The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection

Pathy Tshindele

Born 1976, Kinshasa, Zaïre. Lives and works in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Pathy Tshindele belongs to the new generation of Congolese artists, presently under 30 years of age, who have made a name for themselves in the last three years in Kinshasa. Most of them studied at the Fine Arts Academy, but Pathy says he had to unlearn what he'd been taught there to develop his own way of working.

Tshindele's work straddles several artistic media, which he blends. He changes his medium whenever he feels that things become too easy for him. A way of being inventive in a country where art has had two distinct poles: one that is static and academic, and the other, the popular painting that he grew up with from early childhood, and of which one sees traces in the event-oriented qualities of some of his canvases. The most important thing, he says, is to define an action, to question the world.

This ceaseless questioning led him to start, with his friends from the Eza Possibles collective, the "Kinshasa Wenze Wenze" artistic event in August 2003. It involved recovering wrecked cars from all over the city and turning them into sculptures. A way of questioning the decaying state of the city, the difficulties of everyday life, and the attitude of its inhabitants. It was a seminal moment and a shock for Kinshasa, especially as it was time for the Congolese to make a statement. The young artists made the most of this area of risk, confrontation and freedom that their creativity had offered them.

Tshindele's canvases can be understood by anyone. He borrows from situations and their context, especially from expressions and elements of the Kin language. He says he's making a dictionary of this unwritten language, that is being made up from day to day. But of course in this respect too, his canvases question things. They are like screams, like punches. They are related to a context, but a context in the broad sense of the word. Especially as Pathy says himself that issues related to race, nationality or even gender are the least of his worries, and that he feels he's citizen of the world.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019/2020

Fiction Congo, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland

2017

Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris, France

2016

L'Afrique des routes, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France

Galeristes, Carreau du temple, Paris, France

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, UK

2015

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York, USA

Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France

Art Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

2011

Feb 6 - Apr 24 2011

JapanCongo

Magasin Grenoble, France

2010

Oct 8 - Oct 25 2010

African Stories

Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech

2009 - 2010

Nov. 2009 - Jan. 2010

Africa? Una nuova storia

Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy

2007

Oct 06 – Feb 03 2008

Why Africa?

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Turin, Italy

2006

Oct 12- Feb 18. 2007

100% Africa

Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao, Spain

2005

Batika bisso

Halle de l’Etoile, Lumbubashi, RDC

2004

Tina te ekomi na tina

2004

La Jeune Création Kinoise

CCF, Halle de la Gombé, Kinshasa, DRC

2003

Beaux Arts, Nantes, France

2003

Salon des arts et artisanats congolais JUA-KALI

CCF, Kinshasa, DRC

2002

VIH Sida Collège Boboto

GTZ society Germany/Kin

Kinshasa, DRC

2000

2nd Edition “village artistique”

CCF, Kinshasa, DRC

1999

1st edition “village artistique”

ABA, Kinshasa, DRC

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2021

Ex Africa - Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac - Sous la direction de Philippe Dagen - Gallimard, Paris

2015

Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko, Fondation Cartier, Exhibition catalogue

2007

Pathy Tshindele Peintre, Text : Jean Christophe Lanquetin, Published by Editions de l’Oeil, Paris

2007

Why Africa?

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli., Italy

2006

100% Africa

Exhibition catalogue. Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Spain.