Ancestral Voices: Landscape of Resonance
Symposium organised by Léonard Pongo
With Sammy Baloji, Clémentine Faïk-Nzuji, Toma Muteba Luntumbue, Arsène Mpiana Monkwe and Léonard Pongo
Friday 10 October 2025, 16:00 – 18:00
This symposium focusses on the expression of Congolese traditions through contemporary visual artistic practices, from their origins to today.
Artists and experts join Clémentine Faïk-Nzuji and Léonard Pongo to explore the links between landscapes in the DRC, artistic representations and cultural meanings. Through works and research, discover how languages, narratives and practices are rooted in territories, memories and knowledge, opening a dialogue between tradition and contemporary realities.
Organised by the Living Earth Festival and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.
At the Living Earth Festival, an immersive installation of Léonard Pongo will be on display from 9 until 12 October 2025.
More information at www.living-earth-festival.be
Léonard Pongo (°1988, Luik, BE) is a researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives between the DRC and Belgium. Pongo's approach incorporates snapshot, diary, and abstract photography with installation, mixed media and film. His work is inspired by the Congolese land, cultures, philosophies and crafts, and intends to challenge perceptions of the DRC and the continent. His career is shared between his long-term projects in Congo DR, teaching in Kinshasa and assignment work. Pongo is also co-director of The Photographic Collective, a platform highlighting visual artists based in and from Africa.
(image: still from ‘Tales from the Source’, Léonard Pongo, 2024)