Photo (c) Rosa Spaliviero Sammy Baloji
Sammy Baloji is an artist who was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and lives and works in Brussels and Lubumbashi. He holds a bachelor degree in Literature and Social Sciences. Originally working as a cartoonist, Baloji began photographing scenes as sources for his cartoons with a borrowed camera. He received formal training in photography from Simon Mukunday and Marie-Françoise Plissart.
Since 2005, Baloji has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His work is an ongoing research into the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as a questioning of the impact of the Belgian colonisation. His use of photography archives enables him to manipulate time and space, thus comparing old colonial narratives to contemporary economic imperialisms. His work is like a single story in a loop in which the same mistakes, the same injustices and the same traumas repeat themselves around the world. His videos and photography series highlight how identities are shaped, transformed, perverted and reinvented. His critical look on contemporary societies are warnings about how cultural clichés continue to shape collective memories, thus allowing social and political power games to keep on dictating human behaviors.
Baloji participated in the Bamako African Photography Encounters (2007), the Lyon Biennale (2015), the Venice Biennale (2015), PhotoQuai festival at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2015), the Dakar Biennale (2016) and Documenta XIV (2017). He has exhibited at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, the Kunstmuseum aan Zee in Oostende, Framer Framed in Amsterdam, BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts in Brussel, the Tate Modern in London, the Africa Center in New York and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC (2014), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017) and MAXXI, Rome (2018).
He received several awards, including one from the Prince Claus Foundation in The Netherlands, the Bamako African Photography Encounters and the Dakar Biennale. He won the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2014.
Sammy Baloji is a co-founder of the Atelier Picha and Picha Encounters, a photography and video biennale in Lubumbashi. Atelier Picha (‘image’ in Swahili) is an independent initiative that aims to support artistic creation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It promotes artistic and social reflection of the environment of Lubumbashi and the region. Picha was founded by a group of artists, filmmakers, photographers, performers and cultural entrepreneurs to create a common space to share the vision of arts and culture.
At Framer Framed, Sammy Baloji presented a solo show A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes (2018). This exhibition, initiated by Framer Framed, travelled to Lunds Kosthall in Sweden and Aarhus Konsthall in Denmark in 2020. The collaboration with Framer Framed continued in 2023 with the contribution of Sammy Baloji to the exhibition Charging Myths, a collaboration with the transnational artist collective On-Trade-Off, Picha and Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium.
- Read: Colonial extractivism and epistemic geologies in the Congo
- Interview with Sammy Baloji: Decolonization is about power, but uses symbols Feedback verzenden Geschiedenis Opgeslagen Community
- Review: De Witte Raaf - Sammy Baloji. A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes
- Exhibition: Congo Art Works - Popular Painting
Links
- Catalogus: A blueprint for toads and snakes (2018)
- Press release: Sammy Baloji - A Blueprint for toads and snakes EN
- Persbericht: Sammy Baloji - A blueprint for toads and snakes -
Attachments
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Charging Myths
An exhibition by transnational collective On-Trade-Off exploring how technological innovation is dependent on natural resources.
Exhibition: A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes
A solo exhibition by Sammy Baloji
Agenda
Finissage: A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes
With Sammy Baloji, Georges Senga Assani and Heleen Debeuckelaere.
Book launch: When we speak about colonisation
On the occasion of the recent publication by Faassen and Verdijk, and in the context of the running show 'A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes' by Sammy Baloji
Curator tour: A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes
A tour by Vincent van Velsen.
Magazine
Extractivism / Ecology / Education / Colonial history / Planetary Poetics /
Ecology / Extractivism / Colonial history /
Sacrificial Energy by Rose-Anne Gush
Extractivism / Ecology /
On-Trade-Off: Countering Extractivism by Transnational Artists’ Collaborations
Art and Activism / Action Research / Crisis Imaginaries / Ecology / Planetary Poetics /
Climate and Environmental Activism - #ActivismArchive
Extractivism / Colonial history / Contested Heritage /
Review: Sammy Baloji. A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes
Colonial history / Extractivism / Photography /