Ndayé Kouagou – Heaven’s Truth, 2026

Heaven’s Truth follows four dogs who die and enter a version of heaven that closely resembles the world they have left behind. Inspired by the narrative structure of photo comics, Ndayé Kouagou’s installation combines photographs, texts, voices and video in a sequence of scenes that guide the story from one chapter to the next. Reflecting on the work’s origins, the artist explains: “I had the freedom of deciding what happened when you die and the only thing I was able to create is the same world as the world we live in.” Heaven becomes a place where familiar systems of judgement continue to determine value and shape relationships. As canine and human characters encounter one another, Kouagou examines how perception informs judgement, questioning whether anyone can ever see beyond their own experience.

Ndayé Kouagou works with performance, video and text to examine the construction of identity and the circulation of images. His work often centres on the figure of the self as a space of projection, negotiation and instability. Drawing on digital culture and contemporary forms of representation, he produces works that shift between humour and critical distance. Through strategies of repetition, staging and solicitation, Kouagou questions how subjectivity is constructed.