PAst EXHIBITIONS
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With the support of Prohelvetia and the Swiss Arts Council, the Modzi Arts Gallery will be participating for a third year running in the annual FNB Art Joburg Art Fair.
Established in 2017, the Modzi Arts Gallery is a growing voice in Contemporary Zambian art within African contexts and has been at the forefront of reframing the Zambian art market. The opportunity to take part in FNB Art Joburg for a third time since 2019 has given us strength in growing and innovating our approach within the Contemporary African Art scene as well as within the diaspora. This year, the Modzi Arts Gallery will be showcasing the works of Mapopa Hussein Manda and Aaron Samuel Mulenga. Click here for more! |
THE IMAGINARY FLIGHT OF BIRDS / VOL D'OISEAUX IMAGINAIRE BY CHIEF TUMPA AGXON IN COLLABORATION WITH DJ SPILULU
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The Imaginary Flight of Birds (Vol d’Oiseaux Imaginaire, 2019) depicts the threatening influence of political leaders in the seemingly peaceful landscape of Moba on Lake Tanganyika in eastern Congo. Made of driftwood from the shores of the Lake, the hovering "ominous birds” await the perfect attack, approaching in a Hitchcockian way and get face to face with the visitor.
Agxon (°1961, Lubumbashi, D.R.Congo) has been a traditional Tabwa chief in addition to being a visual artist since 2012. He left behind the urban artist life in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and took up his responsibility as spiritual leader of the Tumpa community in the remote village Mulunguzi on Lake Tanganyika. In this landscape, which bears the burden of many past conflicts, minerals have been detected, which, combined with political developments, is causing tensions to rise. By assuming the combined functions of visual artist and traditional chief, Agxon brings a resolutely political dimension to his work. This project emphasises the turn taken since his enthronement as chief in considering his artistic production as a dialogue with his community. With this series, Agxon builds on his oeuvre of assemblage art, in which he creates sculptures from what he finds on his way. Wanderings and walks are thus an integral part of his artistic process. With extremely minimal adjustments, matter that is part of his everyday surroundings takes shape. Where in Lubumbashi these were fallen branches of city trees and in Kinshasa ironware, he uses in Mulunguzi stones and, in this series, driftwood. In a collective creation with composer and Afrohouse DJ Spilulu (b. 1983, Lubumbashi), a video and soundscape were created for the exhibition with images and sounds from Moba and Mulunguzi during DJ Spilulu’s during residency in situ. Concept, curation and production by Sari Middernacht & Patrick Mudekereza Installation by Taonga Julia Kaseka With the support of the Waza Art Centre and Pro Helvetia Johannesburg |
Tumpa Agathon Kakusa Mapemba wa Nduba Mwine Musenga Kyume kya Mukanka (aka Agxon, °Lubumbashi, DRC, 1961) is the 10th chief of Mulunguzi village. He is also an artist, whose abstract portraiture in wood, iron, and stone has developed over the years he spent living in Lubumbashi, Kinshasa, and now Mulunguzi nearby Moba on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, DRC.
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DJ Spilulu - formerly known as G'Sparks is a congolese Sound engineer, beatmaker, composer, producer and DJ , pioneer of mergers between Tribal African Villages Sounds with house Music, techno, zouk and rap creating a very unique Afrobeat Sound.
He also created a dynamic around Afro-house music and afro-beat in the Republic Democratc of Congo from the landscape of Lubumbashi to kinshasa formerly fully trained in the Ndombolo.
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