Kako spent his childhood in the heights of the Réunion Island, surrounded by the omnipresent lushness of nature. From a young age, he developed a keen interest in these surroundings and became particularly fascinated by trees. By observing them, he detected signs, movements, and a surprising form of language. And so trees have become reference figures in his art. In his drawings, paintings and installations, the silhouette of the tree outlines space, reframes the image, and seems to stand between the viewer and the scene that is unfolding behind its branches. The artist uses the analogy of the root system to address the history of the people of the Réunion, which he calls “The New World” because of the forced nature of its cultural mixing. Pushing his investigations further into the Indo-Oceanic region, he manages to convey the sense of poetry and wonder born from the friction between his imagination and the fragments of worlds that have slipped between his roots.

Marie Birot, 2020

Translated by Lucy Pons | Biographical notes translated with the support of the Centre national des arts plastiques - Cnap.