Style Congo
Heritage & Heresy
This event ran from 17.03.2023 to 03.09.2023. But wait, there's always more at Kanal! Check out the calendar.
“Style Congo. Heritage & Heresy” explores the politics of cultural representation and appropriation through contemporary artistic and architectural interventions as well as historic documents and materials from CIVA's Collections. The exhibition visually chronicles the representation of Congo in international expositions held between 1885 and 1958, using Art Nouveau as its anchor point. The movement—at the time also called “Style Congo”—coincided with King Leopold II’s exploitation of the Congo and reflects a widespread fascination with “exotic” materials and forms.
The works in the exhibition question and destabilize canonical histories and the colonial roots of this heritage. By examining marks of colonization in the city of Brussels and in the Congolese urban landscape, they present a decolonial resignification of private and public spaces, seeking to rewrite the margins of history into the center.
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- Location
- CIVA, Rue de l'Ermitage 55, 1050 Brussels
Curated by Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, Estelle Lecaille
With works by Judith Barry, Rossella Biscotti, Peggy Buth, Ayoh Kré Duchâtelet, Jean Katambayi, Johan Lagae & Paoletta Holst, Chrystel Mukeba, Daniela Ortiz, Ruth Sacks, Traumnovelle
With selected works by Ernest Acker, Victor Bourgeois, Joseph Caluwaers, Jean-Jules Eggericx, Paul Hankar, Georges Hobé, Victor Horta, Henry Lacoste, René Pechère, Fernand Petit, René Schoentjes, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
Tickets are sold on site at the CIVA reception desk. More info via this link.
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© Chrystel Mukeba -
The Work of the Forest, 1992 © Judith Barry / Fondation pour l’Architecture / CIVA Collections -
The Rebellion of the roots (France), 2020 © Daniela Ortiz / Kadist Collection Paris -
Bruxelles Brussel Congo Congo, 2007 © Rossella Biscotti / Private Collection Aachen -
The Unmade Pavilion (iron), 2023 © Ruth Sacks -
Ornaments and Crimes, 2023 © ayoh kré Duchâtelet -
Objects That Are Dear to Him: Lessons on Building Colonial Houses in Congo, 2023 © Johan Lagae & Paoletta Holst -
Pavilion of Honor of the Belgian Congo in the Belgian Section © Henry Lacoste / CIVA Collections (selected by Traumnovelle) -
Congolese arrived in Antwerp to participate in the World's Fair. In particular, King Massala, from the vicinity of Vivi, accompanied by his son Mango, May 12,1885. © Collection MRAC Tervuren (selected by Traumnovelle) -
Le Livre d'or de l'Exposition universelle et internationale Bruxelles 1935 published by the Comité exécutif de l’Exposition © CIVA Collections (selected by Traumnovelle) -
Drawings of the circular panorama in the Colonial Palace, collection of 8 plates © Alfred Bastien,Paul Mathieu /Ghent University Library (selected by Traumnovelle) -
Drawings of the circular panorama in the Colonial Palace, collection of 8 plates © Alfred Bastien,Paul Mathieu /Ghent University Library (selected by Traumnovelle) -
From Desire in Representation (Tervuren), 2006 - 2008 © Peggy Buth -
From Desire in Representation (Tervuren), 2006 - 2008 © Peggy Buth -
Peggy Buth, Monument © Filip Dujardin -
Traumnovelle, Congolisation © Filip Dujardin
Credits and bios
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