July 11 › November 15, 2015 THE EXHIBITION 01 - 04 IMAGES FOR THE PRESS 05 90 YEARS OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE CONGO BY ANdrÉ MagNIN 07 INTERVIEWS WITH ARTISTS 09 EXCERPTS FROM THE CATALOG 11 - 14 THE FONDATION CARTIER AND AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART 15 THE NOMADIC NIGHTS 16 INTERNET 17 YOUNG PEOPLE 18 INFORMATION 19 MEDIA PARTNERS 20 NEXT EXHIBITIONS 21 PRESS Matthieu Simonnet, assisted by Maïté Perrocheau Tel. +33 (0)1 42 18 56 77 / 65 – [email protected] Information: presse.fondation.cartier.com THE EXHIBITION 01 A place of extraordinary cultural vitality, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be honored in the Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko exhibition presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with André Magnin, Chief Curator. MODERN paINTING IN THE CONGO IN THE 1980S IN THE 1920S Beginning in the 1980s and continuing Taking as its point of departure the birth of through to the present, innovative sculptors modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s, like Bodys Isek Kingelez and Rigobert Nimi this ambitious exhibition will trace almost have created intricate architectural models a century of the country’s artistic production. of utopian cities or robotized factories to While specifically focusing on painting, explore the question of social cohesion. For it will also include music, sculpture, them, art provokes self-renewal that in turn photography, and comics, providing the contributes towards a better collective future. public with the unique opportunity to discover the diverse and vibrant art scene IN THE 2000S of the region. Reflecting a new generation of artists, the members of the collective Eza Possibles, PREcursORS created in 2003, have refused the narrow As early as the mid-1920s, when the Congo confines of the Académie des Beaux-Arts was still a Belgian colony, precursors such of Kinshasa. Two of its founding painters, as Albert and Antoinette Lubaki and Pathy Tshindele and Kura Shomali reaffirm Djilatendo painted the first known the vitality of the contemporary scene with Congolese works on paper, anticipating the their unconventional collages and paintings, development of modern and contemporary and critical approach to art. art. Figurative or geometric in style, their works represent village life, the natural THE PHOTOgrapHY world, dreams and legends with great poetry Depicting the energy in the city of Kinshasa and imagination. following the independence of the Congo, JP Mika, Kiese na Kiese, 2014 Following World War II, the French the work of photographers such as Jean painter Pierre Romain-Desfossés moved to Depara and Ambroise Ngaimoko, from FONdaTION CarTIER’S COmmITMENT the Congo and founded an art workshop the Studio 3Z, will also be presented in the TO CONTEmpOrary ART called the “atelier du Hangar”. In this exhibition. The designated photographer of Upholding the Fondation Cartier’s workshop, active until the death of Romain- the musician Franco, Jean Depara portrayed commitment to African contemporary art, Desfossés in 1954, painters such as Bela, the lively and extravagant night life of Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko Mwenze Kibwanga and Pilipili Mulongoy Kinshasa in the 1950s and 1960s. follows a series of other projects held at learned to freely exercize their imaginations, Recording the world of SAPE (Society of the Fondation Cartier featuring Congolese creating colorful and enchanting works Partiers and Elegant Persons) and body- artists including the solo shows Bodys Isek in their own highly inventive and distinctive builders, Ambroise Ngaimoko photographed Kingelez (1999) and J’aime Chéri Samba styles. the attitudes and ardor of the youth of (2004) and the thematic exhibitions Un art Kinshasa in the 1970s. populaire (2001) and Histoires de voir, Show POpular paINTErs and Tell (2012). Twenty years later, the exhibition Art Partout, THE musIC: JAZZ, SOul, rap, presented in Kinshasa in 1978, revealed ANd pOpular daNCE musIC to the public the painters Chéri Samba, Music, omnipresent in city life in the Congo, Chéri Chérin, and Moke and other artists, has actively contributed to this vibrancy. many of whom are still active today. The Congolese music industry blossomed Fascinated by their urban environment during the golden age of rumba beginning and collective memory, they would call in the 1950s. While it has since been highly themselves “popular painters.” They influential in Sub-Saharan Africa, this developed a new approach to figurative urban music is largely unknown outside painting, inspired by daily, political or social the continent. This important facet of events that were easily recognizable by their the country’s creative spirit, including jazz, fellow citizens. Papa Mfumu’eto Ier, known soul, rap, and popular dance music, will for his independent prolific comic book be heard at key moments in the exhibition, production and distribution throughout in conversation with specific artworks. Kinshasa in the 1990s, also explored daily Visitors will be invited to listen to songs by life and common struggles throughout the great Franco and his group OK Jazz, the his work. Today younger artists like JP Mika soulful Mbilia Bel, the sapeur Papa Wemba, and Monsengo Shula, tuned-in to current and the eclectic Trio Madjesi, amongst events on a global scale, carry on the others, carefully selected by Vincent Kenis approach of their elders. of Crammed Discs in collaboration with Césarine Sinatu Bolya. 02 YOUNG AND EMERGING ARTISTS revealing the city’s state of disrepair while candid paintings often incorporate humorous At the beginning of the new millennium at the same time exploring the formal and or satirical texts reinforcing their critical the Académie des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa expressive possibilities of reflections. message. became a place for artistic experimentation, Steve Bandoma considers his work as Monsengo Shula and Cheik Ledy belong leading to the rise of a new generation of a form of recycling, giving (found) materials to the second generation of popular painters. young artists in the Congo. In 2003, Kura new life by incorporating them into his In 1975 Monsengo Shula moved to Kinshasa Shomali, Pathy Tshindele and Mega paintings. His Cassius Clay series examines and learned to paint in the studio of his Mingiedi Tunga created the artists’ collective the impact of the historic Ali-Foreman boxing cousin Moke. He distinguished himself Eza Possibles (“It’s possible” in Lingala), match, which took place in Kinshasa in from his elders with his innovative use of whose projects engage directly with the 1974, on the memory and cultural identity color combinations. Cheik Ledy was an urban environment and with the citizens of the Congolese people. apprentice in the studio of his older brother of Kinshasa. The distinctive works of these Lastly, Sammy Baloji uses photomontage Chéri Samba adopting his precise drawing three artists can be seen here. to relate colonial history to the recent history style in works that associate text and image. Kura Shomali finds his inspiration of the Congo. In the series Congo Far West, Born in 1980, JP Mika is the youngest in gossip from the streets, pictures taken he associates documentary photographs of a of the group of painters presented here. from magazines and works of major African Belgian scientific expedition to the province He studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts photographers. Incorporating splashes of Katanga (1898-1900) with watercolors in Kinshasa and perfected his painting of paint and ink, his dynamic compositions of the painter Pierre Dardenne (1865-1900), skills in the studio of Chéri Chérin. The reflect both the chaos and vitality of the thus revealing the explorers’ disdain for compositions of his recent works, which city of Kinshasa. the indigenous peoples of the Congo and are painted directly onto printed fabrics, In his first works, Pathy Tshindele depicts suggesting its bearing on the problems of draw their inspiration from African studio loosely drawn figures inspired by the people today’s world. photographic portraiture of the 1960s. he sees on the street, adopting a spontaneity reminiscent of graffiti art. The artist assumes THE POPULAR PAINTERS PORTRAITS OF KINSHASA a different style in the delicately painted In the 1970s, a group of young artists Following the Second World War, the works of the series It’s My Kings, probing the emerged in Kinshasa, defining themselves Belgian government introduced a series of roles of the world’s superpowers in African as “popular painters”. Most of them had administrative, cultural and social reforms politics by dressing their leaders in the same worked as sign painters, and some had that led to the modernization of Leopoldville costumes as the Kings who reigned over the made comics before opening their studios (today’s Kinshasa), by then a flourishing kingdom of Kuba. in Kinshasa, exhibiting their paintings on cosmopolitan city. Photography became The works of Mega Mingiedi Tunga often walls of their buildings to attract passersby. a way of reaffirming one’s social status and take the form of topographical drawings. The first generation of popular painters, the photographic studios, run for the most Les Voyageurs de l’eau is an imaginary depiction which includes Moke, Pierre Bodo, Chéri part by Europeans or Angolans, began of the city of Lubumbashi, denouncing Chérin and Chéri Samba, was revealed to thrive. the exploitation of natural resources in the to the public in the exhibition Art Partout, A native Angolan, Jean Depara moved Province of Katanga by multinational presented at the Académie des Beaux-Arts to Leopoldville in 1951, discovering its lively corporations. de Kinshasa in 1978. Here they encountered nightlife by visiting the most fashionable Other artists presented here share with great success, stealing the spotlight from bars and nightclubs, resounding with the Shomali, Tsindele and Mingiedi Tunga an the artists of the Académie. Instead of rhythms of the rumba and the cha-cha. interest in the urban environment, politics, imitating the European painting styles, In 1956, he opened his own studio, Jean history and collective memory.