default

Jean Katambayi Mukendi’s state of mind is algorithmic. Typically using recycled materials, and based on complex calculations, Mukendi builds an alternative infrastructure in which science, technology, mythology and imagination come together to solve society’s problems. From his formative training as an electrician and his aptitude for mathematics, he has developed an oeuvre whose uniqueness finds its origins in Congolese life, where improbable situations can arise from a combination of failing infrastructure, neocolonialism and the inexhaustible creativity of people.

Onderhandeling (meaning ‘negotiation’), whose Dutch-language title refers to the colonial past of what was the Belgian Congo, is a machine that depicts political negotiations as a lottery game. The balls symbolise the countries of the G20, supplemented for the occasion by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Belgium.