I&P supports the fund Ebalé, dedicated to the promotion of young African artists

The team of Investisseurs & Partenaires is pleased to announce its support to the Fund Ebalé, dedicated to contemporary African art and promoted by the Angalia Gallery. The launch of the fund represents, for its founders and partners, a strong commitment to the development of the African cultural sector.

Christian Martin, President of Ébalé, reflects on the issues at stake in this new project.

Picture: Atelier d’Amani Bodo, Kinshasa, 2016. © Angalia 

A word from Christian Martin, President of Ébalé

An economist by background, a traveller and a passionate supporter of contemporary art, Christian Martin pursued a professional career as an industrialist in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors in export markets. Since 2007, he has been involved in the promotion of contemporary African art. He has produced several exhibitions around major African artists such as Souleymane Keita, Sergine M'baye Camara, Soly Cissé or N'Dary Lo. He is an investor in the IPAE 1 fund, launched by I&P in 2012.

Investors and Partners of the African artistic and cultural production?

African artistic creation is a tangible and powerful reality, rooted in time and drawing on the heart of the continent, its rhythms and cultures. It sends a message to the world as universal as that of European, American or Asian artists. These artists speak and show about their society and its future, something that no one else can express like them. They illustrate the innovative capacity of their continent and are therefore a decisive marker of the journey made and to come.

The globalization at work over the past twenty years clearly shows the intimate and direct link between the emergence of new economies and the development of an art market and cultural industries. This is an obvious observation in China, India or Brazil. This is also already evident in English-speaking Africa.

These few words resonate singularly for me, a Parisian, at a time when the flames of Notre Dame united in the same suffering those who believed in heaven and those who did not. How can we think for a second that the development of a territory, a country or a continent can bypass the cultural dimension?

So what can we do?

The proposals today are based on intuition rather than on any established certainty. There is a strong need to explore new spaces, new practices and new fields of reflection, at a time when the old models of cultural cooperation between States are slowly dying. Can we now meet the challenge of being investors and partners in the African artistic and cultural scene?

This intuition, the founder of I&P, Patrice Hoppenot, amateur of art, already carried it with him. It was also the reason of my meeting with Jean-Michel Severino, when in 2010, he agreed to preface the catalogue of the exhibition of our mutual friend Souleymane Keita. In 2012 and 2013, this same intuition led us to develop a first draft of a fund dedicated to contemporary African art. Pierre Daubert and Karin Barlet, promoters of the Angalia gallery, created in 2011 and specialized in contemporary African art, joined us in our reflection. This commitment to African art is also visible on the walls of I&P, rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, where a few artworks are exposed. I do believe they can be a powerful source of inspiration for the team!

This shared intuition and journey now converge in two concrete projects in which I&P is involved:

The investment in the Fund Ebalé (meaning the River, in Lingala), which aims to facilitate the career development of young visual artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebalé's launch is mainly due to the commitment, talent and patient tenacity of Pierre Daubert and Karin Barlet. 

The imminent launch of the Programme Afrique Créative, aimed at supporting cultural and creative enterprises in 4 African countries. This program marks a great success for I&P Conseil, which won the call for proposals in partnership with the Belgian cultural cooperation operator Africalia, led by Frédéric Jacquemin, and several African partners (Zhu Culture, Bayimba)."

About Ébalé

The Ébalé project (meaning the River, in Lingala) was incorporated as a simplified joint stock company on 20 March 2019, for an initial period of seven years.

The company's aim is to facilitate the career start of five to seven young visual artists from the Democratic Republic of Congo, by directly purchasing a certain number of their works and eventually reselling them on the European or international market.

Ébalé currently has five shareholders with various backgrounds, gathered at the Angalia Gallery's initiative. The shareholders converge on at least one of the three founding elements of the project: their passion for Africa and its future, their interest in contemporary artistic creation, and their commitment to impact investing.

Read more

• Presentation of the fund Ébalé

• Art gallery Angalia