MESURES ET DÉMESURES
MEASURES AND EXCESS
To measure is to seek to give form to the world. It is to count, compare, codify, draw boundaries. For centuries, human societies have created units, laws, and frameworks to organize collective life. But when measure hardens—when it becomes an absolute norm—it tips into excess: the excess of control, of rigidity, of injustice.
The exhibition Measures and Excess highlights this tension between order and overflow, between the necessity of rules and their capacity to confine. It questions the visible and invisible systems that shape our bodies, our desires, and our freedoms—social, political, spiritual, or mathematical measures.
Through his works, William Bakaimo explores this fragile balance. He invites us to observe how rules, meant to protect, can exclude; how frameworks, meant to support, can suffocate; how any system of measure, when stripped of humanity, slides into excess.
For rules are drawn like straight lines… but life always spills beyond them. And where disorder emerges, imagination and the reinvention of the world are born.
In a world saturated with standardization, automation, and top-down reforms, the artist asks: what is a just rule? How far can a norm go? And above all, how can art help us rethink the ways we measure the world?
Rules set limits—but art pushes them, opening new horizons. How far can we go without crossing the unacceptable?
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
William Bakaïmo (born July 4, 1988, in Maroua, Cameroon) is a visual artist whose work examines the human condition in the face of the social, political, and existential tensions of the contemporary world.
After studying law, he chose to devote himself fully to artistic creation and, in 2015, enrolled at the Institut Supérieur du Sahel (ISS), where he earned a degree in Fine Arts (Painting).
As early as 2012, he distinguished himself by winning second prize in the drawing category at UNIFAC. He took part in several artistic workshops in Buea and Yaoundé and further developed his practice through academic residencies with artist Hako Hankson, as well as regular exchanges in the studios of major figures of the Cameroonian art scene such as Joël Mpah Dooh, Hervé Youmbi, William Kayo, and Hervé Yamguen. These experiences gradually shaped a distinctive artistic approach.
Based in Douala since 2018, William Bakaïmo has developed a body of work that questions the human condition in a world marked by tension, fear, and the challenges of survival. Moving between figuration and abstraction, he works primarily with painting, Indian ink, and pigments—mediums that allow him great gestural and expressive freedom.
His practice revolves around the notion of transformation. Shedding—central to his visual language—serves as a metaphor for the human capacity to reinvent oneself, to break free from forms of alienation, and to be reborn. Through hybrid forms and symbols drawn from African imaginaries, he creates figures that are part human, part animal. The lizard, a recurring motif in his compositions, becomes a symbol of resilience, fragility, and adaptability in the face of a changing world.
William Bakaïmo has participated in numerous group and duo exhibitions in Cameroon and internationally, notably at Galerie Claire Corcia (Paris), AKAA Art Fair (Paris), Abidjan Art Fair, Galerie Le Réservoir (Montpellier), in Vilnius (Lithuania), as well as at Annie Kadji Art Gallery (Douala) and the Institut Français du Cameroun. His work is rooted in a contemporary dynamic that combines political inquiry, symbolic depth, and strong formal presence.
MEASURES AND EXCESS
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
La Rumeur, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
102 x 45 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
L'étrangeté, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
79 x 79 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
Le bain interdit, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 38 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
Aliénation, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 38 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
À qui le tour, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
102 x 45 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
L'étrangeté, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
79 x 79 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
L'invitation, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 38 cm
Unique piece
WILLIAM BAKAÏMO
L'offrande, 2026
Signed, titled
Acrylic on canvas
50 x 38 cm
Unique piece