Afrolampe #7 & #1, Jean Katambayi, 2016

Jean Katambayi (b. 1974, lives and works in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo) has been obsessively studying the energy flows that govern our world, both physical and spiritual.

His pieces and drawings are like studies that reveal the imbalanced nature of the world and the forces within it. Using found and recycled cardboard and electronic elements, he creates electrical calculation systems, theoretical and practical machines that highlight the question of his home country the Congo’s lack of energetic resources while also attempting to resolve it.

Jean Katambayi’s practice is echoed in hacking and its foundations: sharing of knowledge, the wish to awaken consciences and the application of a seemingly infinite ingenuity. At once subtle and poetic, his creations praise the transcendence of social, political and material limits.