The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection
Congo Stars, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany
from 09/03/2019 to 30/06/2019
The exhibition CONGO STARS shows popular painting from the 1960s to the present day, side by side with contemporary art using other media. In cooperation with the Kunsthaus Graz, the Royal Museum of Central Africa Tervuren, the Iwalewewaus in Bayreuth and PICHA in Lubumbashi around 150 works by about 70 Congolese artists living in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Brussels or Paris are presented.
The conceptual starting point for the exhibition is Fiston Mwanza Mujila's novel Tram 83, in which the author describes an imaginary place that starts from the social reality of Congolese metropolises but can not be concretely assigned to any city. The exhibition also builds an imaginary place, which feeds on different realities and pushes together politics, exploitation, corruption, violence, religion, mythology, spirituality, star cult, everyday life as well as pleasure, lust and sensual desires.
Along six chapters - "street", "bar", "home", "mythology", "stars", "exploitation" - unfolds the exhibition course. At the same time, realities interlock with imaginary places and spaces that have a function of community and identity and in which moments of the fictional are condensed. A timeline filled with music stations, texts and originals provides information on the history of events and the context of Congolese art.
Curators : Sammy Baloji, Bambi Ceuppens, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Günther Holler-Schuster and Barbara Steiner
