Plantations and Museums, 2021

6–channel video

A series of six short documentary films follows CATPC’s Mathieu Kasiama and Cedart Tamasala as they search for an important sculpture that their community has lost decades ago and that they hope to return to Lusanga. The sculpture was made by the Pende in 1931 in an effort to control the spirit of the Belgian officer Maximilien Balot, who was decapitated in an act of rebellion after committing rapes and other atrocities.

Kasiama and Tamasala travel to the Pende revolt’s battlefield and to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, USA, where the Balot sculpture is now held. They talk to experts in the postcolonial discourse, unravel the hidden interconnections between the plantations of the South and the museums of the North, and visit the collector who acquired the sculpture in 1972 and later sold it to the Virginia Museum. Kasiama and Tamasala show up at the museum to demand that the sculpture be given back as a loan, in vain.

6–channel video, color sound,
Ed. of 5 + 2AP
Episode 1 with Antoine Sikitele, 7:02 min
Episode 2 with Zoe Strother, 7:48 min
Episode 3 with Ariella Aisha Azoulay, 7:24 min
Episode 4 with Simon Gikandi, 6:53 min
Episode 5 with Herbert Weiss, 7:53 min
Episode 6 with Richard Woordward, 9:26 min

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CATPC

**Plantation Monoculture, 2022 by Athanas Kindendie**

**Drawings, 2022 by Matthieu Kilapi Kasiama**

**Drawings, 2016–ongoing by Ced’art Tamasala**

Biography

CATPC is the Congolese Plantation Workes Art League (Cercle d‘art des travailleurs de plantation congolaise), a cooperative organization inspired by a long-term project by the Dutch artist Renzo Martens. CATPC has set itself the goal of making a way out of the hardly paid plantation work through its own agriculture, but above all through considerable artistic projects by the local community. Current and former members and interns of CATPC are Djonga Bismar, Matthieu Kilapi Kasiama, Cedart Tamasala, Mbuku Kimpala, Manenga Kibuila, Jérémie Mabiala, Emery Muhamba, Irène Kanga, Daniel Muvunzi, Jean Kawata, Blaise Mandefu, Thomas Leba (†), Huguette Kilembi, Olele Mulela, Richard Leta, Mira Meya, Tantine Mukundu, Athanas Kindendie, Charles Leba, Philomene Lembusa and Désiré Kapasa. Over the years CATPC have had meaningful Solo and Group exhibitions such as Economics The Blockbuster (Manchester, 2023), Kunsthal Charlottenburg Biennial (Copenhagen, 2023), Someone is Getting Rich (Tropenmuseum Amsterdam, 2023), Memory is an Editing Station(22nd Biennial, São Paulo, 2023), Monomaterial (Berlin, 2023), Dig Where You Stand (SCCA, Tamale, Ghana, 2022) and in the SculptureCenter (New York, 2017). Most recently CATPC and Renzo Martens are invited to the Dutch Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennial (2024).

Full Biography

Exhibitions at KOW