Leopold's Ghost (making off), 2018-2026 (image credit: Paulvi Ngimbi / Adriel Bwami)

With Hoaxing Histories, his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, Maarten Vande Eynde (°1977) questions Belgium’s colonial history. The works in the exhibition evoke events that have shaken the world (the triangular slave trade, the manufacture of the atomic bomb, mining operations in Africa among others) and are placed in a dialogue steeped in propaganda, glorification and distortion of reality, but also in nostalgia, fear and trauma. Hoaxing Histories examines the lasting influence of white colonial culture and gathers ghosts from the past alongside complex, often contradictory narratives. The subject is polemical. From the outset, one might wonder to what extent a Western, white artist can offer a legitimate perspective on the colonial question. Is it meaningful to conceive new narratives in order to reweave bonds, to restore the conditions for a complex relationship between Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? Political and diplomatic progress remains modest. Even where it exists, one must acknowledge that it is cultural actors, and artists in particular, who dare to venture into the margins and tackle the uncomfortable questions head-on. Maarten Vanden Eynde has been engaged with these questions for some ten years, and it was clear from the outset that they needed to be understood within a broader framework than his own personal practice. With this in mind, he co-founded the I.C.C., the Institute for Colonial Culture, which brings together various actors from the DRC and Belgium (independent researchers, artists but also institutions such as the National Museum and the University of Lubumbashi) to explore the shared heritage of both nations during the years 1884–1960. It is therefore important to note that Maarten Vanden Eynde’s approach is rooted in a commitment to collaboration and exchange, in order to move beyond an ethnocentric vision and broaden the perspective.

With paradoxical and asymmetrical works that invite contradictory readings, Maarten Vanden Eynde attempts to reweave bonds through the exchange of ideas, the sharing of techniques and genuine encounter. Through invitations, collaborations, exhibitions and residencies at the ICC, Maarten seeks to give visibility and a voice to the artists and thinkers who struggle against historical distortions and the fantasies of colonial heritage, both in Belgium and in the DRC. Certainly, the power of images can make us overlook certain stakes, but those same images open up dialogue, a better understanding and recognition of our past in order to write a viable common future.