Temana is a French artist born on the Pacific island of Moorea in French Polynesia, to a French father and a Tahitian mother. His childhood was strongly influenced by close contact with nature and ancestral Polynesian traditions, but also by the gap between his early experiences and the French way of life in Paris, where he arrived at the age of five.

From that point, his mother gradually introduced him to the history of art by taking him to every museum in the city. By the time he was a teenager, he had become immersed in artistic culture through the hip-hop scene of the 90s, and he made his debut as a music producer and graffiti artist.

His dual culture and his origins on two opposite sides of the world had been raising questions for him from an early age, leading him on a search for identity in Auckland, New Zealand (home to the largest population of Polynesian origin) in 2006.

For his university research, this interest led him to explore stereotypes and clichés through photographs and portraits of Polynesians. He also delved into more intimate and autobiographical themes, such as illness, exile, or the relationship with his Tahitian grandfather, through the creation of installations and interactive performances.
His explorations have ranged from politics, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, and history to poetry and literature.

He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Marseille in Southern France and the Accademia di Belli Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy. In 2008, he started working as an art director in the advertising industry in Paris before returning to university in 2013 to complete a master's degree in Contemporary Art and New Media.

The subject of his thesis, 'Writing the Criminal Body' was based on his epistolary relationship with a New Zealand friend, a former boxer sentenced to long prison terms. In collaboration with him, he developed various 'clandestine' artistic projects within the prison itself.
He has been an art teacher for the City of Paris since 2015, living in Budapest since 2022. His current work focuses on the concept of "creolisation" developed by the French philosopher and poet Edouard Glissant :

"'Creolisation' is a crossbreeding of arts and languages that produces the unexpected. It is a way of continuously transforming oneself without losing oneself. It is a space where dispersion allows us to come together, where culture clashes, disharmony, disorder, and interference become creative. " (Le Monde, 2011).

Explored media: photography; drawing; painting; sculpture; installation; performance.