EXHIBITIONS
familiar grounds
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Familiar Grounds is an emotional experience, a plunge into intimate places that Cypri offers us: through a family trip to his wife's Zambia, which he discovers as much as their daughter, Cypri has found the ideal way to speak about a context that is foreign to him, starting from the self. This self extends to the use of a material to which he is attached and accustomed, but for which he discovers new nuances.
The exhibition brings us face to face with poetic scenes that we've probably all experienced, something so familiar that when we approach them, we have projections of ourselves in those moments. In the Mfuwe Gallery, Cypri has transformed the walls into picture supports and frames on which fabric paintings are deftly superimposed. The earth mixed with the fabrics makes them almost organic, something relatively close to us. The texture added by the grains of earth washed onto the fabric, the contact of the wet clay with the pleated fabric, becomes a natural progression in this search for nuance : layers of earth in the shape of a mountainous landscape, intersected by lines like paths to these memories, form the composition of this beautiful work. But where does it lead us? The tableaux are completed by an Installation of 10 columns of superimposed bricks, evoking something at once built and unbuilt, fragile and unstable, on which are placed domes containing different kinds of earth, the material with which Cypri paints. This almost spiritual gesture by the artist, which sums up his entire creative ritual, reflects a willingness to give that Cypri has carried with him since his arrival in Zambia. Familiar Grounds is an invitation to inhabit, through our memories, a personal space for which the painting is merely the abstract access path and code buried deep within us. |
TWO LIZZARDS | SHARING ONE STOMACH
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The exhibition project Two Lizzards | Sharing One Stomach gives insight into the lively and diverse contemporary art scene of Zambia by presenting a multidisciplinary group exhibition with works by
Lawrence Chikwa Isaac Kalambata Mapopa Hussein Manda Maingaila Muvundika Agness Buya Yombwe Lawrence Yombwe The six artists involved are rooted within the country, fully working within Zambian narratives. What their diverse oeuvres have in common within the frame of paintings, sculpture, video, installation, and digital art is that they speak to the ideas of sharing within a future of Zambia, reflecting on past social and collectively anchored values, myths, and taboos. Lawrence Yombwe and his wife Agness Buya Yombwe explore indigenous knowledge systems–in particular, that of the Mbusa of the Bemba people and its related tribes of north-eastern Zambia. Mbusa, or “things handed down”, refers to the pottery, sculpture, and wall paintings which are central to the Bemba girls’ initiation and wedding ceremonies. The enigmatic landscape paintings of Lawrence Yombwe integrate encoded symbols functioning as a system of orientation for young men and women on how to respect and love. Agness Buya’s artistic practice and activism is an ongoing investigation process into silenced socio-political and environmental narratives in different societies that continues to question the human condition. The painted collages in mock newspaper style of Mapopa Hussein Manda distinctively position the artist as a socio-political commentator. Similar to Buya Yombwe he uses painted text adding another medial dimension to his works. Words also play a role in the oeuvre of Isaac Kalambata who is blackening out texts and narratives to draw attention to colonial legacies and misrepresentations in Zambian day-to-day politics and laws. Similarly, Lawrence Chikwa often integrates Bibles or other religious books of different language into his works to stimulate a discourse about sovereignty in Zambian heritage. The youngest artist of the group is Maingaila Muvundika who experiments with digital collages of own photographs to cherish social customs in pre-colonial Zambia focusing on collective gain rather than personal interest. |
Solo Exhibition | AN ALLEGORY OF SELF BY
10 to 30 September 2023
by aaron samuel mulenga
Co-CURATED BY Sana Ginwalla & Taonga Julia Kaunda-Kaseka
Modzi Gallery presents a body of work that has been built by Aaron Samuel Mulenga, a visual artists working in a multidisciplinary context within Zambia. A reflection process where we echo the ideas around ancestors, social comm and symptoms of a misrepresented system.
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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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