The practice of Roméo Mivekannin (b. 1986, Bouaké, Ivory Coast) engages with themes of memory, identity, and the legacy of colonialism through powerful reinterpretations of Western art historical imagery. Working primarily in painting and installation, he draws upon archival materials to expose the colonial gaze imposed over the historically underrepresented, erased (the non-dits), or unspoken narratives. At the heart of his work lies what he calls the “memory of history”, a literal and symbolic engagement with the past as a means of critical reckoning and reappropriation. Two seminal exhibitions in Paris profoundly shaped Mivekannin’s artistic inquiry: L’invention du sauvage (Musée du Quai Branly, 2011) and Le modèle noir de Géricault à Matisse (Musée d’Orsay, 2019). These encounters led him to question not only his personal history but also the broader essentialization and objectification of African identity within the Western canon. His response is both intimate and confrontational: through a process he describes as “visual irritation”, Mivekannin intervenes in historical artworks by replacing the original subjects’ faces with his own black-and-white portrait. This unflinching gaze reclaims presence and agency for figures long rendered passive, commodified, or invisible, forcing viewers into a direct engagement with the power dynamics embedded with the works.