In Mudimbe\u27s novels, art depicts the author and his writings, through a play of substitution and decentering. The author uses the artistic medium to escape constraints of discursive, religious, political or sexual order and as a place of transfiguration of the characters\u27 desires. The aim of this article is to show that references to painting, literature, cinema and music reflect the refusal of the I to speak about oneself, except indirectly. The author chooses a strategy of decentering by combining the language of words and of images, and suggests, behind the mask of narrative representation, a taste for provocation, social and institutional heresy, carnal love (homosexual and heterosexual). Based on the four novels of the author, we will show that the artistic quote is part of a dual perspective: social and political, on the one hand, sensual and intimate, on the other
