Kunsthal Extra City
Copper thread, Rubber thread, Sugar thread
With Sammy Baloji
Curated by Samuel Saelemakers
17.04 — 16.08.26
In Copper thread, Rubber thread, Sugar thread, artist and filmmaker Sammy Baloji (1978, DR Congo) invites visitors to reconsider the history of colonial exploitation in Central Africa and the traces it continues to leave today. Through tapestries and sound installations, he brings together recent works in which material, image and voice are closely interwoven. Many of the works on view have never before been presented in Belgium.
The title refers to copper, rubber and sugar – raw materials that for centuries shaped colonial trade routes, power relations and inequalities. At the same time, the “thread” stands for connection. Thread carries stories, links different times, and makes visible how history is not fixed but continually rewoven. For Baloji, weaving is both a craft and a way of thinking: an invitation to look beyond linear histories.
