In a popular district of Kinshasa, the energetic capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo , a person encased in brown paper bags surrounded by a large crowd and policemen forcefully breaks through the wrapping, tearing it apart until its tattered pieces lie scattered on the unpaved dirt road. The female Congolese artist Sarah Ndele emerges; on the wrapping, words like “freedom” are written in French and Lingala, the local Bantu language spoken in the northwest of DRC.
In the crowd, some cheered while others remained puzzled. A few even cried and others protested. The biennial, which was launched in 2014 by the late Congolese photographer, painter, and film producer Kiripi Katembo Siku exuded a similar energy to Ndele’s piece.
In another performance for the Yango biennale, Congolese artist Anass Flory Sinandaku sat in a chair surrounded by onlookers, as his blood was taken. He then used it create artworks hung on the wall behind him. The gruesome act reflected on exploitation in Congo both domestically and internationally—a theme explored by many Congolese artists searching for meaning and resolution amidst Congo’s paradoxical reality.
Ilunga, who is 31, is completing several vividly colored large-scale paintings. They depict young Congolese boys and girls, their Black bodies scarified with motifs reminiscent of electronic circuits produced from cobalt buried deep in the Congolese earth. The valuable mineral is often mined by children and used to make the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, laptops, and smart phones.
Kongo Astronaut, a figure with its suit plastered with digital debris made from minerals mined in Congo, can be founded spontaneously when walking the streets of Kinshasa.© Kongo Astronauts, courtesy Axis Gallery, New York In recent years, much has been done to liberate the school’s curriculum. “What is crucial for Kinshasa is the democratization of the cultural space,” current director professor and artist Kalama Akulez Henri told Artnet News. “We need to be free to express ourselves aesthetically in the way we wish.”
“Many of our top artists go abroad for representation, and in Kinshasa we don’t yet have galleries that can properly represent the artists at home and internationally,” said its founder and director Baraka Rumamba, a Congolese entrepreneur and real estate investor. Part of the earnings from Yetu will go to support the museum, which is partially funded by the government.
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