Watery urban reflections, a pair of flamboyant dancers and a collection of vibrant Congolese astronauts clinging to a spacecraft, adrift amongst the stars; Fondation Cartier have just opened Beauté Congo 1926-2015, showing the diverse vivacity of art from the African country.
The expansive show incorporates 350 paintings, photographs, sculptures and comic books from 41 different artists, presenting a wide array of Congolese art – from the first known works on paper to contemporary photography taken in Kinshasa.
There is no visible stylistic filiation woven through the timescale represented here yet, there are unshakable parallels between the artists. “There does exist between them the same sense of belonging”, explains curator André Magnin. They share, he says, the experience of “a vibrant Congo shaken by forces ranging from the peaceful to the volcanic”.
The current artists featured in the exhibit reflect a new generation who have eschewed the narrow confines of academic art. The works of two of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most contemporary artists represented here — Kiripi Katembo and Monsengo Shula — reaffirm the unique peculiarity of the Congolese modern art scene.
Monsengo Shula’s compelling dreamscape scenes are shown here in space. Five Congolese astronauts, (who wear spacesuits with a classic Congolese Liputa print) cling onto a small silver satellite, which is topped comically by a stone god. The piece is entitled Ata Ndele Mokili Ekobaluka (Sooner or later the world will change). This outwardly political content chimes with Shula’s contemporaries in Beauté Congo, such as Chéri Samba whose works here are also distinctly shaped by politics. “I can’t separate my works from politics and I don’t think I ever could” he has previously said.
This overt politicization is somewhat contrasted in Kiripi Katembo’s photography. Katembo tactfully photographs reflections of people in the puddles of the streets of Kinshasa. The effect is both unsettling and comical, stones in the puddles appearing as giant slabs of rock, falling silently from the sky above Congolese citizens who go about their daily lives. Discarded plastic bottles which drift inconspicuously in puddles are reflected so that they seem to be floating above the busy traffic, an integral part of the horizon.
Artists also showing include: JP Mika, Steve Bandoma and Moke.
Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko is open now, until November 15 at Fondation Cartier, Paris.
