ArtNoble gallery is pleased to present Trois auteurs d'Histoire, a group exhibition by Congolese visual artists Nelson Makengo (b.1990), Georges Senga (b.1983) and Pamela Tulizo (b.1993). This exhibition is envisioned as a tribute to the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio whose personal and professional involvement in supporting the arts and cultural sectors in Congo calls for a commemoration.

 

Trois auteurs d’Histoire: Nelson Makengo, Georges Senga, Pamela Tulizo, a three-way conversation that aims at bringing to Milan a cross-section of the contemporary Congolese art scene through the very different practices of these artists who, in recent years, have gained international recognition by winning prizes, residencies and featuring in past editions of the Congolese Biennales. The exhibition also aims to generate an exchange between the artists’ cities of origin - Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Goma - whose profoundly different and disjointed cultural traits permeate the work of each artist.

 

The authors will dialogue within the gallery space through the interaction of their artworks which share the use of photography as a medium. The exhibition will feature the moving images of Nelson Makengo’s short-film Up at Night (2019) completed by an installation, Georges Senga’s photographic triptych Le Vide (2019) printed in large scale and Pamela Tulizo’s latest series of extremely reworked and therefore fantastical photographs. The realities exposed in the exhibition are developed through a triangular Congo as they originate from three different regions, three cities, that are contributing to the ongoing construction and development of the country’s identity. The set of themes transpiring during the exhibition, from the lack of electricity in Kinshasa, the history of exploitation of the country’s mineral resources to the portrayal of Kivu women on international press, are imbued with the lives of those who has lived them and are here today to tell these stories.

 

The exhibition was conceived in collaboration with Angelica Litta Modignani and the independent cultural association Picha. Founded in 2008 in Lubumbashi by a group of young artists with the objective of promoting contemporary art in and out of their city, Picha, through the organisation of the Lubumbashi Biennial and many Atelier D’Artiste, has since become the springboard for developing artists’ careers in Congo. The histories of the protagonists of this exhibition are indeed intertwined with that of Picha, which has followed and supported them since the very beginning of their artistic careers.

 

As testimony of Picha’s crucial role in the elaboration of this project, the exhibition is accompanied by a critical essay written by the president of the association Jean Katambayi Mukendi, linking the selected artists as follows: “[...] It is in this context that Nelson, Georges and Pamela evolved separately before fate aligned them in this triumvirate exhibition. Makengo, Senga and Tulizo, indeed all photographers, scrutinise society through algorithmic approaches that are declined respectively in social proximity, in temporal investigation and in fiction-gender”.