Maurice Mbikayi. Masks of Heterotopia

From 7 June to 28 July 2018, Officine dell’Immagine in Milan hosts Maurice Mbikayi's first Italian solo show (Democratic Republic of Congo, 1974), one of the most interesting authors of the African contemporary scene.
Curated by Silvia Cirelli, the exhibition entitled “Masks of Heterotopia” explores the artistic path of this multifaceted interpreter, collecting a selection of works from photographs, installations and videos, never exhibited in Italy.

By shifting attention to a collective dimension, which evokes the paradoxes of the modern age and above all the complex and multifaceted African reality, Mbikayi is inspired by the thought of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, from which he also recovers the choice of the title of the exhibition.
Foucault described as heterotopic those spaces that “are connected to each other, but they are not real, because instead they represent the reflection of a real space ". A more common example is that of the mirror, in which we see ourselves, while aware that this “second” reality is both existing and imaginary at the same time.
Taking a cue from these contradictory and ambivalent consistencies, the artist draws a parallel with the Congolese social fabric, and specifically that of Kinshasa, his hometown. Characteristic of this culture is in fact the need, almost obsessive, to always reinvent themselves, using his own body and consequently also his own aesthetics, as an expression of a multitude of "existences". […]

The daily experience that becomes mirroring the artistic context returns as a predominant feature in Mbikayi's poetics also in his exploration of the impact of technology in African society and the environmental consequences, economic but also identity that this is generating. The installations made entirely with recycled technological materials, as a computer, various telephones or cables, in fact, they focus on the theme of technological consumption, as a translation of an evolution that actually pushes towards the alteration of relationships between individuals. It is from this "e-waste", that the artist recovers the work material, transforming electronic waste into an expressive vehicle and giving life to real alter ego of the so-called "cyber era", characters who, however, betray a certain discouragement, because they are defenseless and unable to fully understand their surroundings.

Maurice Mbikayi was born in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1974. He currently lives and works in Cape Town (South Africa). In 2000 he graduated from the Academies des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa and in 2015 takes a Masters degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. His works have been exhibited in numerous international museums such as the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts of Michigan, la South Africa National Gallery, he Cultural Center of Mazades di Toulouse, and the Cape Town Association of Visual Arts. Maurice Mbikayi is a member of the Africa South Art Initiative (ASAI) e del Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA). He was also recently among the finalists of the Luxembourg Art Prize 2016.