스킵네비게이션

Born 1974 in Lubumbashi, DR Congo

Lives in Lubumbashi

Jean Katambayi MUKENDI, Afrolampe, 2020, Pen on paper, 100×70cm

Jean Katambayi MUKENDI is a self-taught artist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo whose passion for logic, geometry, and mechanics permeates his work. Touching upon contemporary socio-economic issues through work that straddles art and scientific experiment, he transcends the purely aesthetic to embrace issues related to education, energy and health. To this end MUKENDI focuses on the social environment around him and, based on his findings from long study and research, addresses the daily issues or restrictions faced by African societies.

MUKENDI explores our tendency to think in binaries and the social modalities that are produced as a consequence of this, and asks what equations are assumed by our approach to the world. He himself has spoken about the context of social change and transitions in and around his work, and in his sculptures, installations, and drawings, we see the unique algorithm-based plastic language MUKENDI has created in order to hold an array of social issues. MUKENDI’s work is also informed by his belief that science, fiction, and contemporary myths are all related. Mindful of these connections, he locates and proposes the coordinates of today within the network of social and natural rules and norms that exist or arise out of global economic, political, or educational issues—which may well be a way of asking the questions that make space to imagine the future to come.