DÁ FALA

Picha is pleased to announce the 7th edition of the Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of Congo, to be held from October 6 to November 6, 2022 under the artistic direction of Picha. Picha, “image” in Swahili, which was founded as an association in 2008, will be joined by five associate curators - Paula Nascimento, Lucrezia Cipitelli, Bruno Leitão, René Francisco Rodríguez and Mpho Matsipa - and a curatorial advisor - Ugochukwu- Smooth C. Nzewi.

The Biennale explores the contemporary creation of the artistic scene in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the world. It is today one of the most dynamic and experimental artistic events on the African continent. For its upcoming edition, the biennale will interrogate toxicity as a condition of existence that has inextricably affected social worlds under the title ’ToxiCité’ or ’ToxiCity’. As a starting point, the theme will open the collective elaboration of a critical and transformative take on the social and cultural environment, in Lubumbashi and in the world.

Composed of two concepts, that of the ‘toxic’ and that of the ‘city’, the next Lubumbashi Biennale envisages to question and reflect upon the link between contemporary life in the postcolonial urban setting of Lubumbashi and more widely in the urban Global South, and the impact of a number of industrial, economic, ecological, social and cultural processes that have historically contributed, for better and for worse, to the shape and dynamics of urban life in this and other parts of the world today.

The theme of toxicity, then, offers a starting point for a critical elaboration and consciousness of oneself and one’s natural, social and cultural environment, ‘as a product of the historical processes to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.’ (Gramsci 1971:324). By focusing on the theme of toxicity, the curatorial committee of this Edition endeavours to open up a critical space of artistic engagement and reflection to start exploring the possible shapes such ‘an inventory of traces’ might take, in the hope that such a compilation will also tell us something more about the possible futures to envision from here on.

Lubumbashi

Lubumbashi is the second largest city in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The main industrial centre of the mining district of southeastern Congo, it lies 110 miles (180 km) northwest of Ndola, Zambia. Lubumbashi is the name of a small local river. The town was established by Belgian colonists in 1910 as a copper-mining settlement and was designated an urban district in 1942. Most regional mining companies are headquartered in Lubumbashi, which is the transportation centre for mineral products (copper, cobalt, zinc, cadmium, germanium, tin, manganese, and coal) from the towns of Likasi, Kolwezi, Kipushi, and others. Mineral exploitation has been dominated by a governmentowned organisation, but foreign mining companies are also in evidence. The city’s other industries include printing, brewing, flour milling, and the production of confectionery, cigarettes, brick, and soap. Lubumbashi has a civic auditorium, a national museum, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and the Society of Congo Historians, as well as the University of Lubumbashi founded in 1955.

Picha

Picha is an initiative of artists operating independently from Lubumbashi that supports and promotes artistic creation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Picha provides visibility for contemporary art in Lubumbashi by providing a venue for exhibitions, meetings, artist residencies, training workshops and artistic accompaniment. Picha intends to promote artistic creation by taking the urban space as a stage and the image as a medium. Picha wants to bring an artistic reflection, both endogenous and speaking to the world, on the city of Lubumbashi, its history and its environment today. In addition to the organization of the Biennale de Lubumbashi, the association has to its credit the realization of several exhibitions, video and photo workshops, training programs and artist residencies, conducted with the aim of offering national and international exposure to local artists and arts initiatives. To fulfill its mission, Picha has created the following platforms:

The Biennale de Lubumbashi, founded in 2008 under the name of “Rencontres Picha”, has become one of the most experimental and dynamic artistic events on the African continent, offering a platform for presentation and meeting to local and international artists and cultural actors local.

Atelier Picha is a permanent training program dedicated to the production and dissemination of participatory artistic and cultural projects. Atelier Picha allows the networking of a new generation of Congolese artists and cultural producers with other national and international cultural actors. The program offers a period of research and production and professional accompaniment to young people in the conceptualization of their project. Since 2017, Picha has allowed a dozen emerging artists from across the country to participate in the workshops. In 2019 and 2020, Atelier Picha collaborates with Picha’s partner institutions, such as Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah), Market Photo Workshop (Johannesburg), Gasworks (London), Art Hub Asia (Shanghai), Universidad Distrital de Colombia (Bogota), Raw Material Company (Dakar). The artistic direction is led by Lucrezia Cippitelli.

The Picha Residence Program, initiated in 2014, invites artists from the African continent and abroad for a research and production period in Lubumbashi. In 2021 Picha had the pleasure to welcome/host the artists Francis Alÿs and Nicole Rafiki.

MAKWAChA, The project of setting up a screen-printing workshop in Lubumbashi and Makwacha initiated by Picha aims to revisit and enhance, through textile screen-printing, the traditional practice of mural painting existing in different regions of the Congo and the various textile creations local handicrafts (such as velvet Kuba), while integrating them into a thoughtful artistic and community approach. The period of the last Lubumbashi Biennale, from October 24 to November 24, 2019, gave visibility to the Makwacha project through numerous visits by participants and speakers from all over the world. The end of the construction work allowed the arrival and installation of artists to work and interact with the women of the community.

More informations.

Avec Sammy Baloji & Filip De Boeck, Luis Camnitzer, Ângela Ferreira, Alfredo Jaar, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Grada Kilomba, Reynier Leyva Novo et Paulo Nazareth*

KADIST invite Mónica de Miranda et Bruno Leitão, fondateurs et directeurs de Hangar, un centre de recherche artistique situé à Graça (Lisbonne) pour une résidence curatoriale et une exposition.

Développée sur trois chapitres, l’exposition Affective Utopia abordera les questions et les défis relatifs à la production de connaissances artistiques et de pratiques curatoriales en regard des tensions et conflits générés par les problématiques Sud/Nord, des divisions géographiques, de l’assimilation culturelle et du besoin urgent de décoloniser les pratiques curatoriales et artistiques. 

Les artistes de l’exposition abordent différentes façons de penser et d’interpréter la notion d’utopie dans l’art contemporain. Le concept d’utopie implique deux notions liées bien que contradictoires : d’une part l’aspiration à un monde meilleur,  d’autre part le fait qu’elle n’existe dans nos imaginaires seulement qu’à travers les fictions inventées par les artistes. Affective Utopia réfléchit à cette ambivalence et pose la question de comment l’art peut être un outil de réflexion critique sur ses propres processus de socialisation et ses liens avec les concepts géographiques affectifs d’appartenance, d’origine et de diaspora.

Inviter une structure artistique en résidence permet d’expérimenter le déplacement de pratiques contextuelles pour offrir de nouvelles perspectives à des discussions ayant lieu à Paris et à l’international.

A Lisbonne, Hangar conçoit ses expositions comme des espaces d’engagement avec le public afin de depasser sa condition de spectateur, à travers des stratégies génératrices de sociabilité. Les fondateurs de Hangar souhaitent délocaliser cette approche à Paris le temps de l’exposition, en proposant un programme de rencontres en dialogue avec le public dans un autre contexte. 

Hangar est à la fois un espace d’exposition, de recherche et de résidences d’artistes. C’est également un centre éducatif qui organise des temps de discussion dans le but d’unifier les lieux géographiques et de stimuler le développement de pratiques artistiques et théoriques. Hangar cherche à développer des projets artistiques interdisciplinaires qui se concentrent sur la ville de Lisbonne en tant que scène centrale pour la culture contemporaine. La programmation artistique est tournée vers les problématiques Sud/Nord prenant comme référence la position spécifique de cette ville, carrefour géographique ainsi qu’historique.

*Les artistes de l’exposition à KADIST ont tous travaillé avec Hangar à Lisbonne à travers des résidences, des conférences ou des expositions.

With: Sammy Baloji & Filip De Boeck, Luis Camnitzer, Ângela Ferreira, Alfredo Jaar, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Grada Kilomba, Reynier Leyva Novo
and Paulo Nazareth*

++

KADIST invites Mónica de Miranda and Bruno Leitão, founders and directors of Hangar, an artistic research center located in Graça, Lisbon, for an art-space residency and exhibition.

Developed over three chapters, the exhibition Affective Utopia will approach questions and challenges relative to the production of knowledge in the arts and curatorial practices: a reflection on the tensions and conflicts generated by South/North issues, geographic divisions, cultural assimilation and the urgent need for decolonization of thought in curatorial processes and artistic production.

The artists in this exhibition discuss the different ways of thinking and performing utopia in contemporary art from a broad range of angles. The concept of utopia entails two related but contradictory perceptions: the aspiration to a better world, and the acknowledgement that its form may only ever live in our imaginations through the artists’ fictional reconstructions of reality. Affective Utopia reflects this general ambivalence, but it also poses the question of how art can be a tool for critical reflection of one’s own socialization process and to one´s connections to affective geographic concepts of belonging, origin and diaspora.

The purpose of the art-space residency is to experiment with delocalizing context relevant practices in order to offer new perspectives on discussions happening in Paris, and internationally. 

Hangar in Lisbon produces exhibitions as spaces of action for public engagement beyond spectatorship and through strategies that produce sociality. 

Delocalized at KADIST during the time of this exhibition, Bruno Leitão and Mónica de Miranda’s project will reframe this approach towards public engagement in another context and towards another audience. 

Hangar is comprised of a center of exhibitions, artistic residencies, and artistic studies. It is also a center of education, talks and conversations that unify geographic locations and stimulate the development of artistic and theoretical practices. It seeks to organize and produce the development of artistic inter-disciplinary projects and visual arts projects that focus on Lisbon as a central backdrop for contemporary culture. Hangar’s artistic program is focused on South/North problematics, taking from the specific position that Lisbon occupies both geographically as well historically.

*The artists in the exhibition have all worked with Hangar in Lisbon through residencies, talks or exhibitions.

Vernissage : le vendredi 8 février 2019
Opening on Friday, February 8, 2019Les chapitres / chapters:
1 — Concrete Utopia 
09.02 — 03.03 Avec / with Sammy Baloji & Filip De Boeck, Ângela Ferreira, Kiluanji Kia Henda
2 —Art as a Critical Tool 07.03 — 24.03 Avec / with Luis Camnitzer, Alfredo Jaar,Reynier Leyva Novo
3 —The Body as a Political Tool
04.04 — 21.04 Avec / with Grada Kilomba andPaulo NazarethLes événements / events*:26.02 Conférence de / talk by Sammy Baloji & Filip De Boeck
07.03 Conférence de / talk by Luis Camnitzer
12.04 Grada Kilomba en conversation avec / in conversationwith Paul Goodwin
*Tous les événements liés à l’exposition auront lieu à 19h au bureau de KADIST. / All associated events will take place at 7 pm, at the KADIST office.

VISIT KADIST, PARIS 19bis/21 rue des Trois Frères 75018 +33 1 42 51 83 49