Sammy Baloji
1978, Lubumbashi, République Démocratique du Congo / Bruxelles, Belgique
Sammy Baloji (Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1978) lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels. His work is a continuous exploration of the cultural, architectural, and industrial heritage of the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as a questioning of the impact of Belgian colonization. Through his photographs, collages, videos, and installations, Sammy Baloji emphasizes how identities are shaped, transformed, perverted, and reinvented.
In 2019-2020, he was a fellow at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici. Since 2018, he has been teaching at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg.
Among his recent solo exhibitions are “K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues” at Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2022) and Beaux-Arts de Paris (2021), “Sammy Baloji, Other Tales” at Lund Konsthall and Aarhus Kunsthal (2020), “Congo, Fragments of a History” at Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg (2019), “A Blueprint for Toads and Snakes” at Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2018), “Sven Augustijnen & Sammy Baloji” at Museumcultuur Strombeek (2018), “Urban Now: City Life in Congo” with Filip de Boeck at The Power Plant, Toronto, and WIELS, Brussels (2016-2017), and “Hunting and Collecting” at Mu.ZEE Kunstmuseum aan zee, Ostend (2014).
He has recently participated in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023), the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023), the Sydney Biennale (2020), documenta 14 (Cassel/Athens, 2017), the Lyon Biennale (2015), the Venice Biennale (2015), and the Photoquai Festival at the Musée du Quai Branly (2015).
