Sammy Baloji's exhibition at Goldsmiths CCA, running from October 4, 2024, to January 12, 2025, presents a compelling dialogue on the legacies of colonialism and its ecological ramifications. The exhibition showcases the interconnected strands of Baloji's artistic research on topics such as climate, tropical architecture, Belgian Art Nouveau, and extraction from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It features two newly commissioned works and significant recent pieces, all of which will be on display in the UK for the first time.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is Baloji's 2023 film, "Aequare: The Future that Never Was." The film focuses on the rainforest around the town of Yangambi, illuminating the legacy of colonialism and the ecological destruction it has caused. The tropical rainforest region in the Congo is the second-largest in the world and plays a crucial role in the planet's atmospheric regeneration. However, as Sandrine Colard argues, these possibilities are hindered by the disequilibrium caused by old imperial networks and their vestiges. The film juxtaposes different types of footage, including archival film clips of a climate study center from the colonial period and recent shots of its contemporary successor, along with intricate work on the soundtrack, to offer a powerful critique of science's allegiance to capitalism and colonialism.
Other works in the exhibition include the installation "...and to those North Sea waves whispering sunken stories (II)," which comprises a terrarium containing tropical plants and an audio recording of Albert Kudjabo, a Congolese soldier who fought for the Belgian Army during the First World War and was captured and interrogated by the German Army. Another newly commissioned work explores the connections between extraction and Belgian Art Nouveau, an art movement that, at the time of its emergence, was known as "Style Congo" and utilized both Congolese motifs and materials.
The basement galleries feature film and print-based works that exemplify Baloji's ongoing research on the cultural, architectural, and industrial heritage of the Katanga region. Works like "Shinkolobwe's Abstraction" (2022) and "Tales of the Copper Cross Garden" (2017) address themes of nuclear power, colonialism, and the Catholic Church's impact on local culture.
ABOUT SAMMY BOLAJI
Since 2005, Sammy Baloji has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work is ongoing research on the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as a questioning of the impact of Belgian colonization. His use of photographic archives allows him to manipulate time and space, comparing ancient colonial narratives with contemporary economic imperialism. His video works, installations and photographic series highlight how identities are shaped, transformed, perverted and reinvented. His critical view of contemporary societies is a warning about how cultural clichés continue to shape collective memories and thus allow social and political power games to continue to dictate human behaviour. As he stated in a recent interview: “I’m not interested in colonialism as nostalgia, or in it as a thing of the past, but in the continuation of that system.”
In September 2019 he commenced a PhD in Artistic Research titled “Contemporary Kasala and Lukasa: towards a Reconfiguration of Identity and Geopolitics” at Sint Lucas, Antwerpen. A Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, he has received numerous awards, distinctions and fellowships including the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2019-2020, he was a resident at the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis. Baloji co-founded in 2008 the Rencontres Picha/Biennale de Lubumbashi.
His recent personal exhibitions include K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues. Subversive Classifications, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2022); K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues, Beaux Arts de Paris (2021); Sammy Baloji, Other Tales, Lund Konsthall and Aarhus Kunsthal (2020); Congo, Fragments d’une histoire, Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg (2019); A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2018); Sven Augustijnen & Sammy Baloji, Museumcultuur Strombeek (2018); Urban Now: City Life in Congo, with Filip de Boeck, The Power Plant, Toronto and WIELS, Brussels (2016-2017), and Hunting and Collecting, Mu. ZEE Kunstmuseum aan zee, Ostend (2014). He has recently participated in the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023), the Architecture Biennale of Venice (2023), the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023), the Sydney Biennial (2020), documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens, 2017), the Lyon Biennial (2015), the Venice Biennial (2015), the Photoquai Festival at the Musée du Quai Branly (Paris, 2015).
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