In this installation, Sammy Baloji presents mortar shell casings from the First World War as plant pots. In Belgium, where these objects are still in circulation, they are often used as vases in domestic settings. Sammy Baloji however fills the shell casings with plants from his home state of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making their origin more explicit. For a long time, Katanga, which is rich in mineral resources, was under Belgian colonial rule and vast amounts of copper were mined there to manufacture ammunition for Europe's battlefields. Congolese men and women were forced to work in the mines under exploitative conditions to support the Allied war effort and also acted as porters and soldiers in the world wars.
Baloji explains:
"I am not interested in colonialism as an event of the past, but rather as a continuation of a system. I have been living in Belgium since 2010, and yet I have never seen an exhibition about the two world wars that mention the involvement of Africa and their consequences on the African continent. However, many African workers were forced to produce copper to make bombs. […] Everything is still only seen from one point of view. So I'm putting together stories that we usually try to separate."
The African plants Baloji includes in his installation are now popular houseplants in Europe and feature in Western botanical gardens. The artist also links them to a political message:
"Plants, like minerals, are always travelling, but when it comes to the migration of people, there are borders and walls."
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Sammy Baloji
*1978, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Lives and works in Brussels, Begium and Lubumbashi, DRC
© Courtesy the artist and Imane Farès, Paris
Photo: Mathias Schormann
Audioguide
In this installation, Sammy Baloji presents mortar shell casings from the First World War as plant pots. In Belgium, where these objects are still in circulation, they are often used as vases in domestic settings. Sammy Baloji however fills the shell casings with plants from his home state of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making their origin more explicit. For a long time, Katanga, which is rich in mineral resources, was under Belgian colonial rule and vast amounts of copper were mined there to manufacture ammunition for Europe's battlefields. Congolese men and women were forced to work in the mines under exploitative conditions to support the Allied war effort and also acted as porters and soldiers in the world wars.
Baloji explains:
"I am not interested in colonialism as an event of the past, but rather as a continuation of a system. I have been living in Belgium since 2010, and yet I have never seen an exhibition about the two world wars that mention the involvement of Africa and their consequences on the African continent. However, many African workers were forced to produce copper to make bombs. […] Everything is still only seen from one point of view. So I'm putting together stories that we usually try to separate."
The African plants Baloji includes in his installation are now popular houseplants in Europe and feature in Western botanical gardens. The artist also links them to a political message:
"Plants, like minerals, are always travelling, but when it comes to the migration of people, there are borders and walls."
Further artworks from this exhibition
Intro
Lubaina Himid
Dreaming Has a Share in History, 2016
Zohra Opoku
‘I have arisen from my egg which is in the lands of the secrets. I give my mouth to myself (so that) I may speak with it in the presence of the gods of the Duat. My hand shall not be turned away from the council of the great god Osiris, Lord of Rosetau, this one who is at the top of the dais. I have come (so that) I may do what my heart desires in the Island of Fire, extinguihing the fire which hcomes forth.', 2020
Dineo Seshee Bopape
Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting), 2017