One | On | One: Sammy Baloji & Chris Dercon
On Friday 19 January, Sammy Baloji and Chris Dercon will hold a conversation, marking the third instalment of the One | On | One series.
Sammy Baloji
Sammy Baloji lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels. Since 2005, Sammy Baloji has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work is an ongoing research on the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as a questioning of the impact of Belgian colonization. A Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, he has received numerous fellowships, awards and distinctions, notably at the African Photography Encounters of Bamako and the Dakar Biennale, and was a laureate of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2008, Sammy Baloji co-founded the Rencontres Picha/Biennale de Lubumbashi.
His recent personal exhibitions include K(C)ongo, Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2022) and Beaux-Arts de Paris (2021); Sammy Baloji, Other Tales, Lund Konsthall and Aarhus Kunsthal (2020); Congo, Fragments d’une histoire, Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg (2019); Urban Now : City Life in Congo, Sammy Baloji and Filip de Boeck, The Power Plant, Toronto and WIELS, Brussels (2016-2017). He has recently participated in the 35th Bienal de São Paulo (2023), the Architecture Biennale of Venice (2023), the 15th Sharjah Biennial (2023), Sydney Biennial (2020), and documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens, 2017).
Chris Dercon
Chris Dercon is a Belgian art historian, curator, and museum director. In 1988, he was appointed programme director at MoMA PS1, New York City, where he worked until 1990. He was then appointed to his first directorship at the Witte de With center for contemporary art in Rotterdam (recently renamed as Kunstinstituut Melly) where he worked until 1995. From 1996 to 2003, he served as director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. From 2003 to 2011, he was the director of the Haus der Kunst in München. He was director of the Tate Modern from 2011 to 2016, and general director of the Volksbühne Berlin from 2017 until 2018. From 2019 to 2023, he was the president of the Association of French National Museums-Grand Palais where he oversaw the renovation of the Grand Palais. In 2023, he became Managing Director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain.
One | On | One lecture series
Some encounters are life-changing. A single artwork can form or influence a curator’s trajectory and vision, while some exhibitions prove decisive for an artist’s practice. In this series of talks, an artist and a curator focus on a single artwork and an exhibition that has been pivotal for their career and collaboration.
