First comprehensive publication on the Biennale of Lubumbashi, tracing the city’s and the art scene’s growth through collective practice.
Launched by the artist collective Picha in 2008, the Lubumbashi Biennale has evolved alongside the city that hosts it—a place that still bears the traces of mining, empire, and the global flow of resources. This book maps the Biennale’s evolution and the collective gestures that inform it. Through essays, images and conversations, it captures an event that renews itself with every edition, balancing the fragility and invention that emerge from collective practice and everyday resilience. The book’s contributions reflect on what it means to create within a landscape marked by extraction and endurance, and reveals an art world sustained by collaboration and the will to imagine alternatives. Featuring a wealth of visual material, A City in Practice combines historical, visual, and first-hand perspectives from artists and curators, connecting art, urban studies, and social history in an accessible, engaging way.
Aude Tournaye
Aude Tournaye is a curator and PhD candidate at Columbia University, researching art collectives in Africa and engaging in collaborative curatorial projects.
Filip De Boeck
Filip De Boeck is Professor of Anthropology at KU Leuven, whose research explores urban life, art, and imagination in Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Picha Collective
Picha is a collective of artists and curators based in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, dedicated to supporting experimental artistic practices. The collective has organised the Biennale de Lubumbashi since 2008.
Kim Gurney
Bogumil Jewsiewicki
Lotte Arndt
Joseph Tonda
Toma Muteba Lutumbue
Daniela Géo
Simon Njami
Sandrine Colard
Sandrine Colard is curator and assistant professor of African Art History at Rutgers University, Newark.
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