Olivier Chow of Foreign Agent
Olivier Chow is the founder of Foreign Agent, a dynamic art and design gallery based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The gallery focuses on emerging and established artists and designers from Africa and the Diaspora. We spoke to Olivier on what led him to art after a global career working with UNESCO and ICRC in war-stricken areas.
Given your prior work and life experiences with UNESCO and the ICRC, your path to an art profession has been unusual. Would you share with us what inspired you to choose opening a gallery focused on diaspora African art?
After working for many years in a highly structured and hierarchical environment, I really wanted to be independent. I wanted to create my own vision and set my agenda without having to report to anyone. Art had been my hobby, visiting galleries and collecting in my free time. The idea of a gallery had been maturing for several years before I was finally ready to take that big step. I have been obsessed with African traditional art which I studied, then with African contemporary art. My last assignment with the ICRC was in South Africa, so I already had some contacts in the region, which made it easier.
How does your previous career and academic work inform your work as a gallerist and your relationship with artists?
My previous line of work in the humanitarian sector was really about people and relationships – individuals as well as state and non-state armed groups, governments, and civil society. It was very much about understanding people and their needs. The art world is also very much about dealing with people - artists, collectors, other galleries and institutions.
I find everything I learned from the field to be useful because wartime is just a more extreme and accelerated version of real life. I tend to use the same strategies. Academia was important because it complemented my operational knowledge with theory. My PhD in critical theory provided me with amazing insights into the human mind and how we can apply theory to aesthetics, how we read and understand an artwork beyond the obvious.
As you look at your program, which emerging artists are you most excited about and why?
I find all my artists exciting, else I wouldn’t work with them! One I’m currently working with is Ousmane Bâ. He’s a French artist of Guinean/Senegalese origin, born and raised in Strasbourg and currently living in Tokyo. He works mostly with ink, inspired by the art of calligraphy as well as techniques of Japanese printmaking. There is an important spiritual dimension in Ousmane’s work inspired by his Fulani background, a traditionally pastoral nomadic community. I find it fascinating how some Diaspora artists constantly seek to expand their horizons, creating these new connections between cultures and techniques, incorporating them into something very singular.
I’m also excited about forthcoming collaborations with African designers who will create very unique works for Foreign Agent – designers such as Jomo Tariku, Bibi Seck, Ousmane Mbaye and Hamed Ouattara.
What advice do you have for collectors who may just be starting out on their journey of collecting diaspora African art?
The great thing today about diaspora African art is that it’s accessible geographically and it is affordable. Wherever you are, you should be able to access museum and gallery shows or check out what is happening through social media. So anyone with a genuine interest will have the ability to see work, talk to people and better understand what’s going on. The more you see and understand the better. Then it’s really about developing a personal taste that shouldn’t necessarily be about following trends but finding out what you like and why.