Cover

Publisher Note

In Colonial Legacies, Gabriella Nugent examines a generation of contemporary artists born or based in the Congo whose lens-based art attends to the afterlives and mutations of Belgian colonialism in postcolonial Congo. Focusing on three artists and one artist collective, Nugent analyses artworks produced by Sammy Baloji, Michèle Magema, Georges Senga and Kongo Astronauts, each of whom offers a different perspective onto this history gleaned from their own experiences. In their photography and video art, these artists rework existent images and redress archival absences, making visible people and events occluded from dominant narratives. Their artworks are shown to offer a re-reading of the colonial and immediate post-independence past, blurring the lines of historical and speculative knowledge, documentary and fiction. Nugent demonstrates how their practices create a new type of visual record for the future, one that attests to the ramifications of colonialism across time.

Art Theory

Colonial Legacies

— Contemporary Lens-Based Art and the Democratic Republic of Congo

edited by Gabriella Nugent

Publisher
Edition 1st edition
Release Date 2021
Credits
Identifiers
ISBN-13: 9789462702998
Work  
Language English
Format Softcover
Dimensions 18.5 × 24.9 cm
Pages 272