Life advertiser Freddy Tsimba presents « Mabele eleki lola ! La terre plus belle que le paradis » at the Africa Museum

Through a conversation between twenty-two of his sculptures and installations presented opposite thirty pieces from the collection of the former Tervuren Museum, now called the Africa Museum, Freddy Tsimba speaks of the history of a contemporary Congo.
The artist and sculptor reveals his country of origin by creating a dialogue between historical photographs, Western paintings and traditional masks and sculptures never before presented to the public. His objective is to denounce the injustices and inequalities of social life and to expose the incongruities of Congolese governance.

Through a work of the exhibition, a car without engine that men are called to evolve with all their energy, the artist makes an analogy between a car and his nation, which the people are struggling to serve in the hope of a better tomorrow.

The temporary exhibition ” Mabele eleki lola! The earth more beautiful than paradise, ” produced with the assistance of In Koli Jean Bofane, curator of the exhibition, a Kino-Congolese writer exiled in Belgium, is the first of its kind since the reopening of the Africa Museum in 2018. It is held in a large space detached from the permanent collections and remains open to the public until August 15, 2021.

Freddy Tsimba: the voice of the voiceless

An ambassador for the voiceless, Freddy Tsimba dedicates his art to denouncing the violence and slaughter of his people. Once slavery and colonization, today neo-colonialism with multinationals perpetuating terror, insecurity and violence with fire, iron, weapons and twisted ideas.

The sculptor artist’s leitmotiv is to make the Democratic Republic of Congo a land of hope and peace through his works. His approach is to condemn the excesses of domination, violence, social inequality and war.

He creates his works from cartridge cases recovered in conflict zones but also from objects of domestic use that are sometimes diverted to commit crimes (keys, forks, scissors and other tools of subsistence). These used objects reflect the lives of today’s Congolese, made “disposable”.

In his quest to condemn inequality, he pays deserved tribute to women, children and adolescents who are victims of violence.

A fervent opponent of the indoctrination orchestrated by the churches in his country, he titles his exhibition “Mabele eleki lola! The earth is more beautiful than paradise“, currently on display at the Africa Museum; an exhibition that is both an apology for beauty and a rejection of a distant paradise announced by the churches. He creates two sculptures, one large cross with rusty mouse traps and another representing a woman pierced by a cross.

Freddy Tsimba: the art of recreating the Congo

Freddy Bienvenu Tsimba is an independent artist who is committed to the struggle for respect of human values. He devotes his art to this mission and sometimes goes beyond the borders of his country. It is in this quest for justice that during a residency at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in 2016, he created eight figures facing the wall to pay tribute to martyrs and refugees turned away at the borders.

Born in 1967 in Kinshasa, this graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa subsequently trained for 6 years with master founders and in Bandundu.

The sculptor of suffering, as some call him, transforms the metals of conflict into a medium for his works in order to convey a message of peace. He explores situations and experiences close to him and his fellow citizens, to which he gives form. For him, each sculpture he creates is a symbolism, as is his series of works about the legacy of slavery or his “Silhouettes effacées” series: headless human bodies made up of a multitude of abandoned objects. In essence, Freddy Tsimba represents the experience of human suffering on this earth.