Work In Focus: Contrecarrer 1901

Contrecarrer 1901, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, 2021. Acrylic and oil on canvas.

Contrecarrer 1901 exemplifies Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga's ability to fuse visual beauty with incisive social critique, using a carefully balanced palette and an assemblage of Congolese and European domestic objects to map the complexities of cultural exchange. The coexistence of Western furnishings and materials, and technologically inscribed figures suggests a world shaped by the wealth generated through Congo's mineral resources, while simultaneously exposing how consumption, modernity, and cultural integration remain inseparable from the histories of extraction and exploitation that underpin the global economy.♦

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