Traces of optimism Guy Tillim in FOAM
A part of Foam’s exhibition space in Amsterdam is currently dedicated to a selection of photographs from a series by Guy Tillim entitled Avenue Patrice Lumumba. The photographs were (with one exception) taken between 2007 and 2008. They depict public spaces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Benin, Angola and Madagascar which all relate to Patrice Lumumba – who is famous for his role in Congo-Kinshasa’s struggle for independence from colonial rule. Lumumba was killed in 1961 by Belgium agents.
The photographed spaces are reminiscent of what Dambisa Moyo has recently described as the ‘fictitious’ Republic of Dongo. For Moyo, this concept serves as a description of the historical, political, social and economic aspects of certain West and Central African countries.
Typical for these countries after ending the official end of colonial rule in the 1960s, are their unstable political climates, their tremendous amounts of debts, corruption and dependence on the export of resources. Nevertheless, Moyo is convinced that Dongo (the counrties it reflects upron) has the potential to break out of this vicious circle.
Tillim’s photographs recount the consequences of the aspects described above, but at the same time his images convey the fortitude and endurance of their motifs. Many photographs from the Avenue Patrice Lumumba series show declining modern spaces made from concrete such as apartment blocks, hotel facilities, offices or museum gardens. In 2008, the mostly decaying buildings represent the African inability to make Lumumba’s dream a reality.
Most of the spaces appear to be abandoned, but when viewed carefully, the photographs depict traces of recent human activity such as laundry hanging out to dry and other carefully arranged objects, varying from books to plants and public gardens.
The few people in the pictures are shown impartially, often involved in a more or less active occupation: thinking, working, playing or resting. None of the photographs in this series share the tense, unsettled atmosphere of Tillim’s Congo Democratic series taken during the elections in 2006. In contrast, the Avenue Patrice Lumumba photographs appear to be visual constructions of moments in which people bide their time.
Although the images point to the represented countries’ lack of sufficient financing for restoration, they also depict the hope for the future on which the now obsolete buildings were once based.
This is most notably present in the photographs of educational institutions like the University of Lubumbashi. The picture of the university’s Chemistry and Geography building, for instance, captures a view of the current situation there: facilities are scarce, but what is provided is used and kept in good order.
There are a few books on a table, whereas the rest of the shelves, stools and tables are empty. Beams of light fill the space of the image as if they are trying to reveal the enlightened ideas on which the existence of many modern universities is based. Answers to the question of whether Lumumba would have supported these ideas remain speculative. The fact of the matter is that violent interventions have erased that possibility.
There is a remarkable contrast between the image spaces of Tillim’s photographs and Foam’s flawless exhibition space. Although Tillim’s work has been produced with outstanding professionalism in every respect, the rawness and disintegration of the photographed image spaces stand out from the material exclusivity of the photography museum’s architecture.
Perhaps this contrast is to be read as a critical statement on the current inequality of the global distribution of material resources. Whatever the case, the exhibition is well worth seeing, because the big format prints excellently convey the photographs’ extraordinary richness of detail.
The exhibition Guy Tillim – Avenue Patrice Lumumba in Foam is accompanied by an essay on the circumstances around the assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba written by the journalist Bart Luirink. The complete series has been collected in the publication Avenue Patrice Lumumba (2009).
Kerstin Winking
