Author Description

In 2014, artist Sammy Baloji (BE/DRC) extended his solo show in MuZEE, Oostende in collaboration with the director Phillip Van den Bossche and the curator Anouck Clissen into an ambitious collective research exhibition: A colonial photo-album by a Belgian military man, showing his success in big game hunting, was contrasted with the images of the Congolese photographer Chrispin Mvano and Baloji's own acrimonious collages. Additionally, the artist invited half a dozen of contemporary artists who explore in their work the conflictive relations between Belgium and the Congo, particularly regarding the representation of exploitation of the country and it's inhabitants. Their works were displayed together with historical photographs from the collection of the Royal museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, showing mainly images of big game hunting in the colonial era. Objects belonging to the private collection of one of MuZEE's staff members were arranged in showcases. These artworks and artifacts were contrasted to the works of Belgian artists from the twentieth and twenty-first century comprised in the collection. In the frame of a museum for modern and contemporary art, this singular encounter between artworks and historical photographs that are mostly presented in separated contexts allowed for a renewed gaze on the collection. Therefore, the exhibition opened up new approaches to critically inquire about the historical intertwinements of modern and contemporary art and colonialism. Exhibition: Wiels, Brussels, Belgium (08.05. - 14.08.2016).