L
TEXT GARRETH VAN NIEKERK PHOTOGRAPH DENIS DOORLY FOR MOMAA retrospective of the late Congolese
artist Bodys Isek Kingelez revives his
utopian dreams for the continent
VIEW / SPOTLIGHTJUN JUL^28IMAGINING
AFRICAN FUTURES
ong before Afrofuturism existed in
our lingo, Congolese artist Bodys Isek
Kingelez built his own African utopia
into being. His ‘extreme maquettes’
morphed paper, plastic and building rubble into
sculptural cityscapes that today, four years after
his passing and some 40 years after his original
piece, are becoming the subject of global acclaim.
The first major international retrospective
of the artist’s work, Bodys Isek Kingelez: City
Dreams, showed at the Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA) in New York City in 2018, and an
extensive catalogue of the exhibition is available
for purchase online at the MoMA store.
The exhibition traced Kingelez’ life through
his work: from his days as a sapeur on the
streets of Brazzaville creating single-building
maquettes, to his first international exhibition
at the now-famous Magiciens de la Terre show
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to becoming
one of the DRC’s most celebrated artists.
Kingelez’ city creations imagine fantastical
plazas and towers with tall spindles, finned
facades and suspended engineering whirling in
a candyland pattern of decorative shapes. But
more than an exercise in aesthetics, the works
probe the changes facing Africa during the
artist’s lifetime, asking urgent questions about
inequality, community and the harsh realities of
urban growth, many of which are still relevant.
In pieces like ‘The Scientific Center of
Hospitalisation the SIDA’ (1991), Kingelez
considers a sort of palace for healthcare,
where his countrymen could recover in
comfort from the ravages of the HIV/AIDS
crisis that so many of them were victims of.
‘I’m dreaming cities of peace,’ Kingelez once
explained. ‘I’d like to help the earth above all.’
His dreams manifest in what can only
be described as his magnum opus, the
extraordinary ‘Ville Fantôme’ (1996), which
was accompanied by a virtual reality experience
for visitors at the MoMA exhibition. It sees the
artist bring the minutiae of a truly utopian city
to life – a place where peace and stability have
created a society in which doctors and police are
not needed. ‘It’s a peaceful city where everybody
is free,’ he said. ‘It’s a city that breathes nothing
but joy, the beauty of life. It’s a melting pot
of all the races in the world. Here, you live in
a paradise, just like heaven.’ O moma.org(^) H
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