CONGO / Passé composé
Collective exhibition - 07.02 > 01.04.2023
The exhibition presents a selection of works related to the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It shows how these Congolese artists depict the country’s history in their work.
All the works are recently created (2008-2022), apart from a set of photographs from the 1970s. While most of the works evoke specific events, some instead portray the climate of a period.
On the face of it, and in all likelihood because of popular art’s high profi le (Moke, Chéri Samba, Chéri Chérin, etc.), Congolese art seems more focused on depicting current events rather than exploring the past. However, this impression is unfounded. Contemporary artists – particularly the most prominent ones – frequently draw on their country’s history, even if they rarely make it the main subject of their work. Some tackle the country’s history on an ad-hoc basis, for instance in a series, while others use it as the background for art that draws on the past, without directly representing it.
The exhibition follows an overall chronological path. The exhibition opens with an evocation of colonisation and its accompanying violence. It continues with the post-independence years, and then with the era of relative national prosperity in the 1970s. It was a decade of Zairean self-assertion, and the media high-water mark of the Mobutu years with the legendary Ali-Foreman boxing match in 1974 in Kinshasa. However, the future was to prove much less rosy. The country sunk into crisis. Then came regional unrest, wars and suffering. Yet there is no despair in Congolese artistic production. Even the work of Freddy Tsimba, which denounces the ravages of war, remains resolutely turned towards hope with the metaphor of the woman who carries life.
Steve BANDOMA
Chéri BENGA
Chéri CHÉRIN
Gaston DIAKOTA
Gosette LUBONDO
Francis MAMPUYA
Catheris MONDOMBO
Théo MWAMBA
Kura SHOMALI
Freddy TSIMBA
Steve Bandoma
Colonized
2012
Mixed media on paper
100 x 70 cm
> Details of the work
Steve Bandoma
Sans titre
2015
Mixed media on paper
150 x 100 cm
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Théo Mwamba
Elati biso
2021
Print and acrylic on canvas
130 x 130 cm
Théo Mwamba
Na kanisi ba koko
2022
Print and acrylic on canvas
130 x 90 cm
Catheris Mondombo
Barbarie
2021
Acrylic and stitching on used tarpaulin, mounted on a black canvas frame
182 x 148 cm
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Catheris Mondombo
Congo Océan
2021
Acrylic on used tarpaulin, mounted on a black canvas frame
122 x 157 cm
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Chéri Benga
Lumumba
2011
Oil on canvas
53 x 34 cm
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Francis Mampuya
Je reviens au pays de Lumumba
2023
Acrylic on canvas
125 x 95 cm
Chéri Chérin
Le bon vieux temps
2022
Acrylic on canvas
117 x 187 cm
Gaston Diakota
José et Annie, première soirée après leur noce
1979
Print of silver photography
50 x 50 cm
Gaston Diakota
Promenade nocturne, foire internationale de Kinshasa
1979
Print of silver photography
50 x 50 cm
Gaston Diakota
George et sa copine à la foire internationale de Kinshasa
1979
Print of silver photography
50 x 50 cm
Francis Mampuya
Le dictateur
2007
Oil on canvas
157 x 157 cm
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Gosette Lubondo
Requiem pour la terre de lait
Terre de lait, terre de miel series, 2022
Edition 2/7
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 g paper
66 x 100 cm
Gosette Lubondo
Imaginary Trip #13
2016
Edition 1/4
Inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 g paper
53 x 80 cm
Francis Mampuya
Un ange déchu
2018
Acrylic on canvas
70 x 60 cm
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Kura Shomali
Lembele
2019
Mixed media on paper
95 x 80 cm
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Freddy Tsimba
Les rescapés n°13008
2019
Burnished brass (melted cartridge cases)
34 x 19 x 23 cm
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Freddy Tsimba
Les rescapés n°14009
2019
Burnished brass (melted cartridge cases)
30 x 20 x 22 cm
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Freddy Tsimba
Les rescapés n°16
2016
Burnished brass (melted cartridge cases)
23 x 15 cm
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Freddy Tsimba
Silhouette effacée n°2099
2015
Welded chains, iron
88 x 54 x 31 cm
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Freddy Tsimba
Mama machettes
2015
Welded machettes, iron
195 x 117 x 124 cm
> Details of the work