“Veilleurs du Monde” (Worldwatchers) came about through the efforts of Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin, two artists who work together under the name Art Orienté objet (AOo). Disappointed by the wave of recent exhibitions that drew supposed comparisons between contemporary European and African art and motivated by the desire to see a real collaboration established between artists of both continents, they organized a residency in the summer of 1997 in Cotonou, Benin, which brought together a small group of representatives from Europe and Africa, with the idea of pairing them off and giving