Olivier Chow is the founder of Lausanne-based contemporary art and design gallery Foreign Agent. Specialising in representing talent from Africa and its diaspora, Chow and his team are presenting for the first time at Design Miami Basel with pieces by Hamed Ouattara, Gonçalo Mabunda and Ousmane Mbaye. We caught up with Chow to find out more.
What are you presenting at Design Miami Basel?
We brought Hamed Ouattara’s new collection, Bolibana, which means “the happy ending of an unusual journey” in Bamana [a language spoken in Mali and Burkina Faso]. That word reflects the artist’s journey, which started in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, before he went to Paris and then the US. Ouattara was recently featured in The New York Times as one of nine trailblazing African artists and designers to watch. I have been working with him for about three and a half years so he has really been part of the gallery’s journey. We have been promoting his work from the beginning. Foreign Agent presents both art and design so Hamed reflects the DNA of the gallery. We also have a unique piece by Mozambican artist Gonçalo Mabunda and Dakar’s Ousmane Mbaye Design.
How do you ensure that you stand out at the fair, especially as a newcomer?
We are one of the few galleries specialising in African contemporary design and we work with most of the big names from the continent. For us, it’s important to be in Basel because you don’t really see African work at these fairs and, beyond the artists and designers, there is an ecosystem of people who depend on us promoting the work. The response from visitors has been amazing. A lot of people in North America, Latin America and Asia have never seen these works or the richness of the continent. Many don’t associate luxury and design with Africa but, having lived and worked there for many years, I really wanted to show a different image of Africa.
You’re also one of the few Swiss galleries participating. Why is this significant?
Lausanne is my hometown. I studied in Geneva and London, then worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross for many years. I called the gallery Foreign Agent because I worked mainly in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel and other places. I also studied African art at Soas University of London. I found a space and established the gallery in 2019 in Lausanne. At the time, art foundation Plateforme 10 and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts were bringing creative energy to the city. But Lausanne is small, which is why it’s important for me to come and present at big design shows such as Design Miami Basel.
