NYAB Event - Sammy Baloji "The Beautiful Time in Lubumbashi"

Sammy Baloji "The Beautiful Time in Lubumbashi"

Baruch College/Sidney Mishkin Gallery

This event has ended.

Sammy Baloji’s photomontages and stark photographic renderings vividly depict “The Beautiful Time” in Katanga, a province in what was once the Belgian Congo and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The title, both ironic and sincere, refers to the middle years of the 20th century when the region’s copper mines were populous, the economy was prospering, and the modern city of Lubumbashi was built.

Photographs of decayed industrial landscapes, slag heaps, and disused factories are not unusual in today’s world, but few people associate such images with Africa. Sammy Baloji’s photographs and montages bear witness to the region’s former productivity and subsequent decline, and initiate an important dialogue about postcolonial history, urbanization and the aspirations of young people in 21st century Africa.

Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi, DRC. He is a graduate of the University of Lubumbashi with a degree in Humanities Studies. His photographs and videos have been exhibited in Brussels, Paris, South Africa, Montreal and elsewhere. All the photographic works in this exhibition were produced in 2006 and are untitled. The exhibition also includes six “popular” paintings by Congolese artists, whose work has greatly influenced Baloji’s photographic practice.

Media

• Painting
• Photography

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