Debris of History, Matters of Memory
Gloria Cabral (São Paulo, Brazil, 1982)
lives and works in Paraguay and Brazil
Sammy Baloji (Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1978)
lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo)
Cécile Fromont (Schœlcher, Martinique, 1980)
works and lives in New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Toxic landscape, social scars, and the history of global capitalism bridge Brumadinho in Brazil and Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These two parts of the world are central to, respectively, Gloria Cabral’s architectural practice reusing demolition and Sammy Baloji’s visual art interrogating central Africa’s colonial heritage.
Together, Cabral and Baloji create a transmedial structure in which construction debris and bricks made of mining waste from Congo’s former metropolis – Brussels, Belgium – form ornamental patterns echoing the architectural textiles of the historical Kongo kingdom, as well as their Brazilian Indigenous cognates.
Theorised in conversation with art historian Cécile Fromont from a common interest in the Tenture des Indes of the Villa Medici in Rome, the project weaves a tapestry of bricks. The wall and its motifs highlight the value of debris and the potential of patterns to form architectural, historical, and social structures for a reimagined future.
Technical collaborators
Twenty Nine Studio & Production, Gianni Spaliviero, Julio Manuel Alvarez, Mutaforma Studio, Giulia Mazzorin, Luisa Eugeni, Andrea De Lorenzo, Andrea Curtoni, Gianluca Sorrentino
Team
Kamila do Rocio, Becs Commissaris, Rosa Spaliviero, Estelle Lecaille, Marek Szponik, Juliette Hourcourigaray, Minne De Meyer Engelbeen
With the additional support of
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initative
