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The fantastic, cardboard city models of Bodys Isek Kingelez on display in MoMA's first retrospective of the Congolese artist

2018-05-01T14:26:00-04:00

In its first-ever solo show of a Black African artist, New York's Museum of Modern Art will put the work of visionary Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez on full display. On view from May 26, 2018 through January 1, 2019, City Dreams will span the sculptor's three-decade career from his early single-building sculptures, to his spectacular sprawling cities and futuristic late works.

Bodys Isek Kingelez (Congolese, 1948-2015). Paris Nouvel. 1989. Paper, paperboard, and other various materials, 33 7/16 × 24 × 27 9/16″ (85 × 61 × 70 cm). Long-term loan from the Centre national des arts plastiques, France to the Château d’Oiron, France, FNAC 981003. © Cnap (France) / droits résérves; photograph by Frédéric Pignoux, Studio Lud

The self-trained artist, who passed in 2015, was known for his "extreme maquettes" in which he transformed paper, commercial packaging, and other everyday materials into dazzling, intricate sculptures. From fanciful models of civic buildings and public monuments, t...

The OMA-designed Lusanga International Research Centre on Art and Economic Inequality aims to expose and redress economic inequalities

2017-03-31T12:45:00-04:00

Located on the former site of a Unilever palm oil plantation in the Congolese forest, the Lusanga International Research Centre on Art and Economic Inequality, or LIRCAEI, is a new white cube museum space dedicated to “the transformation of former plantation spaces into areas for artistic critique, beauty, and ecological diversity, through funneling art world capital back to the plantations it was originally extracted from—to create, in other words, a post-plantation.” Designed by OMA, the Centre seeks to retain profits from the community, which produces sculptures made from cacao among other works, and then buy back land to finance further development. OMA has developed a master plan in collaboration with the local community, “with the goal of establishing the center as a legitimization machine, investigating and relaying the artistic visions and works of plantation workers in the Congo and throughout the global south on the site of their former exploitation.”

“Plugged into internat...

Studios Kabako from Congo wins 2014 Curry Stone Design Prize

2014-10-20T15:12:00-04:00

Congolese performance and theater group Studios Kabako from Kisangani was announced as the 2014 Curry Stone Design Prize winner this past weekend at an awards ceremony in Brussels...Studios Kabako was established in 2001 to address the various emotions linked to the aftermath of civil war. Located in a city that is isolated geographically and culturally, the studio has provided its community a safe creative haven of dance, theater, and music through its urban interventions and cultural programs.

Studios Kabako will start a U.S. tour including in New York from October 21 to November 1, 2014, with two performances at the BRIC theater in Brooklyn.

The studio will receive a $100,000 grant prize, and were also featured in a short documentary by the Curry Stone Foundation, which you can watch entirely below.