Sammy Baloji

Portrait #3: Group of Urua Women is part of the series ‘Congo Far West: Retracing Charles Lemaire’s Expedition’. Since 2005, visual artist and photographer Sammy Baloji has been exploring the history and memory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his country of origin. In 2010, accompanied by historian and anthropologist Maarten Couttenier, he travelled to Katanga to retrace the steps of an expedition conducted in 1898. During that mission, the scientific team was assisted by a photographer and a painter (Léon Dardenne). Sammy Baloji has examined these archival records, which he has brought together here in a montage. His aim was to juxtapose these accounts with the narratives of contemporary communities in Katanga. How were these events passed down through the generations? In Portrait#3, women take centre stage, reflecting their essential role in many African countries: they pass on life and power, and are the guardians of the home and of memory. Their scarifications are on display, remnants of a practice discredited and erased by colonisation.

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