Sammy Baloji

Sammy Baloji (born 1978, in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a Congolese artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores colonialism, extraction, memory, labor, and the entangled histories of industry, architecture, and power in Central Africa. Working across photography, video, installation, sculpture, and archival research, Baloji examines the social and material afterlives of Belgian colonial rule through juxtaposition, montage, and historically layered image-making rooted in the Katanga region.  Baloji studied computer and information sciences and communication at the University of Lubumbashi and later continued his training in photography and video in Strasbourg. His work often engages archives, industrial heritage, mineral extraction, museum collections, and architectural history, using photography, moving image, found documents, and sculptural installation to consider how colonial violence continues to shape contemporary landscapes, labor systems, and cultural memory. He is also a cofounder of the Rencontres Picha biennial in Lubumbashi, and since 2019 has pursued doctoral artistic research at Sint Lucas Antwerpen.  His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Kunsthalle Basel, Goldsmiths CCA, the Biennale of Sydney, and major international museums and research institutions. He has received recognition including the BelgianArtPrize and the African Photography Prize. Sammy Baloji lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels.