Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo Congo, b. 1981

Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, the prominent figure of the emerging Congolese painting, presents collage on canvas and installations that question the deep meaning of con- temporary society, with particular focus on the themes of globalization, intercultural dialogue and the power violently exercised by the strong on the weak ones.

Body parts take shape on the canvas from the combination of different ima- ges cut out of African and international fashion magazines. According to Vitshois, such composi- tional technique is a way to re-create the human body and to re-imagine and re-build the society in which we are living. By repositioning the human figure in the middle of the painting activity, the artist portrays a belly full of consumables: a variation on the theme of “we are what we eat” where the emerging figure is a man who feels exonera- ted from the responsibility of being a thinker.

The theme of identity is also at the heart of Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo’s artistic reflection. It is not a geographically defined identity: “It is not a continental identity that needs to be sought - explains the artist - or the unity and the relevance of this artistic production, but rather the identity in its transcendence due to the constant contact with other cultures and continents and the internal transformations suffered by contemporary societies”.

Art for Vitshois is firstly an experimental space where you can blend together all the different media - painting, installation, performance, collage - that become magnifying glasses on international political, social and economic issues.

The conflict is another basic theme: his work is also a reflection on the dominance of a few powerful men who apply arbitrary justice according to their needs, mostly economic ones, neutralizing the weak ones with the use of violence and war.

The strategies by which the sensate body is displayed and re-presented by Mwilambwe disengage and dismantle fossilised parameters that straightjacket our abilities to imagine the potentials of other worlds re-organised. The recent history of the DRC is marked by civil war and corruption, and the Congolese media operate against systems of warring political powers and violent turmoil. In this artist's brilliant approach through art, imagination blossoms, hopes grow; the borders become the center, and the interstices, the essence. In a notable video interview, the artist asserts that his works show "the confrontation between reality and the dream" as he personifies the Alien and definitively underscores the indomitable resilience of the Congolese people.