Artist’s book published by Kunstverein Publishing Milano and solo exhibition at Museo delle Civiltà, Roma
Comment un petit chasseur païen devient Prêtre Catholique (How A Little Pagan Hunter Becomes A Catholic Priest), is a research trajectory initiated by Georges Senga in 2017, during the Lubumbashi Biennale (Lubumbashi, Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo) in the family archive of Bonaventure Salumu, a kid from a small village in Belgian Congo who became Jesuit priest. Images, texts and documents recount Salumu’s life, his travels, his lifetime in Europe and finally his homecoming and new secular existence in postcolonial Zaire. With a Colbert Fellowship at Villa Medici, Academy of France in Rome, Senga developed the conceptual and artistic formalization of this long-term research by working with the archives of the Pères Blancs – Missionaries of Africa and of the Jesuit congregation, both connected to a history of missionary work and colonization of the African continent.
“The title of this project comes from a picture I found in the house of an acquaintance in Lubumbashi,” Senga says, “my hometown. The picture was a reproduction of the cover of a local newspaper, with an article entitled ‘Comment un petit chasseur païen devient Prêtre Catholique,’ which recounted the biography of a Jesuit Catholic priest who was born in Belgian Congo, traveled the world and got back to his village. Together with the picture, I found some personal photos that the priest took during many trips in Europe and in the Mediterranean, and a collection of diapositives with Belgian landscapes. I was highly surprised: the acquaintance was the daughter of the priest. Knowing that Jesuits make vows of chastity and obedience, I felt immediately attracted to the life of Bonaventure Salumu, a man who moved from a province of Congo, became Jesuit, fulfilled his life with travels in many countries and eventually became a family man in Lubumbashi after the independence of the country.”
This first comprehensive public presentation of the research combines for the first time all the documentation collected and produced by Senga in the last five years, with the release of an artist’s book published by Kunstverein Publishing (Milano) and the site-specific installation in Museo delle Civiltà of Rome. Interlacing private stories and public events, Senga’s excavational work reveals, through the narration of this incredible, yet minimal and individual life story, the history of the Kingdom of Kongo / Belgian Congo / Zaire against its global background: an area that had been connected to Europe since the premodern era through the commercial and diplomatic exchanges of Portuguese seafarers, and therefore crucial for the religious and political networks of the early modern Atlantic. The two congregations which marked the life of Salumu during the decades of the Belgian colony, embody the legacy of premodern times, in which Rome emerged not only as the capital of Western Christianity but also as the centre of a global network connecting, through evangelisation, Africa and Europe even before the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade and the subsequent European colonies in Africa. In July 2021, the first partial, public presentation of this research was part of the final exhibition of Villa Medici fellows (ECCO, June–August 2021). The Recovery Plan in Florence (September 2021) hosted Georges Senga for a residency and a research display for the opening of their new space, with an highlight on the documentation around Bonaventure Salumu. In October 2022, the 7th Lubumbashi Biennale, Toxicity, hosted a screening and performance which emphasized some parts of the texts and some of the iconographic material included in the artist’s book.
The texts collected in the artist’s book Comment un petit chasseur païen devient Prêtre Catholique were commissioned from three young writers from Lubumbashi, Bibiche Tankama N’sel, Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein and Ramcy Kabuya. The contributions are developed around the conceptual frame structured by the artist: the youth and education of Bonaventure; his travels; and family life in Zaire. Each offers glimpses of a specific moment in the life of Salumu and as the images, they are neither documentaries nor narratives: they are exercises in speculative narration.
The solo show at Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, Georges Senga: Comment un petit chasseur païen devient Prêtre Catholique, curated by Lucrezia Cippitelli is part of the new reopening of Museo delle Civiltà, under the new direction of Andrea Viliani, whose program questions the very nature of its foundation as ethnographic museum, the story of its collections and the cultural meaning of such an institution. After Rome, the project will travel to Wiels, Brussels, and Framer Framed, Amsterdam.
A special thank you to the SALUMU Family: Bode-Mani Lucie, Mukemwendo Bode Salumu Marie-Thérèse, Mani Salumu Jolie, Nyange Salumu Carine, Bode Salumu Beaudouin, Yasmine Salumu, Mustapha Salumu, Samuel Salumu, Manu Salumu, Light Salumu, Therreza Salum.
Georges Senga: Born in 1983 in Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic sof Congo) and living and working in Lubumbashi, and Maastricht, The Netherlands, Georges Senga is a photographer.
Kunstverein Milano is a non for-profit organization, a curatorial office for contemporary art projects, part of the franchise established by Kunstverein in Amsterdam, with sisters in New York, Toronto and Aughrim.
