_Bio Nzongo Kumbu Rudy was born in Kinshasa, where he lives and works. He entered the Kinshasa Academy of Fine Arts, where he specialized in sculpture. He graduated in 2012.
A passionate artist, he quickly broke away from certain academic norms to forge his own path. In 2019, he took part in the first edition of the Congo Biennale organized by Kin ArtStudio on the topic of transition, as well as in the Forum International Afrique Développement organized by the Arkane Foundation in Morocco. Nzongo Kumbu Rudy is co-founder of the artist collective Zayi Kia Mvangulu (the wisdom of creation), with whom he presents the exhibition Multimédiation et langages at Texaf Bilembo in Kinshasa (2023).
_Approach Nzongo Kumbu Rudy is fueled by his passion for music, which opens up new avenues of reflection for his creative work. His work is based on observation, research, cogitation and dialogue tinted by the uncanny. He creates work which intrigues, moves and dazzles, hoping to encourage reflections and awaken debates that are beneficial to both his practice and his public.
Nzongo Kumbu Rudy remains highly versatile in his choice of mediums and materials. In his recent work, for example, he regularly uses palm twigs. These twigs have an identity and conceptual importance within his community, where they are associated with the healthiness of a place. His choice of material is thus partly guided by its symbolic connotations.
_Project Continuing his Repères Effacés series, which began in 2019, Nzongo Kumbu Rudy will revisit various mythical and cultural African anecdotes specific to Congolese and Kinshasa culture. His aim is to remind us of the primary value of the messages conveyed by these anecdotes, which are rooted in the imagination and seem more easily accessible to children than to the adult consciousness which demystifies everything.
"ba melaka mbuma ya Lilala te kaka mayi n'ango, noki te nzete ebota yo na mutu."
("Only drink the juice of the orange, never its seeds, at the risk of seeing an orange tree sprout on your head").
Nzongo Kumbu Rudy questions the value of this demystification, while these anecdotes still have much to offer in today's context.