Imaginary Trip II
2017 Photographic Residencies
The photographic project Imaginary Trip II expands the artist’s exploration of remembrance of places and individuals. Developed in 2016 through her series Imaginary Trip I, her concept involves using abandoned areas left to nature to produce scenes and reconstructions. The purpose of these photographs is not just to keep the memory of these places alive, but to shed new light on their past and explore their meaning in today’s societal context.
For the Photographic Residencies at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Gosette Lubondo chose to focus on the former school of the village Gombe Matadi in the Kongo-Central province, in the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Founded in 1936 — during the period of the Belgian Congo — by Brother Adrien, a member the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the school centralised learning among new secondary school pupils from the region’s rural schools, hence its name ‘École centrale’ (Central School). As a prestigious, highly selective boarding school, the institute could welcome up to 500 pupils at that time.
However, in the 1970s, the Brothers had to sell the school to the new government formed under the president Joseph-Désiré Mobutu as part of the latter’s radical nationalisation and so-called Zaïrianisation of the country. The rural exodus caused by this policy dealt a mortal blow to the ‘École centrale’ which
subsequently fell into disuse.
By turning her attention to this remnant of history, Gosette Lubondo explores her country’s past as much as she does her own story. Indeed, she discovered this ghostlike site through her parents, whose generation see this place as a fantasy, a dream stuck in time. Furthermore, by appearing alongside other models depicted as fictive characters from the past — the school’s pupils, teachers and staff members — the photographer has sought to revive the story of a place that bears historical witness to the colonial era. By giving prominence to anonymous characters against a phantom backdrop in ambiguous temporality, her photographs question the reality of these ruins.
Series produced between 2017-2018.
