Katanga Libanga

Athar Jaber  |  Visual Arts  |  2019  |  Iraq

The project consists of a six-week residency in the city of Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo), as part of the 6th Lubumbashi Biennial. The residency will be initially dedicated to the understanding of the local socio-political reality by means of an active engagement with the community through interviews. The collected experience and data will generate the development and realization of an actual artistic project. This will unfold during the second stage of the residency and in close collaboration with the local community. The project will zoom in on the local mining industry and the problematic issues related to it. Departing from the association of the manual labor shared between sculptors and miners, the project will explore the reality of the miners’ life, their community and work. The Biennial will provide the opportunity to reframe the workers daily labor, interpreting it as an artistic practice. The project intent is to pay a tribute to the people of the region, while questioning the morality of Western involvement.