[dentifier] K2023-025-6

"Working in natural light and therefore without flash is a way to be most honest with my photography. With this mastery of light, I like to be able to sublimate a place, a person. See how the light reflects on a face. To show what is without cheating." Chrystel Mukeba, 2023.

For the exhibition Style Congo: Heritage and Heresy, Chrystel Mukeba photographed five Belgians of Congolese descent in various Art Nouveau buildings in Brussels. The photos show people who experienced colonialism first-hand and still bear its traces, but also younger generations who have fainter connections to this not-so-distant past. With the photo series, Mukeba points up the connection between colonialism and the Art Nouveau.

The photographs were taken in iconic Art Nouveau buildings around Brussels, like the Horta Museum in Saint-Gilles and the Hôtel van Eetvelde near the Square Ambiorix. Architect Victor Horta built the former for himself in 1898 and designed the latter in 1895 for Edmond van Eetvelde, the Secretary-General of the Independent Congo State. The series represents a symbolic appropriation of this architectural heritage, which was built from Congolese raw materials like hardwood, and asks to whom this heritage really belongs.

The series was commissioned by CIVA for the exhibition Style Congo: Heritage and Heresy. It features portraits by Drucila Clement, Agnes Kena, Badibanga Ndeka (better known as Badi), Leonie Ngoie and Lewis Ossoko Hang.