ARTAFRICAREVIEWSBEAUTÉ CONGO / OLIVIA ANANI
Beauté Congo:
What’s on TV Tonight?
Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko
at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Parisby Olivia Anani
Exactly ten years after the much talked-about ‘Africa Remix’ exhibition, the prestigious
Fondation Cartier in Paris has its grand exhibition on the new craze.If here the word new is all-important, it is for the way it brings light to a somewhat
ambiguous project. The historical approach taken by the curator – a knowledgeable
attempt to uncover ninety years of Congolese art – was somehow turned into a series of
digestible episodes, akin to a TV channel’s Sunday entertainment. As seen on national TV,
the exhibition’s opening was flamboyant, complete with sapeurs, beautiful women and the
finest African fusion cuisine, courtesy of the young and brilliant chef, Dieuveil Malonga.
The bright yellow exhibition posters featured a painting by Jean-Paul Mika, showing a
man and a woman, grey-skinned, dancing and laughing. The woman is wearing a wax-
printed skirt and a grey top, the man checkered trousers and a white shirt. Both sport
trendy sunglasses and necklaces, white teeth shining between intense red lips. Everything
is so bright, so lively. The exhibition has just the right amount of history (in the form
of paintings and archival documents from the twenties), elegant visuals (photographs
of mid-century Kinshasa by Jean Depara) and technical prowess (Bodys Isek Kingelez’s
maquettes).To say that ‘Beauté Congo’ is a popular success would be an understatement. One needs
to be in Paris to understand the public’s incredible reaction. In a country that has such a
long history with the Congo, one starts to wonder what exactly is happening here.1/5 ARTAFRICA