Born CHIFOR C. VALERY, «Tito» is a Cameroonian activist, photographer and media personality from the anglophone city of Bamenda (North West). After studying law at the University of Buea, he begun his career as a radio DJ with a focus on hip-hop. In 2004, he began writing and hosting «The Break» on STV (Spectrum Television), the first show on Cameroonian television focussed on urban contemporary art. After six years on the show, he moved towards photography, opening his first solo exhibition ( Poe’Traits the poetry or portraits) at the controversial radical K-Factory gallery in 2010.
By 2014, Valery was an alumni of «Asiko», Olabisi Silva’s CCA-Lagos powered curatorial project. Valery was invited by «Collectif Nord» to exhibit at the Dak’Art Biennale in 2014, where his «Hands» series addressed the setbacks and «handicaps» of artists from the Anglophone minority in Cameroon. Valery also worked as a correspondent for the BBC World Service «Arts Hour» radio programme from 2014-2015.
It’s been busy since — from playing legendary Harlem clubs in NYC to programming the Cameroon-focus and hosting the daily crossover radio show «Me and My Circumstances» at documenta14 Radio/Deutschlandfunk in 2017.
Tito Valery is an activist on anglophone/francophone issues, and writes regularly about the oppressive situation of young anglophone Cameroonian artists, and the current tensions more generally.
Tito Valery is an Artists at Risk (AR) Resident, currently between AR-Safe Haven Helsinki and Berlin, hosted in cooperation with the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.). He previously was an AR Resident at Wysing Arts Centre in the UK. The AR-Network is curated by Perpetuum Mobile (PM) and is coordinated by the AR-Secretariat, co-funded by Kone Foundation. Valery’s Berlin residency is co-funded by Nordic Culture Point as part of the «Immigré Artists and Artists at Risk» four-year network project.
Related on AR:
Welcoming Tito Valery as the first AR-Resident at Wysing Arts Centre!
Documentation: Tito Valery @ Tate Modern
The AR PAVILION-BERLIN: mutatis mutandis
Documentation: The Artists at Risk (AR) Pavilion – Berlin: mutatis mutandis
Artists at Risk (AR) Symposium and Screenings – A Conversation at the Nordic Embassies in Berlin
Documentation: Artists at Risk (AR) Symposium and Screenings
Tito Valery arrives at Artists at Risk (AR) Safe Haven Helsinki
Documentation: Tito Valery’s TALK at ViCCA, Aalto University
Naomi Woddis interviews Tito Valery @ The Two of Us
Immigré Artists (IA) and Artists at Risk (AR) Nordic Network
Press:
Press: Artists Talk: Artist at Risk (AR) Residency artist Tito Valery + Harold Offeh
Press: Chifor (Tito) Valery: «We have been taught that the foreign culture is a better culture. From that notion, everything else falls apart.»
Press: Artists at Risk: «Umso Mehr Ärger Wir Machen, Um So Ernster Nehmen Sie Uns.»
PRESS: Ein sicherer Hafen für Künstler
