CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/12/2018

Manifesting a future only he could see: Bodys Isek Kingelez

Whomever you are, whatever you do, if you want to be transported, spend some time with the work of Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015). "Kingelez anchored his work in the present and the recent past and in the fabric of the city around him, inspired equally by colonial architecture, the ambitious buildings of post-Independence Zaire, and the idioms that typify national building styles," MoMA curator Sarah Suzuki writes. "But his work was always future facing. In an era in which cities, including Kinshasa, were (and continue to be) under pressure to accommodate unprecedented rates of growth and the attendant challenges to civic life, Kingelez pointed a way forward offering models of beauty, harmony and functionality His work addressed the great challenges of the twentieth century—decolonization, health crises, the quest for nationhood and national identity—but it is infused with potential, both philosophical and formal. In his hands, new, cooperative ways of living and working were possible and the most mundane of materials could become technically precise, inventive and elegant objects. He declared himself 'a designer, an architect, a sculptor, engineer, artist.' His dazzling sculptures, manifestations of a future that perhaps only he could see, suggest one additional role: 'a visionary,' he said,' is someone who dreams of what doesn't yet exist.'" Featured work is "Kinshasa la Belle" (1991).