Style Congo: Heritage & Heresy

Style Congo: Heritage & Heresy explores the politics of cultural representation and appropriation through both contemporary artistic and architectural interventions and historic materials from CIVA’s collection. Curated by Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, and Estelle Lecaille, the exhibition chronicles the representation of Congo in international and colonial expositions held between 1885 and 1958, using Art Nouveau as its anchor point.

The Belgian movement—in its time also called Style Congo—coincided with King Leopold II’s exploitation of Congo and reflects a widespread fascination with “exotic” materials and forms. As total artworks, the pavilions of international and colonial exhibitions illustrate the synthesis of the arts to which modernism aspired, not only through architectural form and applied arts, but also by merging the stage and collection, setting a precedent for institutional displays in ethnographic museums. Through their enthralling constructions and beguiling references—each utopian in their own way—the pavilions communicated a twofold idea: Congo as a lucrative African colony and as a creative field for Belgian artists and architects. Through a display of both authenticity and progress, they served as a platform for cultural propaganda and economic exchange.

Contemporary artistic and architectural positions in the exhibition question canonical histories and the colonial roots of this heritage, and with it the perception of buildings that became icons of Belgian culture. By examining marks of colonization in the city of Brussels and in the Congolese urban landscape, they propose a decolonial resignification of private and public spaces, seeking to rewrite the margins of history into the center.

With contributions by Judith Barry, Rossella Biscotti, Peggy Buth, ayoh kré Duchâtelet, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Johan Lagae and Paoletta Holst, Chrystel Mukeba, Daniela Ortiz, Ruth Sacks, and Traumnovelle.

With selected works by Ernest Acker, Alfred Bastien, Victor Bourgeois, Joseph Caluwaers, Albéric Collin, Jacques Cury, Pierre de Vaucleroy, Arthur Dupagne, Jean-Jules Eggericx, Paul Hankar, Georges Hobé, Victor Horta, Henry Lacoste, Fernand Leroy, Edmond Leplae, Paul Mathieu, René Pechère, Fernand Petit, René Schoentjes, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, Henry Van de Velde.

Events
Lecture: March 21, 7pm
Bodys Isek Kingelez’s “Extreme Maquettes”: A Creole Envisioning of Decolonial Monuments by Sandrine Colard.

Symposium: March 29, 5pm
Decolonizing Public Space, Françoise Vergès with Alexandre Chevalier, Georgina Dibua, Salomé Ysebart, Yasmina Zian (members of the working group Vers la Décolonization de l’espace public en Région de Bruxelles-Capitale), Sammy Baloji, Phillip Van Den Bossche and Eric Van Hove.

Lecture: April 25, 7pm
“Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness?" Reflections on Reclaiming Belgium’s Imperial Modernism by Debora Silverman.

Symposium: May 25, 6pm
Whose Heritage? Unsettling Archives and Collections. Event conceived in collaboration with Som•m•e Of Us, with Sepake Angiama (Iniva London), Lotte Arndt (Technische Universität Berlin), Clémentine Deliss (Berlin), Jessica De Abreu (Black Archives Amsterdam), Samia Henni (Cornell University), Jonelle Twum (Black Archives Sweden), Hannah Ishmael (Black Cultural Archives, UK).

Jun 30, 6pm
Congo Independence Day, Decolonial Tour with François Makanga and performance by Yannos Majestikos.

Book launch: August 31, 7pm
Style Congo: Heritage and Heresy, published by CIVA and Spector Books.

Book launch: Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence by Ruth Sacks (date to be confirmed).

Other speakers of the public program include David Adjaye, Jorge Otero Pailos and Mabel O. Wilson.

In parallel to the exhibition and publication, CIVA and e-flux architecture will present the essay series “Appropriation.”

The exhibition is a collaboration between CIVA, KANAL - Centre Pompidou, and Twenty Nine Studio & Production. Curated by Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, and Estelle Lecaille.

The public program is a collaboration between CIVA, KANAL – Centre Pompidou, La Cambre, and Brussels 2030.

Artistic Director: Nikolaus Hirsch

Secretary General: Jeremy Uhr

Press inquiries: Guilliana Venlet, g.venlet [​at​] civa.brussels / T +32 2 642 24 87