Media release | Zurich, November 2019

CONGO AS FICTION – Art Worlds Between Past and Present 22 November 2019 – 15 March 2020

Today, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is world famous for its vibrant art scene. No- where else in Africa is artistic creativity so diverse, inventive, and at the pulse of time. How- ever, in the past, too, the Congo produced impressive masks, figures, and designer pieces, many of them today icons of African art. Now, for the first time, historical works and photo- graphs are juxtaposed with contemporary artworks in an exhibition on the art of the Congo. In an attempt to avoid a biased Western view of Congolese art, CONGO AS FICTION shifts renowned contemporary artists from the Congo into the limelight, including Sammy Baloji, Michèle Magema, Monsengo Shula, and Sinzo Aanza. The exhibition shows how artists – past as well as present – critically deal with the impacts of colonialism, missionaries, and global trade.

Ever since the age of discovery, through the era of colonial repression up to the present, the Congo has served as a projection screen for Western as well as African ideas and fictions. Significant hallmarks of Congolese art and history include, from early on, the close entanglement and creative exchange of ideas, forms, and objects in a globalized world. At the same time, the art of the region bears the traces of colonialism, religious conversion, and the exploitation of natural resources. These transcultural and postcolonial issues are not only of significance for understanding the past, but also massively impact on the shaping of the present. This is one of the reasons why the historical perspective is set side by side with contemporary artistic positions from the Congo itself as well as from the Congolese diaspora.

The exhibition embarks from objects and photographs which the art anthropologist Hans Himmelheber (1908–2003) brought back from his travels to the Congo in 1938/39 and which are now presented to the public, some of them for the first time. The colourful masks, power figures, and artfully designed objects of daily use bear testimony to the aesthetics and significance of artistic creativity in those days. His photographic legacy represents a unique snapshot of the aesthetic and cultural practice common to the Congo of the 1930s while, at the same time, documenting the social upheaval experienced during the apogee of Belgian colonial rule. But Hans Himmelheber’s visual and written archives, since recently held by the Rietberg, also reflect his own, personal beliefs and ideas concerning the Congo which are clearly influenced by the zeitgeist of the time.

However, CONGO AS FICTION is not only an attempt to embed historical objects and photographs in the art history of one of Africa’s most eminent centres of cultural production and its early entanglement with the wider world. The old works are juxtaposed with artistic positions of contemporary, internationally renowned artists from the Congo who apply a critical focus to their country’s past and colonial history. In an artist-in-residence programme, the artist and co-founder of the Lubumbashi Art Biennale, Sammy Baloji, and the young writer Sinzo Aanza have dealt in depth with Hans Himmelheber archives and exploited them to create their own Congo fictions. The Paris-based artist Michèle Magema and Fiona Bobo, who was born and grew up in Zurich, have realized commissioned works for the exhibition, along with the artist David Shongo whose intervention is to be shown in Zurich and at the Biennale Lubumbashi almost simultaneously. With additional works by Angali, Steve Bandoma, Hilary Kuyangiko Balu, Aimé Mpane, Chéri Samba, Yves Sambu, Monsengo Shula, and Pathy Tshindele, the exhibition presents in total fourteen artists who relate to traditional art and their own cultural heritage, with regard to either form or content.

EXHIBITION NARRATIVE

Visitors set out on their own exploration with the multimedia projection “Arrival and change of perspective” which focuses on the travels Hans Himmelheber undertook in colonial Congo eighty years ago. Between May 1938 and July 1939, he journeyed through the Kasaï and Katanga regions – at times carried in a hammock (called tipoye), a typical mode of transport in the colonial days. His diary and photographs document how strenuous travelling could be in those days. At the same time, the projection questions the African agency in carrying the tipoye. Thus, visitors delve into the Congo’s (colonial) history and art scene with a mixture of curiosity and discomfort.

The main part of the exhibition is made up of three sections with the focus on the aesthetics and significance of artistic creativity. Here the works and photographs from the 1930s are set against a selection of contemporary artistic positions. The first section “ and Elegance” is dedicated to splendidly designed prestige objects and items of everyday use made of wood, glass beads, and cowrie shells, and collected among various Kuba groups. Especially impressive are the dance cloths made of raffia which measure over six metres in length and whose abstract patterns and motifs inspired artists such as Paul Klee, , and Henri Matisse. The huge significance that luxurious accessories and performative elegance have played ever since the colonial days, today finds expression in the flashy look boasted by the fashion aficionados known as sapeurs, as two photo series from Kinshasa (Yves Sambu) and – surprisingly – from Zurich (Fiona Bobo) highlight.

The second chapter “Power and Politics” focuses on the efficacy and political dimension of traditional sculpted figures and masks from the Benalulua, Songye, and Pende regions in the past. But even then, the colonial system and the work of the missions impacted on the political and religious power relations along with the arts associated with them, be it that secret societies were forbidden, that new cults emerged, or in the sense that art was transformed into a symbol of resistance. Furthermore, the power figures known as mangaaka and nkisi, respectively, were charged with magical substances and materials for the purpose of healing, for warding off misfortune, and for detecting evil powers. With the help of the latest imaging techniques, the exhibition also reveals that the figures’ inner life was just as important as their impressive outer appearance. The Kinshasa-based artist Hilary Kuyangiko Balu transforms old power figures with the help of electronic scrap, thus conjuring up a dark vision of the future for the Congo, a country in which consumerism and global capitalism have left their indelible mark.

Among the exhibition highlights are certainly the masks and costumes of the Pende, Yaka, and Chokwe peoples; these are presented in the third chapter called “Performance and Initiation”. The colourful mask figures performed on the occasion of the mukanda initiation in which, to this day, young boys are prepared for their role as grown men by having to undergo a series of trials. The artists responsible for the Yaka masks were expected to give their utmost regarding creativity and novelty. In the performances, local ideals of beauty and notions of masculinity and femininity were given expression, next to humour and eroticism. The artists Steve Bandoma and Aimé Mpane, both based in Kinshasa, make reference to the unusual, because asymmetrical mbangu mask of the Pende. While Bandoma seriously questions the role of Christian missionaries in his painting Papotage (“gossip”), Mpane raises the question of the reception of African art in the Western avant-garde with his double portraits.

Over and above the three main chapters, the exhibition also addresses the issue of “Research and the Acquisition of Art” in the Congo under colonial rule with the aid of a multimedia installation. In order to finance his research, the art anthropologist Hans Himmelheber had to rely on trade with locally purchased art objects and artefacts. As far as the Congo is concerned, his main sponsors

included the ethnographic in and Geneva along with the Weyhe Gallery in New York and the Galery Chales Ratton in Paris. His 1,500 images and his written documents not only provide valuable insight into the production and use of local artefacts, they also allow us to draw conclusions as to the conditions under which Himmelheber purchased the objects in the context of Belgian colonial rule and shipped them to Europe. In their works specially commissioned for the exhibition, the artists Michèle Magema and David Shongo question and analyse the role of photography in colonial Congo.

In the final chapter “My Congo Vision”, the threads laid out in the exhibition are drawn together again and commented on. In filmed interviews creative artists and culture professionals from the Congo and the Congolese diaspora in and Europe get a chance to speak. The multiplicity of voices will help visitors gain a differentiated view of the history and art scene in the Congo in the sense of a “global turn” in art history and, at the same time, encourage them to reflect postcolonial concerns with regard to colonial collections in conjunction with the ongoing debate on restitution. The exhibition ends with Monsengo Shula’s popular paintings of satellites crowned by figures from traditional art and orbited by colourfully dressed afronauts. Herewith, the Kinshasa-based artist is not only alluding to the ambitious space programme in Congo of the 1970s but actually envisioning a new world order with Africa and the Congo as its hub, quite in the sense of the words of Patrice Lumumba’s: “Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity” (1961).

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS

CONGO AS FICTION is more than an attempt to simply embed historical objects and photographs in the art history of one of Africa’s most significant creative centres and its early entanglement with the world. Throughout, the traditional works are juxtaposed with contemporary positions by internationally active artists from the Congo who concern themselves with their own past and colonial history in the sense of an “archival turn”. In an artist-in-residence programme, the internationally renowned artist Sammy Baloji and his young peers Sinzo Aanza, David Shongo, and Michèle Magema explored the archives of Hans Himmelheber and, building on this, created their own fictions of the Congo.

Sammy Baloji, born in Lubumbashi in 1978, has participated in numerous exhibitions at art galleries and museums in Brussels, Graz, Kassel, London, Moscow, and New York. For the CONGO AS FICTION show, the postcolonial and critical artist has created a multimedia installation in which he questions the decontextualization of objects in museums and tries to inject new life into them by reinterpreting bygone remembrance practices. On behalf of Baloji, the writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila composed a Luba-style memorial chant (kasala) which is to be premiered on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition on 21 November at 6 pm.

In his poetic installation “The lord is dead, long life to the lord”, the young writer Sinzo Aanza (b.1990) goes in search of continuities and discontinuities in colonial and postcolonial politics and history and, at the same time, touches upon the issue of restitution and redemption. His sound is a mix of own texts and recordings collected in a kind of restudy in villages once visited by Hans Himmelheber.

The Paris-based artist Michèle Magema and Fiona Bobo, who was born and grew up in Zurich, created works specially commissioned for the exhibition, the same as did David Shongo whose intervention is being shown in Zurich at almost the same time as it is at the Lubumbashi Biennale. In addition, the exhibition presents works by Angali, Steve Bandoma, Hilary Kuyangiko Balu, Aimé Mpane, Chéri Samba, Yves Sambu, Monsengo Shula, and Pathy Tshindele. The fourteen artists featured in the show were chosen because their works convey aspects of their own cultural heritage and relate to traditional art as far as either form or content are concerned, and because – and this is

probably of greater significance – they all address, albeit in quite different ways, the colonial past as well as the themes of injustice and exploitation which continue in the Congo to this day. rietberg.ch/congoasfiction

HANS HIMMELHEBER: ARCHIVE AND RESEARCH PROJECT

The exhibition’s starting point is the archive of Hans Himmelheber (1908–2003) that has been compiled at the Museum Rietberg over recent years and now contains more than 750 objects, 15,000 photographs, and the written records set down by the German art anthropologist. Himmelheber, who was born in Karlsruhe and held a doctorate in medicine as well as anthropology, undertook a total of fourteen journeys to Côte d’Ivoire, the Congo, Liberia, and Alaska between 1933 and 1976. His studies on masks and masquerades, production modes, and the personality of individual artists offer important impulses for the study of African art to this day. But Himmelheber was not only a scholar and photographer but also a collector and . The exhibition presents the first results from the new research project “Hans Himmelheber – African art and entangled knowledge production”. The project, scheduled for the period 2018 to 2022, is a collaboration between the Museum Rietberg and the Institute of History of the University of Zurich, and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Based on Howard S. Becker’s concept of “art worlds”, the curators understand art not merely as the product of a lone creator but as the product of a network of diverse actors spread across different continents all of whom are involved in the production and use, and – like Hans Himmelheber – in the transmission and marketing of art, and, concomitantly, in the production of knowledge about art and the imagination that goes with it. Thus, CONGO AS FICTION merges the production and use of art in the Congo with the international art market, its colonial legacy, and the currently actively debated issue of restitution.

CURATORS

Dr Michaela Oberhofer is curator for Africa and Oceania and head of Collection Services at the Museum Rietberg. Her exhibitions (e.g. Dada Africa, Bead Art) highlight the entangled history of creative production in Africa as well as the reception of non-Western art in Europe. Together with Prof Gesine Krüger (University of Zurich) she has headed the research project Hans Himmelheber since 2018.

Dr Nanina Guyer is curator for Photography at the Museum Rietberg in Zurich. Her special interests include the global history of photography and its local forms of expression. She earned her PhD with a thesis on historical photographs from Sierra Leone and Liberia. Currently she is working on the history of photography in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1930s, with special emphasis on the photographs of Hans Himmelheber.

CATALOGUE

The exhibition comes with a catalogue in German and English edited by Nanina Guyer and Michaela Oberhofer and published by Scheidegger & Spiess. Next to leading Congo experts such as Christraud M. Geary, Constantine Petridis, and Z. S. Strother, the catalogue also gives room to the voices of African artists and cultural scholars, including Sinzo Aanza, Sammy Baloji, Sandrine Colard-de Bock, and Fiston Mwanza Mujila. Designed by Hi – Visuelle Gestaltung, the catalogue combines new and old art, contemporary and historical photography, along with scholarly and poetic texts.

ART

The museum’s department of Art Education plans a series of workshops for school classes as well as the general public. Hereby, special emphasis is placed on collaboration with the Congolese diaspora in Switzerland. Probably unknown to the most of us, with over 4,000 members the Congolese community is one of the largest African diasporas in Switzerland. Beyond the actual exhibition, the museum wishes to offer these people a platform for discussion and exchange in the form of workshops and special events.

LENDERS

Museum der Kulturen Basel; Africa Museum – Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, along with international private collectors and galleries from Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, Winterthur, Zug), Belgium (Brussels), Germany (Hamburg, Heidelberg) and France (Paris).

SHORT BIOS OF ARTISTS WITH COMMISSIONED WORKS

Sinzo Aanza (1990) lives and works in Kinshasa. In his poetic texts, the writer questions the political conditions under colonial rule as far as the present power relations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). In his installations, he addresses the ruthless exploitation of his country’s mineral resources, the representation of national identity, as well as the construed postcolonial image of the Congo. Most recently he displayed his work at the group exhibition Kinshasa Chroniques Urbaines in Sète (France) and is to appear at the Biennale in Lubumbashi (2019). Together with Sammy Baloji, he took part in an artist-in-residence programme for the exhibition CONGO AS FICTION at the Museum Rietberg. In the process, Sinzo Aanza concerned himself with the photographs of the art anthropologist Hans Himmelheber, focussing on the far-reaching changes brought about by the realignment of space and power at the hands of the colonial regime.

Sammy Baloji (1978) lives and works in Brussels and Lubumbashi. He ranks among the most renowned Congolese artists. Baloji has not only taken part in notable art biennales (Dakar 2016, Venice 2015, Lyon 2015), Documenta 2017, and various photo festivals (Bamako 2007, 2015), his works are also held by museums in Lyon, Paris, Tervuren, Ulm, Washington, Virginia, and as far as Luanda (Angola) and Ouidah (Benin). His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions; he has also served as curator (Congo Art Works 2016, Congo Stars 2019) and is one of the co-founders of the Biennale in Lubumbashi. In 2008 he received the Prince Claus Award. In his photographs, videos, and installations, Baloji is concerned with historical archives and enquires into the impact of Belgian colonial rule on Congolese society to this day. The multimedia installation he created for CONGO AS FICTION focuses on the re-interpretation of traditional Luba remembrance practices to which the Graz-based writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila has added the vocal background. Sammy Baloji recently took part in an artist-in-residence programme at the Museum Rietberg, together with Sinzo Aanza.

Fiona Bobo (1992) lives and works in Zurich. In her degree thesis BWANIA at the Department of Art & Media of the Zurich University of the Arts, she dealt with her Congolese roots. This has resulted in a multimedia installation called Mvuatu-Mboka Na Biso – et la Suisse that addresses the issue of identity and sets Western visual culture against that of the Congo. She uses photography and video to illustrate the significance of fashion and designer clothes in modern Congolese society.

Michèle Magema (1977) lives and works near Paris. She is one of the few Congolese women artists and is, consequently, committed to empowering women in art. In her video works and installations, she addresses the long history of exploitation and oppression on the African continent, with special focus on the interdependence of violence, corruption, and the exploitation of natural resources in her home country. In her new work Evolve she sets the history of her own family during the colonial era in relation to Hans Himmelheber’s photographs. Michèle Magema has participated in numerous shows, including Africa Remix and Global Feminism (Brooklyn Museum); her oeuvre is represented in a range of international museums and collections.

Fiston Mwanza Mujila (*1981) was born in Lubumbashi and lives in Graz as a French-speaking writer. He writes poetry, plays, and prose and teaches African literature at the university. His award- winning novel Tram 83 was published in 2014. The plot is set in “Tram 83,” a nightclub and vibrant center in a run-down fictional Congolese city and the starting point for the story of two very different friends who meet up there.

Yves Sambu (1980) lives and works in Kinshasa. He has presented his photography in solo exhibitions (Brussels, Graz, Fribourg) and also participated in group shows in Berlin, Brussels, Dortmund, and Paris. Since 2007, he has been a member of the artist collective SADI (Solidarité des Artistes pour le Développement Intégral). In his work, the visual artist deals with urban phenomena such as the sapeurs and Kimbanguism. For the CONGO AS FICTION exhibition, Sambu selected motifs from his series Vanité Apparente in which addresses the ostentatious display of elegance and vanity. Remarkably, the pictures also bear surprising reference to Hans Himmelheber’s photographs shot roughly eighty years ago.

David Shongo (1994) lives and works in Lubumbashi. In his work the young composer and artist questions the colonial images that persist in modern-day Congo to this day. He combines music, film, and colonial photography to create works that deal with the psychological repercussions of the colonial era, the social and economic effects of technological change, the impact of coltan mining on the country, and the reinvention of imagery. In a joint residency programme for the 2019 Lubumbashi Biennale and the CONGO AS FICTION exhibition in Zurich, Shongo has created the work Blackout Poetry, Idea’s Genealogy in which he reinterprets Hans Himmelheber’s historical photographs with the aid of blackout poetry, thus catapulting the images into the present.

SUPPORTING PROGRAMME (selection – see rietberg.ch/calendar for all events)

Artist Talk / Conversation: "CONGO AS FICTION – Art Worlds Between Past and Present" Sat 23 November 2019: 5pm from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently experiencing a global hype. Four artists from the Congo and the Congolese diaspora talk about the Congolese art scene and about the value archives such as that of Hans Himmelheber have for them and their work. Discussion with Sinzo Aanza, Sammy Baloji, Michèle Magema, and David Shongo. Language: French, with German simultaneous translation; venue: in the exhibition, on 2nd floor of the basement, CHF 20/14 (includes admission to museum on 23 November 2019), limited seating, tickets obtainable at rietberg.ch/tickets

English Guided Tour: "CONGO AS FICTION – Art Worlds Between Past and Present" Wed 14 December 2019: 6.30pm For the first time, this exhibition presents objects and photographs that the German art anthropologist Hans Himmelheber collected during his field trip to the Congo in 1938–39: coloured masks, imposing figures, and richly decorated everyday objects. These are contrasted with contemporary positions by renowned Congolese artists. Smaragd, free admission (included in the entrance fee), no registration required

Congo Remix: "A Day of Art, Literature, and Music" Sat 29 February 2020: 3pm–10pm Congo Remix offers a unique spectacle: Popular scientific lectures by leading experts alternate with performances by trendsetting artists, musicians, writers, and sapeurs. In addition, we have guided tours through the exhibition, culinary delights from the Congo, drinks, and the sounds to go with them. With Sandrine Colard (BE), Christraud Geary (USA), DJ Air Afrique (CH), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (AUT), Hardy Nimi (CH), Sapeurs (CH), David Shongo (DR Congo), and the curators. 2nd basement floor, Smaragd; 30 / 25, number of participants limited, registration at rietberg.ch/tickets

USEFUL INFORMATION

– What’s on, preview, guided tours, history and more at rietberg.ch – Opening hours Museum and Café: Tue–Sun 10am–5pm / Wed 10am–8 pm – Admission CHF 18 / 14 (reduced) – Getting there Tram 7 to Wollishofen as far as stop Museum Rietberg (four stops from Paradeplatz). No parking spaces, except for disabled persons.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Elena DelCarlo Alain Suter Head of Marketing & Communications Communications & Cooperations Tel. +41 44 415 31 27 Tel. +41 44 415 31 34 [email protected] [email protected]

Media texts and images for editorial purposes: rietberg.ch/press