ICC at Enough Room for Space, BE
ICC at Enough Room for Space, BE
Ongoing since 2018
ICC / Institute of Colonial Culture
Research on Congolese Heritage
Initiated by: Philippe Mikobi (National Museum Lubumbashi, DRC) and Maarten Vanden Eynde (Enough Room for Space, Drogenbos, BE)
Location: National Museum of Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, DRC and Enough Room for Space, Drogenbos, Belgium
Institutional support:
National Museum Lubumbashi: Serge Songa Songa, Anne-Marie Bupe Kashulwe, Rosalie Ngengele Zawadi, John Mukabila
University of Lubumbashi: Prof. Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu, Prof. Kizobo Obweng Okwes
Partners: Centre Cerfaux-Lefort, Louvain-la-Neuve (BE), MusAfrica, Namur (BE), Quai Branly Museum, Paris (FR), University of Lubumbashi (DRC)
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ERforS HQ (open on appointment):
Sterstraat 10 Rue de l'Etoile
1620 Drogenbos, Belgium
Mail: enoughroomforspace@protonmail.com
Institute of Colonial Culture (ICC) - Research on Congolese Heritage
ICC consists of a collection of artefacts, documents, books, photographs and films representing colonial presence in Congo, mainly focusing on the period 1884-1960. There is hardly any tangible material left in Congo of that period, due to the hastily departure of most colonisers after the independence in 1960. ICC is an institute, existing separately but hosted in DR Congo by the National Museum in Lubumbashi and in Belgium by Enough Room for Space (ERforS), that creates a permanent archive of objects, clothes, letters, photo's, audio and video recordings, books and documents representing colonial culture. Or put differently, the daily life and work of white European colonists in the colonial period. The Kingdom of Kongo, and later Congo Free State was occupied by and/or traded with the Portuguese, French, Dutch, Belgian, German and English, and covers the entire or part of the currently known countries: Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo Kinshasa), Angola, The Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Burundi and Rwanda).
The aim is to remedy a void in the collection of the National Museum, but also the public knowledge about the colonial period, both in Belgium and DR Congo, by creating an archive of colonial culture, the first of its kind in DR Congo. By doing so, it facilitates a more egalitarian writing of history, where the dominant ethnographic western view towards colonisation and African cultures in general, is reversed. ICC puts western culture under an 'African microscope' by using material and documentation from both colonisers and colonised.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic travelling to DR Congo and shipping books and artefact became increasingly difficult, and with the huge amounts of archival materials still coming in, the decision was made to install the archive in the project space of Enough Room for Space until further notice. Here, both researchers and artists can work with the material and slowly start with the re-contextualisation of all the material. Several artists already started working with one or more objects or books prior to the official opening, and institutional partners are also connecting to ICC, like MusAfrica in Namen, Belgium, Quai Branly museum in Paris, France, Centre Cerfaux-Lefort in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium and University of Lubumbashi in D.R. Congo.
Related News
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22 September - 22 October 2023
ICC: REGARD CROISÉ
Residency of Pamela Tulizo
ICC/Institute of Colonial Culture is very pleased to welcome Pamela Tulizo for a month long residency supported by Goethe-Institut. Pamela Tulizo is an artist, documentary photographer and journalist, living and working in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, who incessantly and without limitations renegotiates the iconography of black African woman throughout history, by restaging and (digitally) manipulating their representation in popular culture and media outlets. She will work on her research project REGARD CROISÉ, which aims to include raw materials and historic objects in the mix of her poignant alterations of the perceived reality of African woman, while they metamorphose from carrying the burdens of the past into invincible Amazons of the future.
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9 - 14 January 2023
ICC: TRACER
Residency, ERforS, BE
First residency of 'TRACER', an interdisciplinary group (Esther Mugambi, Emmanuelle Nsunda, Nizar Saleh, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Anne Wetsi Mpoma and Emily Hardick) who recontextualizes the colonial performance ‘Changwe Yetu’ through a panel of its decor made by artist Mwenze Kibwanga. 'Changwe Yetu' was composed of dances and musical acts from Rwandan, Congolese and Burundese artists and traveled to several cities in Congo and Belgium between 1956-59.
Now, in a reverse travelogue, the group follows this Mwenze's panel’s path back to the African continent, with stops in the form of creative and discursive residencies in Brussels, Antwerp and Lubumbashi, reanimating the set piece with a polyphonic and decolonial perspective.
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1 July 2021
Calmeyn in the Congo: On Elephants, Missionaries, and a Rubber King
Text by Lucas Catherine, published online
This new monologue, written by Lucas Catherine, was performed in the historic Castle of Drogenbos, the home of the Calmeyn family for many generations. In three languages, Calmeyn’s soliloquy was read by three different actors and performers. In Dutch by Kurt Vandendriessche, in French by Ophélie Mac, and in English by Martin Swabey.
Maurice Calmeyn, on whom the soliloquy is based, was a rare and open critic of King Leopold’s colonial project in the time, and the book (Au Congo Belge, 1912) he wrote after his travels to Congo in 1907 and 1908, caused much uproar and resulted in social exclusion. The book was suppressed severely and the original copy is still rare to find. This soliloquy aims to capture the essence of this book, to give an idea of the personality of Maurice Calmeyn and the message he tried to convey at the time.
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1 March 2020 - 28 August 2021
Bie Michels – ‘(Pas) Mon Pays’
Enough Room for Space, BE
The film ‘(Pas) Mon Pays, Part I and II’ together with the installation ‘The Copy’ will be shown at Enough Room for Space. The exhibition will also present archival material in relation to the history of the colonial monument in Mechelen and the proposed new inscription.
As the title indicates, ‘(Pas) Mon Pays, Part I and II’, is in two parts. The first deals with a colonial monument in Mechelen and Michels’ efforts to decolonize this statue with a group of Belgian citizens with Congolese roots. The second shows the artist’s visit to DR Congo and is based on her personal history. The film is an attempt to let the past encounter the present and see further into the future of the postcolonial situation, in both DR Congo and Mechelen.
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20 June 2021
ICC, ‘(Pas) Mon Pays’ & ‘Calmeyn in the Congo: On Elephants, Missionaries, and a Rubber King’
Enough Room for Space & Drogenbos Castle, BE
A presentation of the film ‘(Pas) Mon Pays, Part I and II’ together with the installation ‘The Copy’ that is currently on view at Enough Room for Space, will be open to the public from 13:30 to 18:00. At 14:00 a conversation between Bie Michels, Lucas Catherine and Nelson Makengo will take place about the representation of colonial heritage, both within monuments and archives, and their specific relation to memory and commemoration, hosted by Anne Wetsi Mpoma and Maarten Vanden Eynde.
Afterwards, starting at 16:00, a new monologue ‘Calmeyn in the Congo: On Elephants, Missionaries, and a Rubber King’, written by Lucas Catherine, will be performed in the historic Castle of Drogenbos, the home of the Calmeyn family for many generations, located on walking distance from Enough Room for Space. In three languages, Calmeyn’s soliloquy will be read by three different actors and performers. In Dutch by Kurt Vandendriessche, in French by Ophélie Mac, and in English by Martin Swabey.
Maurice Calmeyn, on whom the soliloquy is based, was a rare and open critic of King Leopold’s colonial project in the time, and the book (Au Congo Belge, 1912) he wrote after his travels to Congo in 1907 and 1908, caused much uproar and resulted in social exclusion, after which Maurice retreated in De Panne at the Belgian coast where he had a brief political career, founded two co-ops, a bakery, a grocery store and a public, non-catholic school. The book was suppressed severely and the original copy is still rare to find. He was an elephant hunter, but also an ecologist avant la lettre, became a communist and was the only civilian photographer in the trenches in Ieper during the first world war. The revenues as entrepreneur were used to help poor children to get an education and until his death he was a philanthropist, for instance as main producer of the social drama film Misère au Borinage of Joris Ivens and Henri Storck.
The archive of ICC will be open to the public and during the conversation cinematographer Nelson Makengo will introduce the new film ‘Le Vieux Kilo’ (working title) he is working on that is inspired by arguably one of the most iconic and striking objects in the collection of ICC: a hidden 9mm revolver in a bible translated in Kiswahili that was brought back to Belgium from Congo by a former White Father.
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1 October 2020 - 1 December 2021
ICC / INSTITUTE OF COLONIAL CULTURE
Research Centre at Enough Room for Space, BE
Initiated by Philippe Mikobi and Maarten Vanden Eynde, ICC consists of a collection of artefacts representing colonial presence in Congo, mainly focusing on the period 1884-1960. There is hardly any tangible material left in Congo of that period, due to the hastily departure of most colonisers after the independence in 1960.
ICC is scheduled to officially open at the National Museum of Lubumbashi in the coming years. A selection of the collection of books, documents, personal and religious items and tools, equipment, photographs, letters and administration are made public in Drogenbos, Belgium at Enough Room for Space.
(Open on appointment only)
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August 2020
ICC: Research Residency – Nelson Makengo
Enough Room for Space, BE
Nelson Makengo, a cinematographer from Kinshasa, DR Congo, was in residence at ERforS during which he started working on a new photo series called ‘Troon’ and a new documentary film called ‘Le Vieux Kilo’(working title), that takes one of the most iconic items from the collection of ICC as departure point. A bible translated in Kiswahili, containing a hidden 9mm revolver, was given to ICC by a former Belgian White Father.
Several interviews were conducted and a plan has been developed by Nelson to travel to the former mission in Kilo Moto of the priest, the infamous goldmine in the East of Congo in 2021.
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August 2018 - Ongoing
INSTITUTE OF COLONIAL CULTURE (ICC)
Research on Congolese Heritage, National Museum of Lubumbashi, DRC
Initiated by Philippe Mikobi and Maarten Vanden Eynde, ICC consists of a collection of artefacts representing colonial presence in Congo, mainly focusing on the period 1884-1960. There is hardly any tangible material left in Congo of that period, due to the hastily departure of most colonisers after the independence in 1960. The ICC will officially open at the National Museum of Lubumbashi in 2021.
ICC is looking for artefacts, documents and photographs representing the life and work in Congo of former European colonists, or their children and grand children. Ranging from clothes, personal and religious items to tools, equipment, photographs, letters and administration, ICC welcomes any suggestions for materials, books and documentation that represents this historic period.
Please contact erfors@gmail.com for inquiries or donations to the collection.