The day ends
Spreading millennial histories
Out over the earth so that
He who reads shadows
may see in a moment
the story of the times
Homero Aridjis
Exaltation of Light
Aimé Mpane creates works of art that are solemn, poetic, fragile, visceral, and haunting all at once. There is great humanity present and a story being told. It is a story of greed, murder, terror, injustice, courage, and hope. Much of his work examines the relationships between Africa and the so-called civilized West after European powers convened for the Conference of Berlin in 1885. It was during this conference that Africa was divided into artificial territories for colonization and trade. King Leopold II of Belgium was given dominion over the Congo, a region 5 times the size of Belgium. Thus began a reign of terror that would see the Congo’s population decimated by approximately 10 million during Leopold’s État Indépendant du Congo, which consisted of forced labor, rape, mutilation and genocide. Though Leopold’s reign lasted only 23 years, its shadow lingers today as the region has faced decades of kleptocratic governments, multinational corporations and rebel militias with eyes focused on the extraction of wealth (diamonds, gold, cobalt, coltan, petroleum, and uranium) at any human cost. At present time “experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10 million dead since war began in 1996 with the U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Zaire’s (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) President Joseph Mobutu.”
Shadow and light have been intricate themes in Aimé’s work. A shadow is a region of darkness where light is blocked. There are cultures where the shadow is a flicker of life unable to end for some reason. Still others see the shadow as an ethereal presence around an object like a halo. Shadows can be the boogeymen who haunt our dreams and realities alike. The great shadow of capitalism has fully cast its shade upon the Democratic Republic of Congo. Your shadow is your own ghost, following you for all of your days. Making your way around the gallery space, take notice how your own shadow infiltrates certain installations, implicating you into their existence. In the giant shadow of night time Aimé paints portraits by firelight or candlelight in an energy-scarce city. To experience Aimé Mpane’s work is to journey in one man’s service to his people. Ultimately they are a way of keeping memories of events and people alive. They emerge from a dark history to become something beautiful; a requiem and sublimation.
Ryan Perry
Aimé Mpane was born 1968 into a family of artists in Kinshasa, Congo. He graduated in Sculpture from the Academie des Beaux-Arts, Kinshasa in 1990 and Ecole National Superieure des Arts Visuels de La Cambre, Bruxelles, Belgium in 2000, He presently teaches Sculpture at the Academie International d’Ete de Wallonie, Libramont, Belgium and as a Visiting Professor at the Academie des Beaux-Art in Kinshasa. Exhibitions include “DAK’ART” Bienniale de Dakar, Senegal, 2006,for which he was awarded the Jean Paul Blachére Foundation’s Critics Prize; Havana Biennial 2003; Africa for Africa, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, 2003; Musee de Katanga, Lubumbashi, Congo, 2002; Africa Sana, Quai Antoine Ier, Monaco 2001; and Centre Cultural Français, Kinshasa, 1991.