JEAN KATAMBAYI MUKENDI
b. 1974, Congo (Dem. Republic)Since his childhood, Jean Katambayi Mukendi has been inspired by the copper tools, packages, and instruments he saw used in his home city of Lubumbashi, where the whole economy still relies on the extraction of copper. Yet the city suffers from electricity outages on a regular basis and the available copper is of a poor quality. Through his focus on copper, and artworks that combine art and scientific experiment, Jean Katambayi Mukendi addresses the socio-economic disparity often faced by African societies.
Participating in Taipei Biennial 2020, the artist presented precariously balanced sculptures whose shapes are ‘random’ (aléatoire), as the artist would say, but are made up of heterogeneous components that were carefully selected.
Text courtesy Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Ocula
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