Obviously he was not comfortable in this school, or more precisely the school could no longer bring him much in terms of the questions he was exploring in his performances and videos. What immediately struck me was the incredible insistence, perseverance and continuity in deciphering an extremely complex territory that involved issues of race, gender and disability.
I don’t remember if I perceived from the beginning that the videos produced invested questions relating to sound, dance and the body, obeying a requirement of visibility that did not require the identity filter. What is at stake is multiple, and does not assert itself through the usual prisms of perceptions/investigations specific to racial, gender or disability issues. Everything is intertwined, and it is precisely this mixing that makes the specificity of Kengné Téguia’s work unique, and designates him as an intruder. His work is an intrusion into the field of video art, and the performance that arises with the consequent disruption of our apprehension, of what hearing and listening imply, designate, presuppose and therefore regulate, oust, etc. He benefited from hearing aids from an early age 1 and, under pressure from the medical profession, followed a classical course focusing on oral communication for better integration into an « ableist « 2 society.
