The exhibition brings together two young Congolese painters who both tackle human fragility from two very different angles: Théo Mwamba provides a glimpse of the struggle to survive financially in Kinshasa, illustrated by small traders working at night, while Lianza explores mental fragility in artworks with an intimate ambience. Both artists graduated from ABA Kinshasa (School of Fine Arts) in 2022 and are showing their work for the first time in Europe.

Born in Kinshasa (DR Congo) in 1999, Lianza paints with oil on rice sacks that he frays once he has finished the portraits. By unravelling the fibres, Lianza conveys fragility, the fragments of the self that people lose and keep, the ties that are made and broken. In so doing, apart from the symbolic dimension of the process, he produces a “slatted blind” effect, providing us with a glimpse of the private life of subjects with a magnetic presence and elusive feelings.

Born in 1997 in Kasaï (DR Congo), Théo Mwamba creates artworks with a strong social message. A blend of admiration and tenderness for his subjects shines through his works. The works on show also rise to a colour challenge, as Kinshasa at night is a place of light and shadow, headlight beams on the boulevard, the rays of harsh light spilling out of a bar, all of which Théo manages to convey with a bold and bright colour palette. A work from another series bears witness to the circumstances of children in families made vulnerable by poverty.