Aime Mpane: Artis in Conversation at LACMA on Sunday

Aime Mpane, artist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, born in 1968 and active in Belgium was interviewed by Dr. Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts from UCLA and curator of the exhibit.  Her husband Al,  also a PhD at UCLA, translated from French to English.  They had lived in the Congo for 4 years studying Tabwa and Luba art. The figures below are ones that were shown to us by slide show as well as the "Shadow of a Shadow" that was on display.

The artist at his outdoor studio in the Congo carving images of children's faces in plywood

The effects of Nike and other commercialism is major in the Congo

The flags of the colonial nations are thrust into the chest of the African figure with and Ax.

The masks similar to those that Picasso painted show the outside expression and the inside feelings on the other side.

Aime Mpane

The carvings on plywood expose the different layers and colors of the wood on the faces.

Wood and paint on wood

The artist in front of one of his art creations.

Below is a picture of the exhibit of his work entitled "Congo, Shadow of the Shadow," 2005.  "The full size standing figure of a man is formed by 4,652 matchsticks (fire destructs and builds) to express the paradoxes of human strength and fragility and the resolute ability of Congolese to transcend the horrors that have befallen their nation from 1885 to the present.  Decades of tragic and ongoing civil strife have taken countless lives, as reflected by wooden silhouettes of a pregnant woman and child that lie near the figure.  The artist writes that they are the shadows of the dead and then there are their shoes...when a village in Congo dies after an attack by rebels or gangs, sometimes all that is left behind is their shoes."

Aime Mpane divides his time between Belgium and the Congo.  This installation addresses the complex histories during and since the colonial era.  The Berlin Conference of 1885 to which Mpane alludes on the cross, led to the partition of Africa by colonial powers.  It was then that King Leopold II of Belgium, who reigned from 1865 to 1909, was granted the immense Congo Free State as his personal property.  Because of the scandalous, violent exploitation, Belgium assume control of the colony in 1908 and held it until Congolese independence in 1960.