About
Dilston Grove in partnership with Autograph ABP is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in the UK of photographer and filmmaker Sammy Baloji in the newly renovated Dilston Grove.
Mémoire is an artist film addressing colonial violence, shattered dreams of independence and the postcolonial political fallout that exists within the current Democratic Republic of Congo. Mémoire is a beautifully crafted and abstracted artists video that was shot in collaboration with the fellow Congolese performance artist Faustin Linyekula. Alongside Mémoire, Autograph ABP have commissioned Baloji to make a new large-scale photographic work that will document the exact site of Patrice Lumumba's assassination in January 1961.
Sammy Baloji's work shines a powerful spotlight on contemporary Congolese reality. It interrogates the abuse of power and its legacy, revealing the devastating impact that exploitative cultures have on both society and the environment. It calls for greater awareness of the local consequences of âdevelopment' and highlights the rights of local people. Baloji creates videos that investigate the body, and, despite restrictions on photographing public sites, he produces images of the Congo's urban architecture. His work is raising social consciousness and stimulating artistic development in the Katanga region, a locus for colonial and post-colonial exploitation of its wealth of minerals essential for Western technologies.
This exhibition was part commissioned by Autograph ABP and is accompanied by an artist's book available during the exhibition. Autograph ABP is a charity that works internationally to educate the public in photography with a particular emphasis on cultural identity and human rights. The staging of Mémoire is supported by the Goethe Institute in Nairobi Kenya.
Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Lubumbashi, DR Congo)
Having studied literature and human sciences at Lubumbashi University, Balolji was
drawn to photography and video as expressive mediums. In the past few years he has been analysing the architecture discipline conceived as âtrace', and has created works about the cultural, industrial and architectural heritage of his country, Katanga. Baloji has exhibited his works at several international exhibitions in Bruxelles; at the Bamako Biennale; at Musee du Quai Brantly in Paris and at Cup Biennale (South Africa). In 2007, he received two prizes from Bamako Biennale, namely Prix Afrique en creation (Cultures France) and Prix pour l'image (Foundation Blachere). In 2009, Baloji was nominated for the 2009 Prix Pictet award.
Faustin Linyekula (b. 1974, Ubund, DR Congo)
An exceptionally gifted choreographer and dancer, Linyekula's work vividly communicates the complex experience of living with conflict and explores questions about the post-colonial condition and the violence done to ethics. Linyekula's works are deeply humanistic and paradoxical narratives. In 1993, he co-founded Kenya's first contemporary dance group and a prize at Angola's International Dance Festival resulted in invitations to perform internationally. Major works include Triptyque sans Titre (2002), turbulent fragments of a society in conflict; Spectacularly Empty II (2003), an ironic look at materialism in Kinshasa; and Le Festival des Mensonges (2005-06), an exploration of Congo's evolution. Studios Kabako, his centre for performance, education and exchange in Kinshasa, provides a multi-disciplinary environment for experiment, attracting musicians, poets, designers and artists as well as dancers and actors.
