Artist Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga will be in conversation with Sorana Munsya and Jean-Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi on the occasion of his new exhibition Ghost of the Present, open at October Gallery. This talk will be moderated by Gerard Houghton, Director of Special Projects at October Gallery.
In his new series, Eddy Kamuanga furthers his investigations of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s history by examining the effect of Catholic missions in the country from the end of the 19th century onwards. His large-scale figurative compositions offer insight into the colonial influence of such enterprise, and into the acts of resistance that it triggered. Kamuanga has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Saatchi Gallery; and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK. His work is in many important private and public collections. In 2020 he was named as one of Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 Under 40 Africa’: an accolade celebrating artists, thinkers, business leaders and advocates who have pioneered arts from Africa and the Diaspora.
Sorana Munsya is a Congolese curator, artist, agent and psychologist living in Brussels. In her curatorial practice and writings, she is concerned with the connections between art and individual as well as collective healing strategies or practices. Focused on contemporary visual art created by African artists, she was the assistant curator of the 5th Lubumbashi Biennale of Contemporary Art. She is part of the editorial team of the Belgian art magazine HART and has written for many art catalogues, including the catalogue for the 12th edition of the Bamako Encounters, the catalogue for the most recent solo exhibition of Pascale Marthine Tayou’s works, and the Congoville exhibition catalogue. She recently curated the last solo exhibition of the Belgian-Congolese artist Leonard Pongo at Bozar, Brussels, and the last solo exhibition of Congolese artist Michele Magema.
Jean-Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi is an independent researcher, writer and art practitioner. In 2019, he obtained an MA in Art History as part of the Arts of Africa and Global Souths research programme (NRF) at Rhodes University, South Africa. His research interests focus on art practices of Africa and its diaspora, and the relevance of globalism in the contemporary art world. He has collaborated with several cultural institutions and art platforms including: The Prince Claus Fund (Amsterdam), The Kin ArtStudio (Kinshasa), Pavillon 54 and Picha (Lubumbashi). His writings have been featured in Art Africa Magazine, ArtThrob and Créer en postcolonie. Voix et dissidences belgo-congolaises, edited by Bozar books.
Please note that if the artist is unable to enter the UK due to coronavirus restrictions, he will participate in the talk remotely.
