performance, hailing from Germany, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, metropolitan and overseas France, Haiti, the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Togo, and Tunisia. The selected projects explore powerful and contemporary themes—memory, ecology, spirituality, transmission, diasporas, and the dialogue between bodies and territories—and reflect the diversity of both artistic backgrounds and geographical origins.
Designed as an off-site residency program, each grantee works closely with a Beninese cultural partner of their choice (an institution, artist, cultural expert, artisan, or knowledge keeper), who provides support, facilitates engagement, and promotes the project. The residencies will take place from December 2025 to April 2026 throughout Benin.
Visual Arts
Yémandja ABATUCI – France
To the Rhythm of the Waves – Listening to the World’s Movements
Partnership: TOFODJI Association
A sound artist and documentary filmmaker from Martinique, she creates immersive soundscapes that blend oral tradition, place, and cultural transmission.
Barbara ASEI DANTONI – Italy / France
Les Objets-rêves – Memory, Fetishes, and Rebirth
Partnership: Kulturforum Süd Nord, Cotonou-Togbin
A Franco-Cameroonian-Italian visual artist, she explores heritage and memory through textiles, ceramics, and beadwork.
Élise BILLIARD PISANI – France
Reactivating Memory – Living Archives of Benin
Partnership: École du Patrimoine Africain (EPA), Porto-Novo
An artist and anthropologist, she creates participatory projects centered on visual archives and collective narratives.
Shneider Léon HILAIRE – Haiti
Crossing Shared Nights – Painting the Memory of Shadows
Partnership: Nobel KOTY, painter, Cotonou
A Haitian visual artist, his work—marked by a sense of magical realism—blends Voodoo myths, folk tales, and spiritual memory.
Kassir KOSSOKO – Benin / France
Rivière noire: New Plant Age – Weaving the World from Living Matter
Partnership: Mamadou Jamilou ICHAOU, Porto-Novo
An architect and designer, he explores vernacular craftsmanship and the sensory dimensions of contemporary living.
Marion MOUNIC – France
Offerings to the Pot – Memory, Women, and Sacred Materials
Collaboration: Marion HAMARD, curator, Cotonou
A visual artist, she explores gestures, the sacred, and the transmission of women’s knowledge through ceramics, performance, and installation.
SEASIDE NIGHTS – Ivory Coast
Love is what remains when we have forgotten everything – Archives of the Heart
Partnership: Galerie ZATO by Interluxe, Cotonou
A visual artist, photographer, and filmmaker, he connects life, death, and ancestry through an aesthetic that blends tradition and modernity.
Michella PERERA – Ireland / Sri Lanka / France
Goddesses of Water – Dialogues of the Sacred Feminine
In partnership with: Musée de la Récade, Cotonou-Lobozounkpa
An artist and researcher, she explores spiritualities and cultural exchanges between South Asia and Africa.
Chloé QUENUM – France / Benin
ICI – Dialogues of Earth and Memory
Partnership: ZINSOU Foundation, Ouidah
A visual artist, her work—exhibited at the Centre Pompidou and the 2024 Venice Biennale—weaves connections between heritage and transmission.
Charlotte YONGA – France / Cameroon
Dressing God – Costumes of the Soul and Metamorphoses of Life
Partnership: Art and Mental Well-Being Festival, Cotonou
A photographer and visual artist, she explores bodies, territories, and spaces of healing.
New Playwriting
Marwen BEN CHEIKH – Tunisia
matières premières – Archéologie du vivant
Collaboration: Cybelline de SOUZA, Cotonou
A sound artist and filmmaker, he blends art, sound, and image in a poetic exploration of the body and the narratives of life.
Adiaratou DIARRASSOUBA – France / Ivory Coast
The Languages of Love – Expressing Intimacy in Two Voices
Partnership: Sénami DONOUMASSOU, Cotonou
An artist and author, she explores diaspora narratives and oral traditions through sound, performance, and writing.
Marion FORANO – France / Germany
Parakou Swing – When Rhythms Meet
Partner: Wassangary Academy, Parakou
A dancer and choreographer, she explores the African roots of jazz and develops an inclusive teaching approach.
Marie HOUDIN – France
To the Rhythms of Crossings – Dancing Atlantic Memories
Partnership: Florence GNARIGO, Cotonou/Natitingou
A choreographer and researcher, she blends hip-hop, funk, and Afro-descendant dances into a dynamic exploration of choreographic heritage.
Milka KONGI MBUNGA & Gwenaëlle TATOUE – Belgium / France
Diasporic Times – Body, Voice, and Rebirth: Between the Congo and Benin
Partnership: Abdou Rahim MABOUDO
Residency from March 23 to April 30, 2026
The Congolese performer and the Guadeloupean slam poet weave together memory, resistance, and spirituality.
Ayélé LABITEY – France / Togo
The spirit of Lomé, the beats of Kingston, the echo of Paris
Partnerships: ARTAG (Sam de Bord), Cotonou
A singer and songwriter, and former backup singer for Amadou & Mariam, she blends Jamaican soul, ska, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
Andrise PIERRE – Haiti / France
Marasa
Partnership: Nathalie HOUNVO YEKPE
A writer and playwright, and winner of the SACD Prize for Francophone Playwriting, she explores memory, dictatorship, and identity.
Corinne RICUORT – France / Belgium
L’Évangile du Tas – Sanctuaire des voix enfouies
Collaboration: Chakirou SALAMI, Kétou/Cotonou
A sound artist, she creates poetic and documentary works that blend listening, storytelling, and social engagement.
n:u (Melissandre VARIN) – France / United Kingdom
for those who remain – Dancing with the River
Collaboration: DJ DJABI (Kéfil SAKA)
A performer and winner of the Henry Moore Artist Award, she creates works rooted in queer spirituality and collaborative practices.
Rémy YADAN – France
Topology of Silence – Body, Memory, and the Invisible
Partnership: Multicorps Choreographic Center, Cotonou
A visual artist and director, and former resident of the Villa Medici, he explores the gray areas of the spiritual and the political.
Inspiration Benin – At the Heart of the African Worlds is an artist-in-residence program designed by the French Embassy in Benin, in collaboration with MansA – Maison des Mondes Africains and the Agency for the Development of Arts and Culture (ADAC), with guidance from Marie-Cécile Zinsou, and implemented by the French Institute of Benin.
It supports French and Francophone artists from around the world by fostering the exchange of expertise and perspectives with Beninese cultural actors. The selected projects explore themes or draw inspiration from Benin—its history, current events, traditional crafts, heritage, spiritual traditions, or contemporary creative scenes.
A series of presentations of various types and formats will take place during the residencies from December 2025 to April 2026.
