Mayangani
Paulvi Ngimbi
Interactive multimedia installation: Collage, Sculpture, Projection, Assemblage
Kinshasa 2021, Berlin 2022
The Kinshasa Academy of Arts was founded in 1943 by Brother Marc Wallenda, a missionary from the colonial era. The selection and structure of the academic courses were also defined by Marc Wallenda according to the European model and have not changed much since. The studies of Paulvi Ngimbi and Prisca Tankwey at the Academy of Fine Arts were therefore also limited to European art history and a Eurocentric conception of art.
Starting from the close connection between art and religion in European art history but also from precolonial expressions of spirituality, the „Mayangani“ project examines the connection between art, religion and coloniality. Mayangani is a movement, a passage from one state to another. Drawing on spiritual/religious rituals and symbols, the project explores the definitions of the sacred and the profane.
Based on the artists’ personal experiences in contemporary Kinshasa, the project aims to develop new experimental forms of collectivity, gathering and community. How can we create spaces that allow us to come to- gether outside of the current power structures? How can art contribute to the creation of such spaces and make them accessible to the public for open exchange?
Born in 1997, Paulvi Ngimbi lives and works in Kinshasa. In 2019, he graduated from the Art Academy Kinshasa in sculpture. He is currently an adjunct lecturer there. As a multidisciplinary artist, he works with media such as sculpture, photography, video, digital space design, performance and installation. The special feature of his work is the combination of these different media in holistic spatial installations. The conceptual arrangements of sculptures, objects, light and sound question spaces as socio-political design spaces. He has been a member of Laboratoire Kontempo since 2020 and has shown spatial installations in digital space (2020), the National Museum Kinshasa (2021) and the Haus der Statistik Berlin (2022) as part of this. His work has also been exhibited at the Yango Biennale of Kinshasa (2022), Collectif Sadi (2019), Centre Mont des Arts In Kinshasa (2018) and the Kinshasa Academy of Arts (2018).