MAYA INES TOUAM | AKAA 2026
For the 2026 edition of AKAA, Galerie Les filles du calvaire presents a solo show by Franco-Algerian artist Maya Inès Touam.
In her photographic tableaux, Maya Inès Touam combines photographs taken in the studio to create hybrid narratives. Informed by her origins, art history and postcolonial narratives, her practice explores cultural circulations, inheritances and forms of transmission through images in which memory and fiction intersect.
Three new works stem from her residency at Maison Gacha in Paris. Drawing on works from the foundation’s collection, as well as on her exchanges with beadworkers and traditional Cameroonian narratives, they reflect the artist’s interest in stories that are passed down and reinvented. In particular, inspired by the story of the Zulu twins Mkabayi and Mmama kaJama — two sisters born from the same pregnancy, whose birth and destinies are intertwined with questions of succession and power within Zulu royalty — Maya Inès Touam develops a reflection on forms of transgression, representations of motherhood and power relations.
These works bring together heritage objects, flowers, fruits and ritual elements within carefully structured compositions, where vernacular know-how, the memory of objects and the transmission of stories intersect. Maison Gacha is also presented at booth D5.
Alongside these works, several sketches from the Ready Made series are presented. In this body of work, Maya Inès Touam explores the circulation of forms, motifs and narratives between North Africa, West Africa and Europe, bringing to light the shared inheritances and transnational imaginaries that emerge at the crossroads of these territories. Produced for A Magazine Curated By Youssouf Fofana, this body of work explores notions of transmission and cultural hybridity. The artist draws in particular on the work of chefs such as Mory Sacko, who reinvent contemporary gastronomy by incorporating ingredients, culinary know-how and spices from their countries of origin into their cuisine.
