_Bio A multidisciplinary visual artist, Rudy Nzongo Kumbu obtained a diploma in visual art (sculpture option) from the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa in 2012. Co-founder of the artists’ collective Zayi Kia Mvangulu (meaning “the wisdom of creation”), he has blazed his own trail outside certain academic norms. His work has been exhibited at several renowned venues and events, including the Congo Biennale, the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa and the Arkane Association in Morocco.
_Approach Rudy Nzongo Kumbu’s work draws on his love of music. A veritable leitmotiv running through his production, music for him represents a breach he uses to open up various avenues of reflection. For the past few years, he has also taken on the mission of recreating historically significant events of the Kongo people, of whom he is the child and heir. By engaging his practice in the creation of new “landmark guides”, he hopes to help his compatriots take back their history and identity. Drawing on his versatility and on the diversity of his approaches to creation, over the past decade Rudy Nzongo Kumbu has developed an abundant, protean and plural body of work.
_Project During the symposium, Rudy Nzongo Kumbu will continue his “Repères éffacés” (“obliterated landmarks”), a series begun in 2019 which takes up the past, present and, especially, the future of the Kongo people by tracking their history. Exploring the branches of his ancestors’ legacy in North America, he will examine the artefacts and traces left behind by African culture. In particular, his work will allude to the book Au rythme des tambours (1949), which examines the influence of African music in Montreal.
The final work, measuring four metres wide, will show Kongo children and various elements associated with displacement. In keeping with an ancestral African technique, it will be composed of an assemblage of palm twigs and acrylic.