February - October — Visual Arts

Uriel Orlow has been invited by the curator of the upcoming edition of the 2019 Lubumbashi Biennale Sandrine Colard to develop a new work. Orlow will continue his investigation of the botanical world as a stage for politics and history through research and project development in Brussels and the DRC during the course of 2019, leading to a new multi-part installation consisting of video, photography, text and other elements, for the opening of the Biennale in October 2019. The 2019 edition of the Biennale is implemented through a partnership between Lubumbashi based Picha and the WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels.

“Trees as well as medicinal plants emerged as witnesses to colonial and post-colonial power relations and as actors and interlocutors in urgent conversations about ownership of indigenous knowledge and questions around biodiversity. It is these two latter  strands of inquiry – trees and medicinal plants – that I wish to pursue initially in Lubumbashi, ” Orlow says.

As with previous projects, Orlow’s artistic methodology will be research led and he expects to develop new work through research in situ in both Lubumbashi/Congo and Brussels, consulting archives, conducting site visits, and most importantly talking to people. He will return to Lubumbashi at the end of March to continue working with a women’s project located just south of the city near the Zambian border.

The precise format and final content of the work will evolve through the initial research.