Pascale Marthine Tayou is known for transforming everyday materials into poetic reflections on the shifting conditions of global belonging. He finds visual answers to questions on who has the right to move freely, who is recognized as part of the (art) community, or whose voice is heard. His practice returns insistently to the ordinary object as a carrier of collective memory, turning the familiar into a catalyst for questioning the social and political structures that shape contemporary art. In the context of Tirailleurs: Trials and Tribulations, Tayou presents a new site-specific constellation of flags printed with vividly coloured cobblestones. The ‘stone’—one of the most ubiquitous materials of the earth—becomes here both medium and transformative metaphor. It recalls the improvised weapon used in struggles for freedom, for the decolonization of space and soul, symbolizing resistance born from scarcity—tools of defiance when other means are unavailable. Yet Tayou presents the stones laid down, gathered into a mound signalling how these instruments of conflict turn into a collective structure of restraint and reflection. Printed on flags, these cobblestones become emblems of peace—peace brought by those who have earned it through struggle. Their varying colours and irregular sizes echo the multiplicity of stories amongst the Tirailleurs, while the work itself proposes a countermonument, a forest path or ceremonial passage at the entrance of HKW.

Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Pascale Marthine Tayou and HKW, 2026

Work in the exhibition: Colorful Stones (2025–26), series of 16 flags, dimensions variable, c.235–500 × 150 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua