Video by Miyako Narita for Autograph ABP, documenting Sammy Baloji: Mémoire at Dilston Grove, London. 2 June - 4 July 2010

CGP London, in partnership with Autograph ABP, is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in the UK of Congolese photographer and filmmaker Sammy Baloji in the newly renovated Dilston Grove. Mémoire is an artist film addressing colonial violence, shattered dreams of independence and the postcolonial political fallout that exists within the current Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mémoire is a beautifully crafted and abstracted artists video shot in collaboration with the fellow Congolese performance artist Faustin Linyekula. Alongside Mémoire, Autograph ABP have commissioned Baloji to make a new large-scale photographic work that will document the exact site of Patrice Lumumba’s assassination in January 1961.

Sammy Baloji’s work shines a powerful spotlight on contemporary Congolese reality. It interrogates the abuse of power and its legacy, revealing the devastating impact that exploitative cultures have on both society and the environment. It calls for greater awareness of the local consequences of ‘development’ and highlights the rights of local people. Baloji creates videos that investigate the body, and, despite restrictions on photographing public sites, he produces images of the Congo’s urban architecture. His work raises social consciousness and stimulaties artistic development in the Katanga region, a locus for colonial and postcolonial exploitation of its wealth of minerals essential for Western technologies.

This exhibition was part commissioned by Autograph ABP and is accompanied by an artist’s book available during the exhibition. Autograph ABP is a charity that works internationally to educate the public in photography with a particular emphasis on cultural identity and human rights.

The staging of Mémoire is supported by the Goethe Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.

autograph-abp.co.uk