'Charging Tesla Crash, a speculation' by Sammy Baloji, Daddy Tshikaya, Jean Katambayi and Marjolijn Dijkman at the 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, DRC, 2019 (Photo: Uriel Urlow)
Musasa explaining Material Matters by Musasa and Maarten Vanden Eynde, Picha residency, Lubumbashi, DRC, 2018 (Photo: Alain Nsenga)
Le Vide by Georges Senga and Earthing Dischange by Marjolijn Dijkman, Cargo in Context, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2019 (Photo: Aatjan Renders)
'Tesla Crash, a speculation' (maquette) by Sammy Baloji, Daddy Tshikaya and Jean Katambayi, with 'Material Matters', by Musasa and Maarten Vanden Eynde, Contour Biennale, Mechelen, Belgium, 2019 (Photo: Georges Senga)
Kombo ya Sika by Georges Senga and maquette of Tesla Crash by Sammy Baloji, Daddy Tshikaya and Jean Katambayi, On-Trade-Off- Green Gold, Imane Fares Gallery, Paris, France, 2019
On Trade Off presentation, Jean Cocteau Cultural centre, Paris, France (2020)
Intallation view, Charging Myths, Z33, 2022 photo credit (c) Z33:Kristof Vrancken_LR
The Chain of Events 13, Charging Myths, Z33, 2022 photo credit (c) Z33:Kristof Vrancken_LR
Femke Herregraven, A Prelude to: When The Dust Unsettles, 2022 - 2023.©️ Z33/Kristof Vrancken, On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
Jean Katambayi Mukendi, The Concentrator, 2022. ©️ Z33/Kristof Vrancken, On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
Marjolijn Dijkman, Cloud to Ground #2-4, 2021. ©️ Z33/Kristof Vrancken, On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
Sammy Baloji, Jean Katambayi Mukendi & Daddy Tshikaya, Tesla Crash, A Speculation (Model), 2019 - ️ Z33/Kristof Vrancken, On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths, installation view, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2022
2018 - 2024
On-Trade-Off
Experimental research project
Tesla logo & mining hammer (part of research by Georges Senga)
Initiated by: Picha (Lubumbashi, DRC) and Enough Room for Space (Brussels, BE)
Involved: Alexis Destoop, Marjolijn Dijkman, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Femke Herregraven, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Musasa, Alain Nsenga, Georges Senga, Pamela Tulizo, Maarten Vanden Eynde
Formerly involved: Sammy Baloji (2018-2019), Daddy Tshikaya (2018-2019), Oulimata Gueye (2020-2022), Lotte Arndt (2020-2022), Dorine Mokha (2020-2021†), Gulda El Magambo (2019-2022)
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On-Trade-Off is developed and presented in various places, formats, and contexts, each presentation focusing on different parts of the storyline.
Presentations: Picha, Lubumbashi, DRC (2018 & 2019); ‘Coltan as Cotton’ 9th Biennale Contour, Mechelen, BE (2019); Gallerie Imane Farès, Paris, FR (2019); La Colonie, Paris, FR (2019); Enough Room for Space, BE (2019); Cargo in Context, Amsterdam, NL (2019); De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, NL (2019); 6th Biennale de Lubumbashi, RDC (2019); Centre Culturel Jean Cocteau, FR (2019); Digital Earth Talks, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE (2019); The Contemporary Art Days Summit Södertälje and Gnesta, SE (2019); The Parasite, KABK, The Hague, NL (2020); Intersections of Care, Wiels (online, 2020); EURO—VISION Assembly, Radar & Arts Catalyst, UK (Online, 2020); Phase Shift, Enough Room for Space, BE (2021); MIG, La Générale, Paris, FR (2021); Charging Myths, Z33, Hasselt, BE (2022); 7th Lubumbashi Biennale, DRC (2022); Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL (2023); Pre-Biennale research exhibition, Manifesta 15, Barcelona, ES (2023); CIVA, Brussels, BE (2024)
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Artistic Coordination Picha: Georges Senga, Jean Katambayi Mukendi
Artistic Coordination ERforS: Marjolijn Dijkman, Maarten Vanden Eynde
Editorial Team: Lotte Arndt, Oulimata Gueye
Assistant coordination Picha: Didier Shimbi
Assistant coordination ERforS: Constance Nguyen
Producers (2018-2020): arp: / Katrien Reist, Julia Reist
Financial support: Digital Earth Fellowship (Hivos Fund); Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF); Kunsten & Erfgoed, BE; Thami Mnyele Foundation; De Brakke Grond, Mondriaan Fund.
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On-Trade-Off worked on the contemporary dimensions of a question as old, as mythical, and as strategic as our relation to energy. Taking the recent run on lithium as a starting point, the project explored a broad range of questions surrounding raw materials for technological industries, financial speculation, and the history of electricity.
On-Trade-Off was sparked by the ‘discovery’ of a large lithium deposit in Manono, a mining area in the DRC. The mine is not only a place of historical extractivism but also plays a key role in the promise of green energy. As Manono is currently transformed into a site of speculation and future exploitation, On-Trade-Off simultaneously unfolded as a structure for counter-narratives and alternative forms of collaboration and artistic creation.
By setting up a transversal dynamics that abolishes centers and exoticism, we aimed to render obsolete the fallacious dichotomy between those who ‘hold the technological knowledge’ and those who should catch up’. Our process of art production placed the question of (free) tools, (fair) practices, and knowledge (that matter) at the core. We had the ambition to imagine and articulate critical, sensitive, and speculative works of art that echo the incredible and tormented times we are living in.
On-Trade-Off presented new artworks developed during residencies and research on-site in Belgium, DR Congo, China, and Australia. Our propositions – in media as varied as photography, film, painting, sculpture, and digital formats – debate how technological innovation depends on raw material extraction.
As On-Trade-Off brought together the extremities of the world-spanning value chains, from its exploitative mining economies to its seductive product surfaces, it simultaneously experiments with a large array of artistic languages enabled by those same raw materials and technologies. The tension between examining matter and myths underpinning high-tech innovation, and the use of those same technologies for our international collaboration becomes a fertile ground for the project. We worked on both physical exhibitions and a digital Online Platform. On-Trade-Off merged multiple sites of work, life, and exchange that – although geographically distant – are central to its existence.
While the South/North borders are highly obstructed, the shipping of metals and ores is assured. How can we think beyond the dividing force of exploitative technologies today and, as artists, create new spaces for imagination, stories, and connection across continents? As a collective, we can reveal the blind spots, by giving forms to mutations, and by exploring the imaginary potential of the very present moment.
“There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” – Octavia Butler
On-Trade-Off constructed a digital platform for trans-disciplinary knowledge that, through its holistic and inclusive approach, aims to better understand the processes that shape(d) the world we live in. To enrich this narrative and create long-term spin-offs, collaboration with a multitude of people and organizations from different backgrounds was established, ranging from visual artists, cultural producers, local communities, filmmakers, thinkers, activists, engineers, and designers who are engaged in these complex global issues. The outcomes debated, emphasized, and questioned how technological innovation depends on raw material extraction by merging multiple sites of work, life and exchange that – although geographically distant – are central to its existence.
The website aims to present the work of the collective as well as the programme and various exhibitions in which OTO participated. The consumption of the website is also specified in order to raise awareness of our consumption.
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Related News
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7 February 2024
Countering Extractivism
CIVA, Brussels, BE
The evening will be dedicated to what has been described as “green colonialism,” the development of renewable energy futures that often involves the dispossession of communities and the degradation of ecosystems. The event will focus on the consequences of the extraction of lithium, a scarce resource that plays a key role in the so-called green transition necessary for a more sustainable world.
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25 June - 12 July 2023
On-Trade-Off: Residency @ Pre-biennial Manifesta 15
Manifesta 15, Barcelona, ES
Manifesta 15 Barcelona has created a new framework for social and ecological research, actions and interventions that are being established with ten research participants across Barcelona. In the pre-biennial phase, the selected participants are investigating specific thematic components in the three interconnected nodes identified by the Manifesta 15 team. The collective working within the theme of imagining the future is the transnational collective On-Trade-Off, who explore will be focusing on energy, post-colonialism and the past and present of the industrial Besòs area.
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10 - 28 February 2023
On-Trade-Off: Jean Katambayi – Thami Mnyele Award
Residency at Thami-Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, NL
Jean Katambayi Mukendi will work at the Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam to prepare new work for the upcoming exhibition 'Charging Myths' of On-Trade-Off at Framer Framed.
Established in 1990, the Thami Mnyele Foundation runs since 1992 a unique three month artists-in- residence program in Amsterdam. The main objective of the Foundation is to advance cultural exchange between artists from Africa and the diaspora, the Netherlands and Amsterdam in particular.
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23 February - 4 June 2023
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths
Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL
“There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” —Octavia Butler
On-Trade-Off is an artist collective that works on the contemporary dimensions of a question as old, as mythical and as strategic as our relation to energy. Taking the recent run on lithium as a starting point, the project explores a wide range of issues in the history of electricity, from raw materials for technology industries to financial speculation. Charging Myths brings together the extremes of the world-spanning value chains, and abusive mining economies, from its exploitative mining economies to the seductive surface of products.
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16 November - 29 December 2022
On-Trade-Off: Alain Nsenga: Residency @ Jester
Jester, Genk, Belgium
The same mining companies and financial institutions that first started exploiting coal mines in Wallonia, moved to Limburg in Flanders, France and the Netherlands and later to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They brought their technical expertise, but also their preoccupations about class and intellectual capabilities with them. Congolese miners were compared to miners in Wallonia, and the way in which working camps and factories were constructed came directly from mines sites like Bois-du-Luc in Houdeng-Aimeries. As part of On-Trade-Off, Alain Nsenga will look into the similarities between the different mining histories in order to develop new works relating to personal stories and memories from retired miners which he collected both in DRC and Belgium.
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October 2022
Vertical Atlas
Online and Printed publication, Digital Earth, NL
Vertical Atlas brings together the insights of a diverse group of internationally renowned artists, scientists and technologists from different backgrounds and places. From an investigation into the lithium mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo to maps of the fiber-optic submarine cables in the Atlantic and the ride-hailing platforms of China.
On-Trade-Off contributed 26 pages to this publication including two essays written, 'On-Trade-Off: Countering Extractivism' by Lotte Arndt & Oulimata Gueye and 'Concentrator' by Jean Katambayi.
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6 October - 6 November 2022
On-Trade-Off at TOXICITY
7th Lubumbashi Biennale, Lubumbashi, DRC
On-Trade-Off will participate in the 7th Lubumbashi Biennale with a presentation of works by Pamela Tulizo, Femke Herregraven, Gulda El Magambo and Alexandre Mulongo Finkelstein.
The 7th Lubumbashi biennale will interrogate toxicity as a condition of existence that has inextricably affected social worlds under the title ’ToxiCité’ or ’ToxiCity’. As a starting point, the theme will open the collective elaboration of a critical and transformative take on the social and cultural environment, in Lubumbashi and in the world.
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6 March - 21 August 2022
On-Trade-Off: Charging Myths
Z33 - House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt, BE
How is technological innovation dependent on raw materials? This question is centre-stage in the exhibition Charging Myths by On-Trade-Off. This artists-collective traces the origins of lithium by starting from Manono (Democratic Republic of the Congo). The landscape of this former mining town is a relic of the colonial past. Today the town is getting ready to be a key player in the race towards green energy, following the nearby discovery of the world’s largest deposits of lithium ore.
On-Trade-Off maps production chains and unravels social, political and ecological aspects of the global economy. The exhibition presents new works that were developed during residencies and research in various locations, with Manono serving as shared point of departure. As a temporary collective, On-Trade-Off provides an artistic counterbalance to the logic of exploitation, by focussing on transnational exchange, knowledge sharing and fair practice.
With: Alexis Destoop, Marjolijn Dijkman, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Femke Herregraven, Alain Nsenga, Dorine Mokha (†2021) & Elia Rediger, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Musasa, Georges Senga, Tétshim & Frank Mukunday, Pamela Tulizo, Maarten Vanden Eynde
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1st March 2022
On-Trade-Off.net : under construction
https://on-trade-off.net/
Taking the recent run on lithium as a starting point, On-Trade-Off explores a broad range of questions surrounding the connections between raw materials, technological industries, financial speculation, and the history of electricity. How can we think beyond the dividing force of exploitative technologies today and, as artists, create new spaces for imagination, story telling, and connection across continents? As a collective we strive to reveal the blind spots in the dominant narrative about energy production and distribution by giving form to mutations and by exploring the imaginary potential of the very present moment.
The website, which is currently under construction, aims to present the work of the collective as well as the programme and various exhibitions in which OTO participates. Later, the website will allow members to access archives and research online with the challenge and main goal of being accessible from anywhere in the world and especially in countries like the DRC where data is expensive and access to electricity unequal. It is thus optimised to prioritise data and to be as light as possible. The consumption of the website is also specified in order to raise awareness of our consumption.
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28 August 2021
On-Trade-Off: Phase Shift
Online & Enough Room for Space, BE
This event will focus on the overall project On-Trade-Off with several contributors elaborating on their projects and their research. It will include presentations, discussions of the current topics on Transcontinental mining connections - coloniality and extractivism between Australia and the DRC.
First we start with a conversation between Alexis Destoop and Nicholas Mangan on their past and current film projects in relation to extractivism. Afterwards Marie Lechner will present her research on lithium mining in the Upper Rhine valley. The valley could hold in its geothermal waters enough lithium for more than 400 million electric cars, geologists have estimated, making it one of the world's biggest deposits.
In the second half there will be a discussion of the research material and experiences on site by On-Trade-Off members in relation to Manono in DR Congo. Several members of the collective will be present online and onsite including Alexis Destoop, Femke Herregraven, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Gulda El Magambo, Georges Senga, Maarten Vanden Eynde. This part is hosted by Lotte Arndt.
The day will end with the avant-première of 'Depth of Discharge' by Marjolijn Dijkman, a film in progress produced in the framework of On-Trade-Off.
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14 April 2021
Recommendations for Post-Extractive Futures
EURO—VISION Assembly, Radar & Arts Catalyst, UK (Online)
Organised by Arts Catalyst as part of EURO—VISION, artists Audrey Samson and Francisco Gallardo (FRAUD) will be joined online by Dr Nishat Awan, Dr Btihaj Ajana, Olivier Marboeuf, Jean Katambayi Mukendi and Maarten Vanden Eynde (On-Trade-Off) for a collective conversation around contemporary modes of extraction and expropriation that go beyond natural resources to encompass data, labour, cultures and governance.
In dialogue with the invited artists and researchers, the event will explore how we might start to imagine post-extractive futures? What knowledges, practices and tactics can we mobilise in order to do so?
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12 January 2021
Tribute to Dorine Mokha
On-Trade-Off Collective
To you Dorine Mokha (1989-2021), member of our On-Trade-Off collective, we pay tribute to you.
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Dorine turned the weakness of others into strength.
Elusive
Those who have seen will never forget
Those who have ignored fight with the square bark of judgementDorine combined openness, listening and gentleness with insistence, courage and enormous desire. One always had the impression that he was advancing with wings: carried by opportunities that he reclaimed in the Now, rather than waiting for them in a distant future.
It was hard to imagine the effort that this drive, which seemed so fluid, so graceful, must have demanded of him - resistance, uprightness, projection, of himself and of others, the refusal to give in to hatred, to remain in an assigned place. He had a dazzling ability to take flight, capable of connecting and detaching himself; of transforming every single interaction into yet new forms and potential openings.
Dorine achieved this by bringing vulnerability into play as a component of any innovative creation: setting foot in uncharted territory, knowing that this included shifting ground.... and going there anyway, with appetite, with curiosity, with finesse, and by making sharp choices.
Dorine tried to help us collectively remember his country's past, which has been written too often by others. He fought against the symptomatic amnesia of that history and tried to move towards a better future. An open and gentle future, that allows you to be who you want to be, move as you wish and love those you love. A fairer, more egalitarian world, where everyone can become president with no special rights for anybody. In the meantime, he himself has written history. He stood up and so many others looked up at him in awe. It is up to us, collectively, not to forget him and to keep his legacy alive.
We dance together.
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21 November 2020
On-Trade-Off @ Intersections of Care: Decolonial practices
Online, Intersections of Care at Wiels, Brussels, BE
On-Trade-Off members Lotte Arndt, Pelagie Gbaguidi and Jean Katambayi will participate in a collective discussion hosted by 'Intersections of Care' on decolonial practices in art which unfolds in the context of the Open School section of the Wiels Risquons-Tout exhibition.
With: Zakaria Almoutlak, Lotte Arndt, Jean Katambayi and a poem by Pélagie Gbaguidi for On-Trade-Off, Olivier Marboeuf / Mangrove and The Post Collective.
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1 - 15 November 2020
On-Trade-Off: Residency period & Research trip (III)
Lubumbashi and Manono, DRC
Georges Senga and Gulda El Magambo undertook a third research trip to Manono, DRC. They continued to conduct a whole range of interviews with people ranging from artisanal miners, the director of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Luba chef among others. This material will be collected in the ‘OTO-Resource Collectif’, a collective archive of images, texts and audiovisual materials, made available to all participating artists for the production of new works.
On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that reflects on environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
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Fall 2020
Mineral Frontiers – CFI Issue 1
Commodity Frontiers Journal, Online
Commodity Frontiers Initiative explores the history and present of capitalism, contestation, and ecological transformation in the global countryside. Each themed issue includes articles and interviews with experts about studying and teaching commodity frontiers in theory and in practice. The Journal features reflections and reviews on the dynamics of capitalist expansion, social change, and ecological transformation on global as well local scales, in the past and at the present.
Issue 1: Mineral Frontiers: Capitalism, Contestation, and the Transformation of the Global Countryside. Maarten Vanden Eynde & Marjolijn Dijkman (Enough Room for Space) are the editors of the journal's section Creative Frontiers. For this issue Lotte Arndt and Oulimata Gueye introduce an article on the transnational artist’s collaboration, On-Trade-Off, which critically examines extraction, power structures in global capitalism and the global art world, and searches for alternatives. (This is a pre-publication version of the piece that will appear in the upcoming Vertical Atlas book produced by Digital Earth in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut.)
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14 September 2020
On-Trade-Off: Dorine Mokha
Digital Earth Fellowship 2020 - 2021
Dorine Mokha is selected for the Digital Earth Fellowship to further develop his project developed in the context of On-Trade Off. Dorine Mokha weaves together a personal and national history of the Congolese lithium mines to reflect on the economic and social political inequalities.
Mokha will look into collective memory, forgotten, forbidden stories, oral and written archives around the site of the Gécamines Mining Company and the Manono lithium project open-pit mine. Lithium is a planetary commodity for the ‘digital revolution’ and multiple products, such as the Tesla car. While earth’s collective memory is being stored in memory drives powered by lithium batteries, Mokha aims to fight the local and planetary amnesia of the histories and memories connected to the sites of extraction for the minerals in the mobile phones we carry in our pockets.
His project, (Dis)Charged is a research and performing arts project, in which he will combine music, dance, spoken word, and visual components.
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16 January –7 March 2020
On-Trade-Off: La Contrepartie
Centre Culturel Jean Cocteau, Ville de Lilas, Paris, FR
On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders is an artistic trajectory initiated by the artists' initiatives Picha (DRC) and Enough Room for Space (BE). With: Sammy Baloji, Marjolijn Dijkman, Jean Katambayi, Musasa, Georges Senga, Daddy Tshikaya, Maarten Vanden Eynde.
The starting point for the research project On-Trade-Off is the raw material lithium. A naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table), lithium is currently considered to be ‘the new black gold’ because of its crucial role in the global transition towards a ‘green and fossil fuel free economy’.
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23 January - 29 February 2020
On-Trade-Off: Georges Senga
Residency at ERforS, BE
One month residency period of Georges Senga to develop his individual artistic project within the collaborative research project On-Trade-Off. The starting point for the research project On-Trade-Off is the raw material lithium. A naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table), lithium is currently considered to be ‘the new black gold’ because of its crucial role in the global transition towards a ‘green and fossil fuel free economy’.
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6 February 2020
The Parasite
KABK, The Hague, NL
Georges Senga (member of Picha) and Marjolijn Dijkman (co-founder of Enough Room for Space) will introduce ‘On-Trade-Off’, an artistic trajectory initiated by the artists’ initiatives Picha (Lubumbashi, DRC) and Enough Room for Space (Brussels, BE) and some of the works they have developed within this project.
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16 Nov. 2019 – 21 Dec. 2019
On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders
Cargo in Context & De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, NL
On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders is an artistic trajectory initiated by the artists' initiatives Picha (DRC) and Enough Room for Space (BE). Together with a public program, the exhibition shows works by Sammy Baloji, Marjolijn Dijkman, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Musasa, Jean Katambayi, Georges Senga and Daddy Tshikaya.
The starting point for the research project On-Trade-Off is the raw material lithium. A naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table), lithium is currently considered to be ‘the new black gold’ because of its crucial role in the global transition towards a ‘green and fossil fuel free economy’. Focusing on this one chemical element (Li3) allows the project to zoom in on particular social, ecological, economic and political phenomena that characterize the production processes currently experiencing rapid growth.
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12 December 2019
LUNÄ TALK
Cargo in Context, Amsterdam, NL
LUNÄ TALK, hosted by Cargo in Context & Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, as part of the exhibition ON-TRADE-OFF; THE WEIGHT OF WONDERS. In this Amsterdam edition experts with different scholarly backgrounds will focus on the ecological, social and economic consequences of the extraction and processing of lithium and cobalt. They will look both at the history of electricity and the current use of raw materials from the DRC for electronics and energy storage.
With contributions by: Patricia Fara, historian of science University of Cambridge, UK; Esther de Haan, manager and researcher at SOMO, Amsterdam, NL; Dries Bols, Ceo Lifepwr, Antwerp, BE; Raf Custers, historian, journalist and author, Brussels, BE
Hosted by: Marjolijn Dijkman and Maarten Vanden Eynde -
8 December 2019
On-Trade-Off: Film Program and Conversation
De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, NL
What are the human, environmental and economic consequences of mining in Katanga, in DR Congo? In their films 'Pungulume' and 'Mangeurs de Cuivre', artists Sammy Baloji (DRC) and Bodil Furu (NO) highlight the role of and craving for resources in the turbulent history of civil wars and conflicts in DRC.
On Sunday 8 December Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond will show these two films in collaboration with Cargo in Context. Between the two screenings, curator Rosa Spaliviero (Picha) will have a conversation with anthropologist Filip De Boeck (KU Leuven, BE) to further discuss the topics addressed in the films.
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7 - 8 November 2019
On-Trade-Off at Digital Earth Talks
Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
Digital Earth Talks brings together artists, scholars and designers from Africa, Europe and Asia to explore how technology influences not only interpersonal relationships but also contemporary geopolitics and our understanding of the world. How do digital technologies shape the way we map and understand space in different regions? How have diverse worldviews, shaped by social and spiritual concerns, affected the way technologies have been developed and implemented across the globe? These and other questions will be explored by a rich two-day programme of talks, screenings, panel discussions and performances.
Maarten Vanden Eynde & Jean Katambayi, Digital Earth Talks, Dubai, UE (2019)
Contributors: James Bridle, Federico Campagna, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, Arianne Conty, Wael Eskandar, Vladan Joler, Jean Katambayi Mukendi, Brendan McGetrick, Nanjala Nyabola, Nishant Shah and Maarten Vanden Eynde. Discussions are moderated by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Nadia Christidi, Nada Raza and Nishant Shah. -
27 October 2019
On-Trade-Off: Charging Tesla Crash
Future Genealogies, 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, DRC
Part of the ongoing artistic research project On-Trade-Off 'Tesla Crash', made by Jean Katambayi, Sammy Baloji, Daddy Tshikaya is a handmade 1:1 model of the notorious Tesla Model S in copper wire using a special weaving technique inspired by miniature wire car toys made by children in DR Congo.
Reenacting a spectacular experiment with a selfmade Tesla coil, the performative act 'Charging Tesla Crash', developed in collaboration with Marjolijn Dijkman, returned to the utopian ideas of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) about wireless and available energy for everyone around the globe. The performance reflects the so called 'green energy revolution' and global inequalities present today.
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24 Oct. – 24 Nov. 2019
On-Trade-Off at 6th Lubumbashi Biennale
Lubumbashi, DR Congo
The 6th edition of the Lubumbashi Biennale, entitled Future Genealogies, Tales From The Equatorial Line, probes the possibilities of repurposing the cartography of the world. One of the seven African countries crossed by the Equator, the Congo claims the longest segment of the parallel on the continent. This places the region not only at the heart of Africa, but also at the bisecting line of the globe, at the zone of intersection between southern and northern hemispheres. By asserting this position, the Biennale repeals the modern fantasy of the Congo as “irrelevant locale on the periphery of cultural history” to reclaim its profound entanglement with the world and its globally central position, both past and present.
The concept of the Biennale is to take the Equator’s imaginary line not as one of demarcation—the majestic Congo River disregards it by straddling it twice—but rather of imbrication. At its closest a place where earth gravity alleviates and where the poles’ magnetic attractions balance each other, the equatorial latitude opens the possibility for narratives that respond to alternate compasses, recognizes new centers of gravity and where de-polarized stories can unfold.
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30 October - 6 November 2019
On-Trade-Off: Residency period & Research trip (II)
Manono, DRC
Alexis Destoop and Gulda El Magambo undertook a second research trip to Manono, DRC. They continued to conduct a whole range of interviews with people ranging from artisanal miners, the director of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Luba chef among others. This material will be collected in the ‘OTO-Banque Collectif’, a collective archive of images, texts and audiovisual materials, made available to all participating artists for the production of new works.
On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that reflects on environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
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18-20 October 2019
On-Trade-Off at Contour Biennale
Coltan as Cotton, Contour Biennale 9, Mechelen, Mechelen, BE
On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that reflects on environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
The installation On-Trade-Off consists of a presentation of Le Vide / The Void by Georges Senga, Future Flora: Manono by Maarten Vanden Eynde and a display case with On-Trade-Off research materials.
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20 October 2019
On-Trade-Off: Routes and Roads
Coltan as Cotton, Contour Biennale 9, Mechelen, BE
On-Trade-Off: Routes and Roads is a lecture performance by Alexis Destoop and Mi You. The ongoing artistic research project On-Trade-Off investigates the emergence of lithium – a volatile and unstable metal known as the “new black gold” – in the current energy transition to a green economy. The closure of the major mining operations in Manono, a town in the Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the early 80s, left an altered landscape whose logistical equipment has slowly fallen into disarray. Recent geological exploration has confirmed vast amounts of lithium to be found in the abandoned mining pits, making for new interest and investments from foreign corporations, which could alter the town’s destiny.
Alexis Destoop & Mi You, Contour Biennale 9, BE (2019) -
1 - 3 October 2019
The Contemporary Art Days Summit
Södertälje and Gnesta, SE
The 2019 Contemporary Art Days Summit will focus on the sustainability of art organisations.
In order to highlight the interaction between larger and smaller actors and the value of small and medium-sized art activities, the field of art has been described as an ecosystem. The Contemporary Art Days Summit will invite participants to discuss art field sustainability beyond the idea of value. Which relationships between art actors need to become more sustainable? Which platforms can we use or develop to enable us to further our artistic activities? What structural changes are required in order to meet the art field’s current and future challenges?Speakers: Kerstin Bergendal, Copenhagen/Gothenburg, On-Trade-Off (Picha & Enough Room for Space with arp:), Brussels and Lubumbashi, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Francis McKee, Center for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Mustarinda/HIAP, Kainuu/Helsinki.
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August - September 2019
Thami Mnyele Foundation Award: Georges Senga
Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, NL
Georges Senga wins summer award 2019! In preparation of the exhibition On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders at Cargo in Context in Amsterdam, Georges Senga is offered a Full Residency at Thami Mnyele. Full Residencies are awarded competitively to artists from the whole of Africa. The Thami Mnyele Foundation offers mostly two Full Residency Program scholarships per year. Applicants are evaluated by an independent committee of art professionals, who are appointed by the Board of the Foundation. Those selected are offered accommodation and a studio space for a three month period.
On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project, initiated by Picha (Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo) and Enough Room for Space (Drogenbos, Belgium) that reflects on environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
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29 - 31 August 2019
PeriFeria festival
Enough Room for Space, BE
During PeriFeria, ERforS will welcome you in their Head Quarters in Drogenbos and present works relating to On-Trade-Off, initiated by Picha (Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo) and Enough Room for Space in 2018. On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that reflects on the environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
Continuous screening of Avec Le Vent by Raf Custers, 2013 (35 min.) , a documentary that highlights the progress of the mining industry as experienced on a daily basis by the Congolese.
PeriFeria Festival allows you to discover the outskirts of Brussels and its particularities in an unconventional way. Together with local residents, neighborhood organizations, designers, researchers and artists, City3 has created an exciting program of workshops, guided tours, artistic interventions and made-to-measure activities. For the 4rd edition, PeriFeria ventures into the fascinating southern periphery of Brussels.
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12 - 30 June 2019
On-Trade-Off: Residency period & Research trip (I)
Picha, Lubumbashi & Manono, DRC
Jean Katambayi, Maarten Vanden Eynde and Gulda El Magambo undertook a collective research trip to the Manono mining area and collected raw materials and audio/visual documentation. They conducted a whole range of interviews with people ranging from artisanal miners, the director of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Luba chef, the head of Manono Abbey among others. This material will be collected in the ‘OTO-Banque Collectif’, a collective archive of images, texts and audiovisual materials, made available to all participating artists for the production of new works.
On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that reflects on environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy.
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11 January - 20 October 2019
Contour Biennale 9: Coltan as Cotton
NONA, Mechelen, BE
Coltan as Cotton is a single, drawn-out continuum lasting more than a year, focussing on ecology, inequality, de-growth, solidarity and racism as major themes through films, installations and performances.
The biennale consists of three main phases: 11 - 12 January, 17 - 19 May and 18 - 20 October 2019
With: Daniela Ortiz, Cadine Navarro, Picha & Enough Room for Space, Saddie Choua, Greyzone Zebra, Fallon Mayanja, Black Speaks Back, The Black Archives, Black(s) To The Future, Monique Mbeka Phoba, Laura Nsengiyumva, Coyote, Transnational Alliance, Emmanuel Iyamu, Seckou Ouologuem, Amandine Gay.
Two artist initiatives, Picha and Enough Room for Space, are developing an experimental research project, called On-Trade-Off, that will be presented during all three public moments of Contour Biennial.
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18 May 2019 (13:00-16:00)
On-Trade-Off: LUNÄ Talk
Contour Biennale 9, NONA, Mechelen, BE
This LUNÄ Talk, held as part of On-Trade-Off, will focus on the environmental, social and economic implications of the extraction and processing of lithium. In the discussion, we will look at the history of energy and address the importance of raw materials from D.R. Congo in both the industrial and technological revolutions. At the same time we will address experimental models of sustainable energy production and future prospects for lithium mining in D.R. Congo.
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30 March 2019
On-Trade-Off: The Unbearable Lightness
Event at La Colonie, Paris, FR
Initiated by Picha (Lubumbashi, DRC) and Enough Room for Space (Brussels, BE), the point of departure for the research project On-Trade-Off is the raw material Lithium, the lightest existing metal. A naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table), Lithium is currently considered to be ‘the new black gold’ because of its crucial role in the global transition towards a ‘green and fossil fuel free economy’. Event with film screenings, artists talks and a round table discussion relating to the consequences of Lithium mining in D.R. Congo.
Time: 14:00-17:00
With: Lotte Arndt, Sammy Baloji, Marjolijn Dijkman, Femke Herregraven, Jean Katambayi (virtual), Rosa Spaliviero, Maarten Vanden Eynde.
Sammy Baloji & Maarten Vanden Eynde, La Colonie, FR, 2019
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14 March - 14 April 2019
On-Trade-Off: Green Gold
Exhibition at Gallery Imane Farès, Paris, FR
The exhibition ON-TRADE-OFF: Green Gold presents several works that take as a starting point the extraction and transformation process of lithium - third element periodic table of elements. Nicknamed 'green gold', lithium is both a fundamental resource for the ecological transition into a fossil fuel free economy, but also an element at the heart of a virulent industry that is harmful for the environment. Enabling the mass production of lithium-ion batteries used by smartphones or cars, it becomes a convenience, a motto, a green label. The "new black gold" then becomes currency, transforming in fact into "green gold".
With: Sammy Baloji, Jean Katambayi, Musasa, Georges Senga, Daddy Tshikaya, Maarten Vanden Eynde.
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25 October 2018
On-Trade-Off: Initiation Phase of Contour Biennale 9
Contour Biennale, Nona, Mechelen, BE
During the Initiation Phase organised by kunstencentrum nona, curator Nataša Petrešin Bachelez will introduce her approach to this edition of the Biennale. Next, the graphic studio OSP from Brussels will present its methods and procedures for working on the Biennale’s platform. After this presentation a heart-to-heart conversation will be held between participating artists Ana Vaz, Clémence Seurat, Maarten Vanden Eynde, and Sammy Baloji. This is the first in a series of conversations that will be held throughout the year.
Maarten and Sammy will introduce ON-TRADE-OFF a project initiated by Enough Room for Space and Picha with presentations at the upcoming 9th Contour Biennale.
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1 October 2018 – 31 March 2019
On-Trade-Off: Jean Katambayi
Awarded Digital Earth Fellowship
Digital Earth is a 6 month-long fellowship for artists and designers based in Africa or Asia, working across a variety of media, who would like to investigate our current technological reality. ‘Digital Earth’ refers to the materiality and immateriality of the digital reality we live in – from data centers to software interfaces, and rare minerals to financial derivatives.
Jean Katambayi received a Digital Earth fellowship to work on a research project that starts with the production of a copy on 1:1 scale of the notorious Tesla Model X with recycled copper wires using a special weaving technique. He thereby wants to draw attention to the economic inequalities within Congolese social classes, which he believes will grow even more through the environmental impact of the so-called “green revolution” and capitalist mining industry. The work will be developed in close collaboration with Sammy Baloji and Daddy Tshikaya and is part of the project ON-TRADE-OFF, initiated by Enough Room for Space and Picha (Lubumbashi, DRC).
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1 October - 14 October 2018
On-Trade-Off: Residency period & Artist Talk
Picha, Lubumbashi, DRC
Residency and working period at Picha in Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo in the framework of the long term research project On-Trade-Off. With Jean Katambayi, Daddy Tshikaya, Musasa and Maarten Vanden Eynde. During the residency period Jean Katambayi and Daddy Tshikaya made a scale model of the famous Tesla X, using copper wires and other recycled materials. Maarten Vanden Eynde worked together with the Lubumbashi based painter Musasa on the creation of painted wall charts, inspired by old educational charts. The charts summarise the origin, use and influence of Lithium and other pivotal elements like copper, gold and uranium.
13 October - 17:00 Artist Talk with Jean Katambayi, Daddy Tshikaya, Musasa and Maarten Vanden Eynde at Picha.
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1 October 2018
On-Trade-Off: Launch project
Initiated by ERforS, BE and Picha, DRC
The artist initiatives Picha and Enough Room for Space are developing an experimental research project, called On-Trade-Off. To be understood as a collective artistic trajectory, the project looks both at the importance of one specific raw material, called lithium, for the transition into a green and fossil fuel free economy, and the influence its extraction and transformation has on everyone and everything involved, ranging from the miners who take the lightest metal in existence out of the ground, to the produced batteries that power cars, homes and potentially the entire planet.