Divine Agbotro is a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer whose practice spans painting, photography, graphic design, and visual arts. Born in Togo, she relocated to Switzerland with her family at the age of five, a move that profoundly shaped her sense of identity. Growing up in a predominantly white environment, her relationship to her roots has been marked by moments of distance and reconnection, shaped by the complexities of assimilation and belonging.
Today, Agbotro’s identity is deeply grounded in her Togolese heritage. She finds both personal and creative grounding in “returning to the source,” whether through frequent travels to Togo or through an artistic practice that draws heavily on cultural memory and lived experience. Her work is informed by this ongoing dialogue between place, memory, and self, with her heritage serving as a central source of inspiration.
Through her art, Agbotro tells stories—often her own—that reflect her perception of the world. Her visual language allows realism and abstraction to coexist, frequently interwoven with geometric and symbolic elements. Guided by an intuitive creative process, she seeks to materialize imagined worlds and narratives, using abstraction and symbolism as tools to translate inner visions into tangible form.
Agbotro’s practice is deeply connected to the earth, dreams, ancestry, and a continuous pursuit of intellectual and spiritual elevation. Themes such as feminism, equality in society, decolonial discourse, racism, and the power of dreams are central to her work. These concerns not only shape her artistic direction but also position her practice as a reflective and critical engagement with both personal and collective realities.
Divine Agbotro in her studio in Switzerland.
The Neoteric: Seeds recure throughout your work as symbols of continuity and transformation. What draws you to seed forms as visual anchors, and how do they help you explore concepts of memory, ancestry, and the
cyclical nature of time?
The Neoteric : You often describe your practice as a journey of “returning to the source.” How does your art, become a tool of return, restoration, and reconnection to Togo—both emotionally and intellectually?
Divine : My practice is a journey of “returning to the source” because I was conditioned for a long time to hate my African identity, and to devalue my culture and my heritage. Art is a way for my subconscious to find expression; my practice helps me engage with subjects that matter to me or that I experience deeply in my subconscious and in my soul. This expression was once strongly limited by the way I viewed my African identity, my Black body, and my Togolese culture. By returning to the source, both physically and through art, I completely changed this narrative and embraced everything about my culture and myself. Returning to the source is like returning to the stage of a child. A child is born with infinite love, so I went back to that point: love toward myself, love toward my identity with all its complexity, love for my features because they carry the history of my lineage, love for my culture, and love for my people.
The Neoteric: Growing up in Switzerland, you navigated assimilation within a predominantly white landscape. How does your photographic work confront, reinterpret, or even heal the subtle imprints of that experience?
Divine: I left home (Togo) at five years old. Where I grew up, representations of Black people and Africans were either invisible or marginalized. The reason is that non-African people created those representations and projected their own vision, a vision deeply rooted in racism and colonialism. I needed to change that narrative, and to do so, I had to create representations grounded in my own reality, in my own vision, to take back power and become the storyteller.
In my photography series Emergency of Rest, I engage with the idea of rest as a tool for resistance. I confront racist stereotypes of Africans and Black bodies being “lazy.” I reinterpret rest as a tool for healing and social justice for
exploited groups. By being the storyteller of my own experience, I heal years of harmful representation. The process is truly unique.
The Neoteric: Your paintings often sit between realism and abstraction, with geometric elements shaping the emotional atmosphere. What draws you to this hybrid visual language, and how does it help you articulate subjects like identity, memory, dreams, and the subconscious?
Divine: I love this question. I’ve created a world where realism and abstraction coexist. Growing up, I deeply craved representation. As a child, you live in fantasy books, movies, cartoons, and many of them exist in fantastic or surreal worlds. I am also a big daydreamer; I spend a lot of time contemplating. When I started painting, I wanted to let my dreamy world, this floating feeling I often experience, expand and express itself through the painting. I created a unique universe where geometry, abstraction, and realism coexist, where surrealism rules simply because it was born from me. My graphic design background also influences me; it adds structure and geometry to my paintings. When I can tell stories and engage with important subjects through the visual language I’ve created, it helps me articulate them better because I have the freedom and authenticity I need to express myself fully.
The Neoteric: Your work reflects personal perception and lived stories. When photographing, how do you decide what to reveal, what to obscure, and what to allow viewers to interpret on their own?
Divine: My creative process is very intuitive. I set my intention or idea and think about how I can frame and tell my story through the medium. I also love the magic of improvisation and experimentation. Regarding interpretation, I believe that as an artist you can never control 100% of how your work is understood.
The Neoteric: In Emergency of Rest, you explore rest as a political, spiritual, and deeply human act—especially for Black, diasporic, and feminine bodies. What was the starting point for this project, and how do you use the camera to document rest as resistance?
Divine: The starting point of this project is my personal observation. I am a daydreamer, and I spend a lot of time observing people, my environment, urban spaces — and thinking deeply about them. Rest became central to my observation when I realized how essential it was for my body. Growing up, I often heard “don’t sleep too much” or “he/she is always sleeping, they’re lazy.” The way rest was portrayed in my mind was not positive. I never heard adults say “she needs more rest” or “I am allowed to sleep more.” Everything was about working a lot, doing a lot, and resting didn’t exist as something valid. The contrast between this stigma and my own embodied need for rest became the starting point of the project. I use the camera to capture rest as resistance, my vision of this action against a world that constantly exploits our bodies and asks us for more and more.
The Neoteric: This project spans Lomé and Paris. What similarities or contrasts emerge when photographing rest across these different cities, and how do these observations shape your understanding of global Black experience?
Divine: The contrasts are, of course, the climate and the light. The creative process shifts too, because the environment influences me and my practice. In Paris the rhythm is intense; I find myself more focused on getting what I want quickly. In Lomé, I allow myself more time. My favorite part is improvisation, something I find in both places. It carries authenticity. I can say there is something about improvisation in the global Black experience, and we have truly mastered this skill.
The Neoteric: Your approach is shaped by a strong commitment to feminism and the role of women in society. How do feminist principles guide your framing, your relationship with subjects, and your broader visual philosophy?
The Neoteric: You have mentored children and led workshops across schools, malls, and community spaces. How has teaching shaped you as an artist? And what have young people taught you about looking, creating,
or imagining?
Divine: Yes, absolutely. I open conversations about gender in my practice because these subjects shaped my life. I was surrounded mostly by women growing up, and their impact is powerful. Feminism as a concept came later, but its essence was always present through conversations about our shared experiences, through women writers, through communities of women and acts of care. When you grow up in a world that constantly devalues, harms, and exploits your gender, the need for safe spaces and justice becomes essential. In my art, I place women as subjects and not objects (as seen in Emergency of Rest or my painting La terre mère). I believe it is important to continually reshape how we represent ourselves, our bodies, our roles, our presence in the world.
The Neoteric: Your work engages with decolonial thinking—not always through overt images, but through sensibility and intention. What does a decolonial photographic practice mean to you, and how does it manifest in your projects?
Divine: Photography was one of the main tools colonizers used to create false visions of Africans — to show their peers the “exotic” or the “savage.” Again, these narratives were rooted in racism. By using the camera not to depict, devalue, or place Africans into a submissive role, I decolonize the practice. I place the subject at the center of the story. I take back power and share my vision through a decolonial, feminist, and Afrodiasporic lens.
The Neoteric: As a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, photography, and graphic design, how does each discipline inform the other? Are there moments when photography solves questions that painting or design cannot?
Divine: That’s a very good question. Each medium gives me a different way to express myself. Through painting, I tell stories — often intimate, connected to my inner world. In photography, I take the role of observer and commentator. In graphic design, I am a communicator. I think each tool has the power to solve the same questions, but the expression, feeling, and perception will always be different.
The Neoteric: Is there a specific photograph—either one you made or encountered—that altered your understanding of yourself, your heritage, or your creative path? What did that moment reveal to you?
Divine: Yes. I remember when I first encountered the work of the Nigerian photographer J. D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere. I discovered his photographs while I was an art student in Switzerland. I was shocked because throughout my studies, I was always referred to European photographers or white artists in general. Seeing his work in a beautiful book created a spark in my heart. I spent long moments with each image and each page because they carried something so close to me. I think that’s what happens when art truly resonates, it touches the subconscious. Maybe I was able to see myself reflected in the portraits of these women. His brilliant photographic work, the composition, and the portrait style, continues to inspire me.
(c) 2026